One For The Road (2018)

POSTER copy 3 Recently, I signed a “Dollar Baby” deal with Stephen King, giving me the permission to adapt one of his short stories to film.

Dollar Babies essentially work like this: I apply through King’s website. Once I’m accepted, they issue a contract. I sign the contract, include a dollar bill in the envelope, and mail it back to him. For that dollar, I’m granted the right adapt. One catch: I cannot distribute the film commercially, meaning I cannot make a profit off the final copy. Really, this is a project designed to show my potential down the road. I can, however, enter the short movie into non-profit festivals and luckily for me, there is a good number of them.

The story I’m adapting is titled One For The Road. The short story can be found in his Night Shift Collection. It is a sequel to his second published novel, ‘Salem’s Lot. Though the story itself presents a few difficulties production-wise, I believe it’s entirely doable with the time and patience I’m willing to dedicate. Give it a read if you have a copy on hand. It’s a great little tale!

The script is set and the budget is currently set. Soon, I will be putting together a Kickstarter campaign to bring this project together. I’m very excited to work on this as it’ll be an entirely new experience for me.

PLOT

The main part of the story is set a couple of years after the events of ‘Salem’s Lot. Booth states that things in town got quiet after the great fire that burned at the lot. Though Mark and Ben are never directly mentioned or known to residents outside the town or Booth, it hints they accomplished killing some vampires. But Booth goes on to explain that the peacefulness didn’t last long, hinting that some did survive and the vampires spread again.

Booth admits that people of his town now live with religious superstition and are wary at night. Though no one verbally speaks of Jerusalem’s Lot being filled with vampires, they silently admit they believe in it. Booth describes a winter’s night years ago, when he and his friend, a bar owner named Herb “Tookey” Tooklander, attempted to rescue the family of a motorist named Gerard Lumley, whose vehicle had become stranded in a ferocious blizzard. At first mildly contemptuous of Lumley for driving in such weather, both men are horrified when they realize that Lumley’s vehicle is stranded in Jerusalem’s Lot. Though they know “the Lot” has gone bad, they reluctantly still decide to drive out in Tookey’s Scout and attempt to save Lumley’s family. Instead, they barely manage to save themselves from the man’s wife and daughter, who have been turned into vampires, while Lumley himself ends up being vampirized by his wife.

The story ends with Booth warning the reader that if they ever find themselves on the road through ‘Salem’s Lot, they should keep on driving and not stop for any reason.

(Taken from Wikipedia)

LOCATION #1

One for the Road will be filmed in Northern Minnesota.

I’m happy to announce we’ve found the first of two locations we will need when filming One for the Road. The beginning of the story, as stated above, takes place in Tookey’s Bar.

For this location, we’ve found Loony’s Brew in Ranier, Minnesota!