CURRENT AND RECENT SCREENWRITING

I am one of the writing team attached to the upcoming TV sci-fi drama series Future Soldiers. This is being produced by Kent Walwin (Where Angels Fear To Tread, Hawk, The Hotel New Hampshire).

Screenwriting credits include the IMDb-listed Web Of Deceit (directed by Harold Gasnier), a 90-minute thriller set in Holland, France and England.

Recently I wrote screenplays for short films currently in post-production: Aces High (a Western, no less, filmed in Scotland) and The Black Blade (an actioner). For the same director I am currently co-scripting Unholy Trinity (an urban horror movie).

 

Movie production still: Aces High

A SELECTION OF FILM PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT

Location still for Barcelonely Hearts

Barcelonely Hearts is a feature-length romcom. (Location-wise, the title is a total plot spoiler!) The main characters are artists and sculptors who live and love on the Costa Brava. Currently my screenplay is being translated into Spanish and Catalan.

Likewise my script for Music For Squares is created with a pan-European audience in mind. This short ‘feelgood’ film is very much in the spirit of Amélie and, of course, the movies of Jacques Tati. The project has a well-known TV actor on board.

I am also preparing a series with a colleague based in Melbourne. This focuses on the career of legendary Australian-born Hollywood filmmaker JP McGowan who – according to family legend – was related to my maternal great-grandfather.

A prolific producer/director/actor, JP directed his film-star wife Helen Holmes in the top-rated ‘heroine in peril’ serial The Hazards Of Helen. The persona of Helen is said to have inspired the character Nell Fenwick, the ‘damsel in dismay’ from the long-running US TV series Rocky And Bullwinkle. JP’s final screen appearance was opposite John Wayne in Stagecoach... before which he had directed no less than 242 movies.

CORPORATE FILM PROJECTS

Since 1984, I have written and directed numerous corporate, educational, and information films, including the drama-doc Help Put Back The Pieces. This piece about juvenile crime won a Royal Scottish Television Society Award for Best Educational Programme.

My DVD showreel is available on request, and features two programmes with environmental themes: The Caring Cup and Taking Stock, a 45-minute docu filmed on location in Tanzania and Mozambique for the charity VETAID.  

INTERACTIVE WRITING, SCREENWRITING SEMINARS

I have created the voiceover scripts for assignments including the British-Danish co-production Ultimate Adventure; Robert Burns –  Caledonia’s Bard; and Charles Rennie Mackintosh (a project which has picked up several international awards).

I enjoy conducting screenwriting seminars for the Salignac Foundation in France. These have featured in an article in Total Film magazine.

JOURNALISM AND ADVERTISING

From showbusiness interviews to editing company magazines my journalistic career continues to spotlight my versatility. I have worked for Ogilvy & Mather and other leading advertising agencies as senior copywriter, and have been freelance since the mid-1980s.

GULLIVER’S CAMERA: a recent journalistic assignment

Jonathan Swift had his ‘eureka moment’ in County Cavan, Ireland, in the 1720s. The result: Gulliver’s Travels. 

Nearly 300 years later, ‘Gulliver’s Camera’ is destined to dominate the local landscape. This is the nickname given to a giant camera obscura designed in the shape of a fold-out bellows camera from the 1920s. A few months ago Cavan Arts commissioned me to prepare a range of PR material for this imaginative tourist magnet which is still in the early stages of development.

‘SIX DEGREES OF KEVIN BACON’ (and CHARLIE SHEEN!!), PLUS OTHER FILMLAND TRIVIA

American actress Sally Kirkland featured alongside Kevin Bacon in Oliver Stone’s JFK, and starred in the Hollywood indie movie Starry Night. My name is on the credits of Starry Night – a fast track to a high rating on ‘the Kevin Bacon-ometer’. I have also worked with an actor who once co-starred with Charlie Sheen. Hmmmm.

On IMDb my biography has somehow been merged with that of another Ian Craig, a cinematographer from a previous generation. If I’ve ‘done the math’ correctly, this would make me around 85 years old. In reality I have a longish track record... but not quite to that extent!

A little-known fact.... I worked as a magazine illustrator and was the first UK artist to design covers for MAD magazine.

Another ‘comedy gem’: I have a writer’s credit on The Two Ronnies paperback titled It’s Goodnight From Him (possibly still available at a very tasty price in a Bargain Bookshop near you).