Enter the DRAGN

My horror screenplay is coming to life...

I’ve been hinting about this on my Facebook page and VIP Club newsletter for a while, but haven’t been able to say anything concrete about it until now.

I’ve written a movie.

OK, technically I’ve co-written a movie with the (annoyingly brilliant) Alexander Gordon Smith, but let’s not dwell too much on that right now. Let me, for this brief moment, bask in all the solo glory of it.

…

There. Basking complete.

So, a couple of years ago, my friend and fellow author, Alexander Gordon Smith - Gordon to you and I - mentioned an idea he’d had for a sci-fi horror film called DRAGN that featured a group of hikers and a sentient, rapidly evolving AI drone hunting them down.

We bounced the idea back and forth, fleshing it out, then I went and wrote the first draft in around 4 or 5 days, and sent it back to him.

Six months later, he finally read it. We honed it, rewrote chunks, and generally made it as good as it could be and then, while we idly wondered what exactly we should do about it, producer Georgia Witkin decided she liked it, picked up the rights, and then pitched it to the brilliantly named Puma in a Tank, a production company based in Ireland.

And, to our surprise, they really liked it.

To our even greater surprise, it is currently in production in the Serbian wilderness with a massively talented cast, a fantastic 100-strong crew, and the incredible Peter Webber (Girl with the Pearl Earring, Hannibal Rising) on directing duties.

Gordon and I jetted over to Serbia last weekend, and spent a few days pretending to be Hollywood hot shots, rubbing shoulders with the cast and crew. And eating.

Mostly eating, in fact.

Though it took a bit of convincing, Peter eventually agreed to let us appear as extras in one of the early scenes. We were to portray Random Man 1 & 2, and our job was simple - walk towards the camera in the middle distance, pretending to hold a conversation with each other.

We did this to the very best of our ability, despite the fact that neither of us could quite remember how to walk, much less walk and pretend to talk at the same time.

On the second take, it was decided that we should do exactly the same as before, only this time be facing away from the camera.

On the third take, we were asked to just sit on a bench and not move.

On take four, it was suggested that we sit out the rest of the scene completely.

So, disappointingly, you’re unlikely to see our big screen acting debut anytime soon, but we did still write the script, and no one can take that away from us!

You can find out more about DRAGN at IMDb. Below are a few photos from our trip to Serbia.