Give Us A Green

The year (2008) trundled on. In May it had seemed that we were closing. Now we were marooned for lack of a distribution deal, and the market growing more miserly by the month. In December the UK producers wrote to me to ask how I'd feel about going the low budget route in order to get the film made.

The concept was to fix a November 2009 date for first day of Principal Photography and shoot digital with who and what we had available. It was to be a commitment to the integrity of the story, and damn the torpedoes. I considered the prospects and agreed.

Next step was the conversation with Rawiri Paratene. Would he stay involved in the project on this basis? He agreed without hesitation; an indication of the sort of guy he is.

We assumed that Gillies wouldn't want to continue with us on this basis - but we assumed wrong! At a meeting with our UK producers, Pip and Rob, he agreed to stay in and was once again excited about the project. Especially when I gave my commitment to wind back the script drafts and remove most of the changes which he'd found so difficult.

The budget was now down from NZ$9m to a minimalist NZ$2m, meaning we would need to call in favours from all over the place. But the film was finally going to be made. 2009 would be the year!

And that, dear reader, brings you roughly up to date with the backstory of The Insatiable Moon. From here on in I'll be describing the blow by blow details as we march toward November of this year.