A couple of years ago Felicity Evans and I set out to make a short film.

Greenwood – a meditation on loss set during the First World War, infused with folk horror elements – was ambitious in terms of look and budget. It was a period piece, with a need for some really strong visual effects, and was also intended as proof of concept for a potential feature version.

While we got amazing support from lots of people we knew (and plenty we didn’t) and had the involvement of two great producers (thanks Lindsay and Milo!), it never quite got off the ground. Funding was almost there on various occasions (the BFI meetings were good, and it made the semi-finals of Screencraft) but we had set too challenging a schedule for ourselves, and in the end, the window of opportunity closed and new screenwriting projects took over.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago… I was in conversation with Matthew Webb, director of the online journal Panorama, about some screenwriting sessions I was due to do in June 2024, and he offered to feature the classes in the next issue. Great idea! ‘We could put some writing of yours with it,’ he said. ‘Part of a screenplay maybe?’

At first, I hadn’t a clue what that should be; the theme of the issue was ‘ecology’, and while Felicity and I had a few projects that fitted, they were mostly big, sprawling TV ideas, not ideally suited to a few pages – not without substantial reworking anyway, for which there wasn’t time.

Then I remembered Greenwood. It was a little leftfield in some respects, but with its treatment of the myth of the Green Man and its theme of renewal, it seemed like it could be a good fit. Matthew read it and agreed. At first, he was going to include just a few taster pages. In the end, though, he opted to include the while thing.

For this, I am hugely grateful. Whether we ever return to Greenwood as either a short film or feature remains to be seen, but even if we don’t, I’m genuinely delighted to see it out there, connecting with an audience in this unexpected way. It was a labour of love.

You can read the full script (15 pages) of Greenwood here.

In June (7th, 8th, 9th) I will he hosting a three-day course at Anglia Ruskin University, designed to help screenwriters take their work to the next level – that’s the next level not only in terms of the script itself, but also for them professionally.

This is an industry-related short course, with a focus on professional practice and processes, and it will include my personal feedback on your project, whether completed or work in progress, any time between the sessions themselves and Halloween (31st Oct) 2024.

To find out more, go to: https://www.aru.ac.uk/study/professional-and-short-courses/introduction-to-professional-screenwriting-creating-and-selling-your-movie-script

Very happy to announce that HIS HOUSE has been nominated in multiple categories for the British Independent Film Awards, including Director, Screenplay, debut and technical categories. It’s a shame it has to go head to head with the awesome SAINT MAUD (17 nominations) – but if nothing else it shows that horror can do more than jump scares and is at last being taken seriously.

Congrats to SAINT MAUD and all the other nominees!

Find out more here: https://www.bifa.film/news/nominations-announced-for-bifa-2020/