A Century of November Jay Wolpert Interview Part 3

       

This is part 3 of a nearly one-hour uncut interview recorded with one of the people responsible for helping to create one of the most successful and largest Film Franchises in Hollywood History.

He is also credited for the screenplay adaptation of a novel that maintains an iconic stature.

He is the very talented and charismatic screenwriter Jay Wolpert of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Count of Monte Cristo.

Jay shares his thoughts on his early career as a game show producer for the Price is Right, his second career as a screenwriter, Nancy Meyers, life in Hollywood, film genres, war and politics and the tragedy associated with them.

Along with his knowledge and experience about the source material from script to screen, the strength that bonds a father and son and how far would a parent travel and sacrifice to endure the love of a child and family, on the development of a feature film project entitled A Century of November.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0s2O3-vxSk

A Century of November Jay Wolpert Interview Part 1

This is part 1 of a nearly one-hour uncut interview recorded with one of the people responsible for helping to create one of the most successful and largest Film Franchises in Hollywood History.

Jay is also credited for the screenplay adaptation of a novel that maintains Iconic stature.

He is the very talented and charismatic screenwriter Jay Wolpert of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Count of Monte Cristo. 

Jay shares his thoughts on his early career as a game show producer, life in Hollywood, story and characters on Gone with the Wind and Casablanca. 

The source material from script to screen, the strength that bonds a father and son and how far would a parent travel and sacrifice to endure the love of a child and family, on the development of a feature film project entitled A Century of November.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvqpfL8RoW8

Reflecting on a moment: First studio recording;

Created throughout the development of A Century of November, the company decided to storyboard some images, to produce an animated presentation based on the reviews of the novel A Century of November.

This was one of the first concepts completed to build a visual foundation on story and characters.

Everything was completed throughout one day in a recording studio. Many days of research and prep were involved in gathering all the elements to make it happen.

Studio time started with an amazing individual who is dedicated to carrying on the art and tradition of Morse Code. Her name is Lavina Shaw of the Morse Telegraph Club. The telegraph clicking sounds accurately depict all the words appearing in the animated presentation.

The Studio recording session concluded with the very talented violinist & songwriter Susie Mares Suzka Music playing various connecting tones and themes off words and images.

The final words chosen, were from the novel;

A haunting story, of the power and death, the pain of loss with the possibility of hope during a time of war.

A Century of November Conceptual Animated Presentation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxxq4svAARQ

Assumptions... Murphy’s Law… Intuition… Instinct… and Errol Flynn Part 1

Remembering moments that help you and the people around you grow as human beings…

Assumptions... Murphy’s Law… Intuition… Instinct… all go hand in hand, they can be challenging to differentiate between one another. Learning, making mistakes, feeling, practicing and moving on.

There is truth in the what it is said about the word “assume”, making an ass out of “u” and “me”...

It happens every day in life with the little things, and sometimes can affect decisions that can have tremendous impacts on your daily life.

The story of signing Jay Wolpert to write the script for A Century of November falls in this category.

Patrick assumed that the novel he sent to the agent at Paradigm, would be tossed or would never find its way into Jay’s hands. Patrick simply believed that any material not represented by an agent, lawyer or manager would ever get to someone like Jay, regardless of its virtue.

Thanks to some friendly persuasion by Nick, Patrick eventually wrote a little note, slipped it inside a copy of the novel, and sent it to Paradigm…

The rest as they say has become history…

Even after that lesson, Patrick continued to fall back into the same thought patterns.

Patrick’s research on another passion project regarding Errol Flynn’s last days, was looking for individuals to interview, who may have spent time with the ailing actor during the last week of his life in Vancouver. The trouble is that it was fifty years ago, and many of the people involved in the story are either dead or extremely old.

While trying to acquire all of the details about Flynn, Patrick managed to get to know something of the other people who were with Flynn at this time.

There was George Caldough, who hosted Flynn and was poised to purchase the actor’s yacht. Patrick’s research turned up that Caldough died of a heart attack at age 50 back in 1978.

There is Beverly Aadland, who was Flynn’s 17 year old protege. He died in her arms in a West End apartment of Dr. Grant Gould. She is still alive, but is very private and doesn’t necessarily want to be bothered again (she has recently been interviewed for an Australian documentary entitled “Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn”, and is in talks with HBO regarding a film based on her romance with the actor).

Then there is Dr. Grant Gould. He tried to save Errol, but to no avail. It was his apartment that Flynn died in. What are the chances that he is still alive?

Patrick’s extensive research over many years turned up nothing. Until now…

Patrick believed that Dr. Grant Gould was also gone. Patrick dug some more and wanted to write an article, with credibility. More research, phone calls and finally struck gold.

To Patrick’s delight, Dr. Gould was still alive and well and still practices medicine, despite being semi-retired and he is the answer to many questions Patrick’s had about the true details regarding Flynn’s death.

From this point forward Patrick’s new mantra, was to consider looking at all sides, exhaust all possibilities, before jumping to conclusions.

True success will come from turning over every single rock.

To be concluded…

Last Canadian Soldier of The Great War...

Remembering how human beings can endure…

When Patrick heard that Jack Babcock, 107 years old, had become the last surviving Canadian soldier from the First World War and that he lived mere hours away from Vancouver in the eastern Washington city of Spokane, Patrick knew he had to meet him. An incredible opportunity for anybody to actually speak to someone who was there – a young soldier caught up in the excitement of defending his country, over 90 years ago.

Numerous articles had been written about our country’s last soldier after the death of the only other surviving Canadian veteran, Dwight Wilson – and although there was a lot of information to go on, Patrick wanted to hear it from the man himself.

Jack, although he tried, never made it to the front lines and in turn, managed to live another 9 decades. Destiny diverted him from battle and allowed him time to find the girl he would start a family with, have a career, serve in another country’s Army, and be a witness to history of the 20th century as it unfolded.

Patrick, simply found Jack’s home number, and called.

“Make sure you bring along your wife and baby.” Babcock’s second wife, Dot, sounded enthusiastic about the visit with Patrick.

Developing a feature film on this scale involves so much research, listening, learning, hearing stories first hand. Jack and his wife loved the idea of a social scenario, nothing formal: not a structured interview, simply conversation. They had recently been bombarded by multiple interviews from newspapers across Canada, so it was well understood.

Patrick drove down to Spokane with his family on a Sunday afternoon and they arrived at the neatly kept bungalow after a lengthy journey (multiple pit stops), and they were warmly welcomed into Jack and Dot’s home.

Jack was positioned in the middle of the sofa, while Dot sat off to one side. Jack was definitely not slight – thick white hair & solid as a rock with hands that enveloped Patrick’s hand in a handshake.

Jack and Dot have cats, which were an immediate distraction for Patrick’s son Kieran, and although watching Kieran chase the cats around the living room was definitely entertaining, Jack came back to Patrick’s various questions. Patrick wanted to be spontaneous and enjoy the moment, not worried about “getting the good stuff”. The meeting was fantastic with much additional insight gained into remembering how human beings can endure…

Life is amazing…

Two Special Days...

Reflecting on two Special Days…

It is almost a year since Nicolas Awde & Patrick Stark (Producers) signed Hollywood screenwriter Jay Wolpert (Pirates of the Caribbean / The Count of Monte Cristo) to write the film adaptation based on the highly acclaimed novel by award winning American Author W.D. Wetherell’s A Century of November.

Screenwriter and executive producer Jay Wolpert spent an action-packed two days in Vancouver to meet with Nick and Patrick to go over script and story points. The schedule was tight, but Nick, Patrick and Pacific Empire Corporation managed to pull it off without a hitch.

Jay was in for a busy two days: not long after being picked up from the airport he was whisked away in Company’s 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood Limo and delivered to his hotel. Before long, Jay, Nick and Patrick were immersed in a 5 hour script and story meeting.

From there, Jay was transported to the Blink Media Works studios where he was interviewed (for a special presentation piece Nick and Patrick assembed for the project) by local EPK/Field Producer Marian Dodd (Entertainment Tonight), where Jay discussed the process of adapting A Century of November as well as regaling those ‘behind-the-scenes’ stories of his life and career in Hollywood.

Research is key to staying true to the authenticity of the film and the ‘when’ and ‘where’ the story takes place – so at Jay’s request, Nick and Patrick discovered an apple orchard to visit on Vancouver Island, very close to where our protagonist, Charles Marden made his home, and from where his journey half way around the world to find the exact spot his son fell, began.

It was a brutally early start to the next day in an effort to catch the 6:30AM ferry from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver to Nanaimo’s Departure Bay: once they journeyed across the strait began, they quickly lost track of the time. The voyage from Vancouver to the apple orchard became a tremendous opportunity for all of them to simply converse, break bread together and further solidify their plans to continue to develop the feature film A Century of November.

After a brief but informative stop by Nanaimo’s century-old courthouse, they drove 45 minutes south to the Merridale Estate Cidery, one of the largest of its kind in North America. Everybody involved was thrilled to be able to stroll through the orchard consisting of numerous varieties of cider apple trees, all from Europe and to take in the same air our characters would have breathed, experiencing life as they may have experienced it.

After some cider sampling, they drove back to Nanaimo in time to catch a 12:30 ferry back to the mainland and straight to the airport to conclude Jay’s two Special Days…

Another step forward in their journey from novel to script to screen…