MY TOP 10 BEST (FAILED) PROJECTS OF ALL TIME

I've been going through the old 'rainy day drawers' lately and it's prompted me to reflect on some of my 'nearly made it' projects that I now look back on in my mind as if they were kind of made (I'm getting old). Still, my inner Joe Gillis is still very much alive and well and hoping that my own Norma Desmond will appear on the celluloid horizon and provide a commission for a new project soon (minus the getting shot in the swimming pool part).

And so now, without further ado, here are my top 10 best (failed) projects of all time.

10. "Rache" - Original Screenplay

Having recently re-watched John Sayles's classic movie 'Lonestar' (1996), I remembered writing (alongside my co-writer Michael Bell at the time) a similar American/Mexican border type of movie influenced heavily by films such as 'In The Heat Of The Night', 'Home From The Hill' and 'No Country For Old Men'. Set in 1950's Texas, 'Rache' is ostensibly about Sherriff Frank Blatz who has returned to his small town home after working away for many years in the big city. Frank is a man who is trying to forget his recent past by returning to the place he grew up in. But throughout this tense, noir-like melodrama there is a sense that whatever he's attempting to run away from is inescapable and until Frank deals with what's coming down the track, he'll be forever haunted by what grim things he left behind in the city.

09. "Love Motel" - Original Screenplay

If you can imagine a cross between Wong Kar-Wai's '2046', Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' and horror film franchises such as 'Final Destination' or 'Nightmare On Elm Street' series then you might find 'Love Motel' fits the bill. Inspired by the 'Love Motels' of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, myself and co-writer Michael Bell effectively combined a Japanese ghost revenge story with a Tarantino/Jarmusch multi-story approach. Currently languishing in contractual purgatory, this one had a unique style to it and a brilliant array of visual set pieces that drew on things such as John Lennon's 'White Room', Jeff Koons and Obayashi's 'House'.

'Love Motel' is currently owned by Straightwire Films Limited.

08. "Cal-Neva" - Teleplay Pilot for American television series

This one meant a lot to me. A TV series I wrote a pilot for that aimed to be a cross between 'Mad Men', 'Twin Peaks' and 'Goodfellas'.

Tantalisingly, I nearly got this one over the line.

Speaking of which ...

On the quite literal border line between California and Nevada sits Cal-Neva, a resort lodge for the rich and famous. It's 1959 and when young Jimmy Holden is offered a job working at Cal-Neva for the summer he finds a whole new world is opened up to him meeting politicians, celebrities and gangsters who all converge in this glamorous location overlooking Lake Tahoe. But when Jimmy witnesses the brutal murder of a waitress at the lodge he finds his innocence is instantly stolen from him and soon learns that dark, powerful forces, including certain power brokers of America, will ensure he remains as silent as the grave.

In 2018, 'Bad Times At The El Royale' was released in cinemas. Its premise, also set in the same location, involving a similar themed resort built on the borderline between California and Nevada, was worryingly similar to the one of 'Cal-Neva' which I had been touting around for nearly six years prior to several producers and directors in Los Angeles.

Perhaps it was no coincidence that because my teleplay had been registered as 'Cal-Neva' they had to change the name of their resort to 'El Royale' but this is idle speculation on my behalf. In many ways it hurts less to know it was more likely a coincidence that this eerily similar film came out so shortly after I had written and developed mine, but in Hollywood, you just never know.

07. "Zauberhaus" - Opera Animation Division

'Zauberhaus' was my ambitious attempt to assemble an Opera Animation Division that planned to revolutionise opera for children, providing a more accessible and less formal introduction to old masterpieces such as Mozart's 'Die Zauberflote', Humperdinck's 'Hansel and Gretel' and Weber's 'Der Freischutz' and brand new works written directly for this groundbreaking animated form by contemporary composers such as Daron Hagen, Jonathan Dove and Will Todd.

With animation director Geoff Dunbar (a longtime collaborator with Paul McCartney) on board and conductor David Parry, I thought I had the wind in my sails, but somehow the project stalled due to several factors and has yet to be fully resurrected, though Glyndebourne showed interest a few years back and I plan to refresh my strategy with this venture at some point soon.

06. "Tin Pan Alley" - Educational Book Series For Children

The plan with 'Tin Pan Alley Books' was to provide both an education resource and a beautifully rendered series of books that would highlight The Great American Songbook for children. By separating the lyrics from the music of great songs by Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Yip Harburg and Rogers and Hart, I felt there could be a way here to illuminate the beauty of the greatest songs of the 20th Century with accompanying illustrations and hopefully inspire a new generation of lyricists.

Some of the songs I planned for in the series would have included 'It's Only A Paper Moon', 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' and 'Someone To Watch Over Me'.

05. Frank Lloyd Wright/Keith Jarrett - Concert Series for ECM

I pitched an intriguing concept to Keith Jarrett and Manfred Eicher at ECM Records (via Email/Letter) in which I envisaged an opportunity to combine six great architectural works by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright with six piano improvisation concerts by Keith Jarrett in which he would respond to each unique space with his idiosyncratic approach to music making similar to his Sun Bear Concerts series in Japan.

The six Frank Lloyd Wright buildings I thought appropriate for such a venture were to include 'Falling Water', the 'Johnson Wax' building, 'Guggenheim', 'Taliesin West', 'Unity Temple' and 'Jacobs House'.

04. "The Double Life Of Veronique" - Opera/Ballet

Having been approached by film composer Zbigniew Preisner's agent to write a libretto for an opera version of Krystof Kieslowski's 'The Double Life Of Veronique', I was honoured to be offered the opportunity to adapt a film by one of my favourite filmmakers.

In a moment of inspiration I came up with the idea of turning the story of a doppelgänger into a hybrid opera/ballet project with one Veronique represented in opera form and the other represented in dance. The absence of vocal music in the second act would have acted as a symbolic death in accordance with the original story itself.

Sadly, the opera houses we approached were typically snobby about working with a film composer (even with Preisner's considerable reputation) and so the project remains languishing in a sort of creative purgatory.

Still, I do believe it would have been something quite special.

03. "Adapt To Survive" - Original Screenplay

'Adapt To Survive' was an original screenplay I wrote for a producer in Los Angeles which I saw as my opportunity to do a cross between Nic Roeg's 'Walkabout' and a Howard Hawks-style screwball romantic comedy such as 'Bringing Up Baby' or 'His Girl Friday'. Set in Death Valley in the Mojave Desert, California 'ATS' follows two washed up movie stars who have broken free from celebrity rehab only to find themselves after a drunken splurge in the hottest place on earth with no seeming way of getting home.

As these two celebrities are broken down to the core of their being in the blazing hot desert, they desperately try and find a way to get back to Hollywood in one piece.

But even if they do, they'll be irrevocably changed by the experience. As a metaphor for shedding a skin to becoming who you're really meant to be, 'ATS' was my attempt at mocking the narcissism of movie actors and the dream of Hollywood, something I have equally been guilty of chasing throughout my life.

02. The Man Who Was Thursday - Adapted Screenplay

Adapting G.K Chesterton's bizarre and satirical philosophical novel 'The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare' for opera director Alessandro Talevi to direct I found myself practically living the story through the pages as I wrote a screenplay inspired by the book.

The book itself is a commentary on anarchy and order and how the elusive identification of control in society remains a sort of illusionary rabbit hole.

Drawing on influences such as the films of Powell and Pressburger as well as American films such as Stanley Kubrick's 'Dr Strangelove' and John Frankenheimer's 'The Manchurian Candidate', I found myself having a ball visualising the novel for the screen. Though it was one of my longer screenplays (could have used a few more drafts possibly) I'm always proud of my attempt to honour the great G.K Chesterton masterpiece.

01. "On The Black Hill" - Welsh Opera Project

And in at number one, my Welsh Opera Project based on Bruce Chatwin's novel 'On The Black Hill' that I intended to be the jewel in the crown for the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff Bay.

The story deals with the cultural, religious and national issues of identity set in border country between England and Wales and follows the trials and tribulations of a farming family where its fierce patriarch, Amos Jones, reflects the native determination to protect his land and his family, often to a great personal cost.

Having aroused the curiosity of British composer Geoffrey Burgon who committed to writing the score, 'On The Black Hill' became a project that incurred a lot of interest from many in the opera world including mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly, composer Mark Anthony Turnage and actor/author Simon Callow. Sadly, during the time we sought to get the commission to begin work on the opera, Geoffrey became ill with leukaemia and out of respect I chose not to pursue the project since although I did try and convince the WNO Director David Poutney to consider championing the idea for the company, he went another direction with a similar Welsh themed project set around the time of World War One.

I remember thinking early on in the conceiving of the project how perfect the Welsh baritone singer Bryn Terfel would have been for the role of the hill farmer Amos Jones who is a Verdian figure in many aspects of his character. I did speak with Terfel on a few occasions about it and sent him relevant materials but for whatever reason, it didn't appear to resonate for him. Strange, as he was the son of a hill farmer himself and I would have thought having a Welsh Opera he could essentially make his own would have greatly appealed.

Another feature of what I discussed with Geoffrey when he was still alive was the possibility of having the two twins, Lewis and Benjamin Jones, sing in the same vocal register so we could have long, interchanging lines during scenes of telepathy.

Perhaps my favourite scene that I wrote for the libretto was the final scene where a family reunion (of sorts) takes place at a Christmas Nativity. I had this idea throughout 'Black Hill' that we could use the Welsh tradition of choral hymns as a form of Greek Chorus in itself. In the reunion scene the central characters are reunited whilst the lullaby 'Suo Gan' is sang by Mary and Joseph and a choir as a resolution is achieved quite different and more emotive than the novel.

One time I walked the area where the novel is set and visited the little church referenced in the book. A small congregation greeted me and my guide. When I told them about the project their eyes lit up and they seem genuinely excited. Further on that same walk around the Black Hill in border country, we stumbled upon the actual 'Vision' farm where most of the action is set in Chatwin's story. The farming family welcomed us as we approached and promptly asked us if we might be interested in buying the farm which they were about to list in the paper. It turned out there was a familial dispute that couldn't be resolved and so the sale of the farm was the only outcome it seemed.

In this instance, life really was imitating art.

I must also mention that I was grateful to Chatwin's widow, Elizabeth, for endorsing the idea and giving me written permission to go ahead with the adaptation for the stage.

There are many more 'failed' projects that I might write about in the future but one must be careful not to tarnish certain ones that may yet still find a new lease of life.

For without hope the dreams die and with that, I'll leave you with a glimpse of what might have been with 'Black Hill' as Bryn Terfel sings 'Suo Gan' here accompanied by harpist Hannah Stone.