The Snoot Letter - How To Pick Projects
The Snoot Letter
Issue #24 – August 5, 2020
It has been a big week for Snoot, and I can finally start to reveal some things that I’ve had to keep secret for the last couple months.
Our new movie One Night In Miami has been accepted into the Venice Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and has also been sold to Amazon in what I’m told is one of the largest independent film acquisitions of all time!
One Night In Miami has been a passion project for the last several years, ever since Jess and I saw Kemp Powers‘s original play at a small theater in Los Angeles in 2013. We partnered with Jody Klein at ABKCO on producing the film adaptation, and brought on Regina King to direct after a wonderful meeting just before she won the Oscar for her performance in If Beale Street Could Talk. The film has been my primary focus ever since that moment, and I couldn’t be more proud of the movie and all the work Regina, Kemp, and the whole team have put into the production.
I can’t wait for everyone to see this movie later this year!
As we put the finishing touches on One Night In Miami, and I know we probably won’t be starting production on anything new during the next few months, I have started thinking more about development.
I have been codifying some of my thoughts on how Jess and I approach taking on new projects. The things that draw us to new projects can vary over time, but these are the questions that I ask myself right now when I’m looking at something new.
- Would I personally love this movie?
- Do I believe that the world would be a better place if this movie existed in it?
- If I took a list of all the past movies that felt similar to this project, do I think this one has the potential to be a classic within that category?
- Would I want to spend the next two years in close proximity with the people already involved with this project?
- Do I think that Jess and my involvement would help this project be the best version of itself?
- Is there a fiscally responsible way to make a great version of this project?
- Do we have the bandwidth as producers to take this on right now?
If either Jess or I answer “no” to any of these questions, we are probably not going to take on the project. If we answer “yes” then we will try to figure out if there is a way to move forward!
I’m sure other producers have other criteria for what they want to pursue, but I have found that these questions work very well for us and the types of movies that we like to make.
~ Keith Calder
This Week’s Recommendations
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📖 I loved this article in the New Yorker: “Where Do Eels Come From?“
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🎧 Must read: A detailed statistical analysis of how popular songs from the 1990s have passed on to the next generations.