I’m also trying to forge links with other production companies around the UK to try and gather some resources for future projects. There’s also another short film in the works, being written by Kai Leech. Things are sort of looking up, but I really hope I get this funding.

If you are a film-maker with a script, and you are looking for help with it, please get in touch. I’m looking for projects to sink my teeth into.

At present Kai’s down south and I’m up north for the foreseeable. The housing market prevents me from moving. But development is underway and I’m going to visit him soon hopefully.

I have a meeting with North West Vision and Media in August and am in discussions about creating a film-maker’s collective in Manchester. The future is slightly bleak, but I’m going to stay focussed and get down to business.

Oh and I graduated from University with a first class honours.

Dustin Hoffman may be ready to make his directorial debut. He’s in talks to helm Quartet, which is being written by Ronald Harwood based on his play by the same name. The story is about an aging, retired intelligence agent who has to fend off violent attacks by younger, better armed operatives. Oops. Wait. That’s the story for Red, the movie with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and many more. This one is about elderly opera singers. Close enough? The cast is great, and the names are after the break.

Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay and Albert Finney are the current leads set for the BBC films production, according to Screen Daily. The plan is to shoot this fall in the UK. Will Quartet end up as a televised BBC film, or a theatrical release? We don’t know, but with Hoffman’s name on the director card it seems like a good candidate for art houses.

The logline for Quartet goes like this: “Cecily, Reggie and Wilfred are in a home for retired opera singers. This year’s plans to celebrate Verdi’s birthday with a concert are not going to plan.” Part of the problem with the plan is a fourth character, Jean. Not sure whether Maggie Smith is in mind for Cecily or Jean, but unless things are being drastically changed the final casting to round out the title quartet will be a woman, meaning only that Hoffman won’t be in one of the major roles in addition to his directing duties.

Harwood won Best Adapted Screenplay for The Pianist, and was nominated as screenwriter of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. He was just hired by Dreamworks to craft the script for that long in development biopic of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As I said when we reported on that deal, Harwood has a love for stories that deal with performers and the stage, so you can see where Quartet comes from.

I know it isn’t the most attention-getting story, but I like this set of actors, and am really curious about Hoffman as a director. Richard Loncraine was previously set to direct this one, and I wonder, too, if the actors, who have been cast for a while, will stick around should Hoffman come aboard.

Read more: Dustin Hoffman to Direct Quartet | /Film http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/03/12/dustin-hoffman-to-direct-quartet/#ixzz0t9Ap0uaI

Taken from /Film (http://www.slashfilm.com/)

It’s been a strange old time at University. I came with the pre-conception that I’d meet cool people who are into film, make friends for life and I feel like I have. 6 months in halls before I moved into my house. Ended the year with a failed film, had a ropey summer and started back at 2nd year with speculations about wether to stay at Uni, but I did, found my way in the business and came through 2nd year with 5 nominations at Exposures Film Festival, directed a play, then moved into my final year. Producing two films. Enjoying it. I surrounded myself with people I wanted to spend my time with. I went from a lonely 2nd year, to a fuckin’ ace 3rd year. It’s been amazingly good.

It’s haircut day, park and beer day, then more drinks in the evening, followed by a club (not looking forward to that!) I shall try and get people to go to a bar. lol. I’ll fail though. But hopefully it’ll be a very good day/night.

I need to figure out what to do next, suggestions welcome. London? New York? Re-locate in Manchester? Travel? the possibilities are endless. But for now, I think festivals need to be attacked full force by “General Observations on Quadrupeds” and “Breadwinner”.

Apple is said to be revamping their Final Cut Pro product to appeal to a more mainstream audience rather than high end professionals. After layoffs in 2007, Apple has reportedly reorganized the Final Cut Pro team under the lead of Randy Ubillos, the developer who completely redesigned iMovie in 2008. The new iMovie was drastic departure from the original iMovie codebase.

According to a report from AppleInsider, the goal of the new Final Cut Pro is to make it “more appealing and useful to the needs of prosumers”.

Currently, Final Cut Pro is targeted at advanced professionals with a scaled down, less expensive Final Cut Express version sold to users who don’t need all of its high end features. Because Apple now primarily sells the Express version, the company wants to rethink Final Cut Studio and scale its overall development to better fit the majority of its customers.

Steve Jobs was recently questioned about the fate of Final Cut Pro. MacSoda sent an email to Jobs asking about layoffs and the future of the application. Jobs replied:

We certainly do [care about Pro apps]. Folks who left were in support, not engineering. Next release will be awesome.

Uh oh. I hope this won’t be the end of a film making software I truly believe in!