31st March 2009: Arriving, Killer, Settling In
It was snowing the night I arrived in New York. Schools had been closed that week for the first time in years. Everyone from the cab driver to the woman next to me on the plane were talking about the weather and how I would cope coming from New Zealand.
As I was getting out of the cab, the Senegalese taxi-driver to one look at my old Reeboks and gave me one bit of advice –
“Buy some new shoes. They’re your transport.”
He was right. The snow melted after a few days, and now it’s getting into spring. My first purchase was a new pair of Nike sneakers. The Reeboks are still sitting in my closet.
After settling in here, I think it’s impossible to boil New York down to one word, but I think accessible is probably apt.
Other than walking in my new shoes, the public transport is almost military in its precision. The subway is cheap and fast – but for me the bus is the best option. Its a 35 minute ride across town to Killer, plus it’s a great way to see the bustle of 14th St and allows plenty of time to catch up on the current script I’m reading. And if the weather happens to pack in, the fleets of yellow New York cabs are cheap and surprisingly easy to flag down.
Ironically, this analogy also works for the film industry here in NYC. Killer Films is integrated in so many high profile projects that we are constantly dealing with a who’s who of Independent film. Todd Haynes, Ewan McGregor and Clive Owen are all involved with Killer at the moment and being one step away from that is phenomenal – while also showing the reputation Killer Films has among the industry.
I’ve spent the first two weeks getting acclimatized to the city and the company (the photo on left is the view from Killer Films offices), and familiarizing myself with their upcoming films.
While Killer has various projects at different stages our three most prominent ones are:
Kill Your Darlings – A true story about the birth of the beat generation. Twenty-somethings Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs help cover up a murder committed by their friend, Lucian Carr.
Stolen – Chronicles Lyndon Johnson’s 1948 campaign for the Texas senate and the birth of dirty American politics.
Cinemuerte – An aging horror director befriends a Catalan super-fan and finds himself as the subject of his own snuff film.
Each of these scripts are in a form of pre-production, and I’ll give more news on each as it happens.
This weekend is a big one for Killer too. Our latest release, Gigantic, starring Paul Dano and Zooey Deschanel premieres here in New York. I’ve even been convinced into handing out flyers on the Saturday beforehand, but it’s hard to say no and we get to watch the film too.
http://www.thegiganticmovie.com/home.html
The other great think about New York is the breadth of films at your fingertips. There are dozens of amazing art-house cinemas that play classics for late screenings as well as the latest releases. I’ll endeavor to write about one film a week and try and choose something not from your typical multiplex.
The culture and inspiration is so accessible and frequent that it takes you by surprise. In one day, I answered a call from Roger Donaldson, talked to Daniel Craig’s agent and also read a great script that we are now buying the rights to.
Only in New York.
