Please Sir

Peter,

My friend Matthew Mansell contacted you the other day regarding a possible screening of the short film which I wrote called 'Death Rides The Nine'. It was written whilst I was a student at Halesowen College for a project that didn't materialise.
I finished it in 2001 and posted it on simplyscripts.com later that year. It proved to be a popular draw in the 'Unproduced Scripts' section of the site. It was due to this that it was approached by a number of companies both in this country and in the U.S.
I spent a lot of 2001 and 2002 meeting up with different producers but, unfortunatly, things didn't pan out (But it did give me a few interesting stories to tell)

Mallory Multimedia Entertainment, a Utah based production company emailed me and asked if they could make it. They had been producing documentaries and wanted to shift into fiction.
'Death Rides the Nine' went into pre-production late 2003 and began filming in 2004.

It was completed this year and is to be screened at next years Sundance Film Festival.

Despite being an American production, it's a film very close to my heart and to the area where I grew up (Stourbridge/Wolverhampton) the title of the film refers to the bus I used to ride to college.

Here is the plot line of the film:

"Sam Winter is a lonely man in a lowly job with little or no direction. He is more than happy to cruise obliviously through his menial life using his uninspiring job as an office clerk to fund what little interests he has. His interests mostly consist of watching movies and drinking. Sometimes he combines the two. Sam is a non-event and he has come to a point in his young adult life when even he has noticed how irrelevant he is.

The one solid presence in Sam Winter’s life is Emma, his girlfriend of just over three years. She adores Sam but also pities him. She knows he is capable of so much more and she is fighting a seeming endless battle trying to prove this to him.
Sam believes that Emma is the best thing he has in his life. He loves her dearly but sometimes his efforts to make things right usually result in things going awry.
The relationship has begun to strain. Emma is beginning to feel a little frustrated by her lazy lover and Sam has developed a nagging feeling of entrapment. He feels that he has to do something about his life and turn it around but he has no idea how to do this.

His life becomes more complicated when he attends a friends party. Cutting a long (And drunken) story short Sam ends up passing out on a bed. Helen comes in and makes a pass at him. Emma walks in and is understandably upset. Despite Sam’s pitiful protesting
Emma calls time on the ‘train-wreck’ that is their relationship.

A few days later as Sam packs the rest of Emma’s things into a box to take to her house. Death comes for him. He’s somewhat surprised and tries to shoo away the Grim Reaper. This doesn’t work and Sam reluctantly grabs his jacket and follows Death.

When Death realises that he can’t get to the Netherworlds due to a technical hitch he foolishly attempts to catch a bus. This proves fruitless. Distraught, Death finds himself trapped on Earth and way behind schedule. Sam suggests that they go to a local pub. It is there that the two drink and talk about life, love and Death. The two form an unlikely friendship and exchange stories."


It's something I'm very proud of and I would love for the finished version to screen at the Light House as it would be a great honour. I'm a huge fan of the building and I have had some wonderful times and seen some fantastic films there (It was the only cinema that played 'Garden State')

Thank you for your time,

Kind Regards,

Christopher Bate