MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Christopher Canole

An interview with screenwriter Christopher Canole regarding the AAA Writing Competition.

A: Felix the Flyer As a Cuban mailman runs in the 1904 Olympic Marathon he recounts his 1200 mile super-run up the Mississippi River to battle the world's greatest marathoners chasing him in the most bizarre race in history, filled with racism, cheating, and drugs to become an inspiration for all future underdogs. I wrote Felix knowing Balboa Park in San Diego is a replica of the 1904 Worlds Fair and can be filmed for a much lower cost that your normal historic movie.

A: Everyone knows Creative Screenwriting’s AAA is one of the top contests you can enter. Three years ago I decided to enter. In 2005 and 2006 I made the quarter finals and rewrote Felix each time to see if I could movie up the standings as a test of me rewriting abilities. I was thrilled to see I made the semi-finals back in February and then the finals in March…and then the Grand Prize in April. So far Felix’s results in contest are: Scr(i)pt Open Door ( Winner - Gold ), Screenplay Shootout ( Winner - Gold ), Queens Film International Film Festival (Winner- Gold). International Family Film Festival (Winner Gold)WriteMovies.com ( Winner - Gold ), Contest-of-Contest ( Winner - Silver ), Screenplay Festival ( Winner - Silver ), Acclaim Film and TV ( Winner - Silver ), San Diego Film Festival ( Winner - Bronze ), GAFFERS Film Festival ( Winner - Bronze ), 20/20 (Finalist), All Access (Finalist), Red Inkworks (Finalist), Scriptwriter Dig (Finalist), Script Shark (Semi-Final), Scriptapalooza (Semi-Finals), Page International (Semi-Finals), American Accolades (Semi-Finals), Writers on the Storm (Semi-Finals), Fade In Magazine (Quarter-Finals), AAA Screenwriting (Quarter-Finals), New York City Latino Film Festival (Quarter-Finals), FilmMakers International (Quarter-Finals), Nicholl Fellowship (Quarter Finals) and is listed as a recommended movie with Kids First.

A: Felix has won many contests and each one helped advance my career and the quality of my writing, but none like AAA. I have exchanged many emails with Erik Bauer over the years ordering DVD’s from the Expos, but I could tell the phone call on the win was more than just a win for both of us. Both Erik and the new publisher, Bill Donovan, who I had the good fortune to meet the week of my win, give me the impression this is the contest win that will eventually result in Felix the Flyer being made into a movie. Within a week they had me send the script to Coverage Ink for their full polish treatment yielding nine single spaced pages of notes. The Grand Prize check arrived today. The contest director Anna Siri has been in constant contact with me arranging an interview for the July/August issue of Creative Screenwriting with the editor Den Shewman. And most importantly, once I finish my next rewrite of Felix they will send out 350 hard copies of Felix to companies who want to read my script, including agencies like the Endeavor Agency which represents three of the my first choices to play Felix, Diego Luna, Gail Garcia Bernal and Freddy Rodriguez, the fourth being Adrian Grenier who is also reading Felix.

A: As I mentioned above the Coverage Ink feedback was both helpful and insightful. I recommend their coverage service to any writer. But be prepared for some honest hard criticism where it is due.

A: My manager Leslie Rabb of RPM International uses these wins to promote all my scripts. We eagerly await the 350 script mailing.

A: I am a union set photographer and actor who decided it was time to create my own stories. In the past three years I have written eleven screenplays: Bloodgroove (60’s college story), Drawn Together (political thriller), DVD Day (science fiction doomsday), Spring Snow (Mishima novel adaptation for my PhD in literature), Runaway Horses (Another Mishima), Z.I.A. (Family Zoo story), Counter-Clockwise (Science fiction romance), Felix the Flyer (sports biography), Pen Dragon (comic book fable), and The Last Limo (post 9/11 American Odyssey).

A: I live in La Jolla and keep a suitcase packed and the engine running for meetings in Los Angeles, or a night out with a very talented actress friend to attend the Grand Opening of Felix the Flyer.

A: I am now rewriting my eleventh screenplay, Her Swastika Sword, about Helene Mayer German a Jewish fencer attending the University of Southern California who drew her sword to fence in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I am writing in the style of a Western lone gunfighter forced to stand tall against multiple antagonists including Hitler and the US Olympic Committee. And blocking out my first romantic comedy in the world of the New York City art community.

Posted Tuesday, May 8, 2007