DAWN PATROL: From Script to Screen at AFF
In 2008, a script written by Rachel Long and Brian Pittman, a writing team from California, was submitted to the Austin Film Festival. Then titled Stranded, it went on to be a Latitude Finalist in competition that year. Oscar-Nominee Daniel Petrie Jr. (Beverly Hills Cop) and Rick Dugdale met the pair, and soon after the script was picked up by Petrie and Dugdale's Enderby Entertainment.
"We didn’t really know what to expect," Long told us, "Immediately just being at the Driskill Bar, and everyone was accessible and nice and enthusiastic, you know. So here you are, just a finalist in contest...who knows whats going to happen? And just to be surrounded by such positive people about the industry, I was hopeful that it could happen."
The "it" she's referring to? Pittman went on to explain that all subsequent meetings and work as screenwriters has been because of the Austin Film Festival and also their relationship with Petrie. Their A Haunting at Silver Falls recently finished shooting in Oregon. CBS Films bought their script Incarnate and Millennium Films picked up their spy script The Civilian.
Things appear to be moving at quite the clip for those two, and to finally see Dawn Patrol on the screen is the culmination of years of work. Though not uncharacteristic for a film to spend a long time in development, "It was a slow process, patient process, everyone being very passionate about Dawn Patrol," said Pittman. And as they neared actual production, things sped up enormously.
Through many meetings and notes sessions, even a 12-hour day with Petrie at his house, both Long and Pittman appreciated the hands-on approach of their mentor, Petrie. "In any sort of collaboration there was never a moment where he was telling us something that we needed to do. He was presenting it in a way that it seemed essential to do and I think that that is really incredible about him," said Long.
Actor Scott Eastwood (left) with director Daniel Petrie Jr.
We also got a chance to sit down with Petrie and he talked about the significance of when the movie was set. "2008 was a time of great, almost overwhelming despair in the United States as people had been encouraged to take on mortgages and remodel their homes," he said. "I remember because I had a place near that beach and sign after sign after sign [reading] ‘For Sale,' 'Foreclosure’ and it felt like, to these hard working people, that the dream is over. The promise that America makes that you’re going to be better off than the last generation has been broken. And that was deeply unsettling in the nation’s psyche."
Though the movie features the lives of a surfing family, it is not a surfing movie. "I think the lens through surfing and access to the beach is very apt and appropriate and we probably couldn’t find a cleaner one," Pittman told us. He's a surfer himself and while the sport and lifestyle seem like a permanent vacation, he and Long aimed to look deeper. "We went behind that, man. Let’s look at the other side: what do people have to give up to keep that?" he said.
And it was through the family dynamics, and Petrie as director, that actor Jeff Fahey came on board. "That, for me, was the important thing," Fahey said, "the family structure. However disconnected, dysfunctional, however he [Fahey's character] was aware of it that’s what was the discovery for me." Fahey has an impressive list of credits, but you might recognize him most recently for his roles as Frank Lapidus in Lost or Under the Dome as Duke. Years ago he was in a movie with Petrie's dad, also a director, and had hoped to work with Petrie. "It was a lunch meeting, and I said I’m in," Fahey said, "and bang we were shooting."
We got a chance to see Dawn Patrol last week at it's world premiere at AFF and expect a lot more from this writing team in the future with their many projects in the works. Also, be sure to keep an eye out for the film coming up. We'll post some updates about when and where it will be released when we have them.
Dawn Patrol stars Scott Eastwood, Jeff Fahey, Rita Wilson, Kim Matula and Chris Brochu.
Update from the AUSTIN FILM FESTIVAL
So we've been rather quiet from the festival. And here's why!
On Wednesday I arrived in the afternoon and attended the Austin Film and Food party to rub elbows with the filmmakers and writers at the festival. There was tons of free food and beer supplied, so I was up late. Thursday I hopped in my little car2go - which is really a great service and we're very proud to have them as a sponsor for Ultraween - and adventured around Austin. I found my way into the opening night screenings of THE HUMBLING, starring Al Pacino and Greta Gerwig, and then saw Richard LaGravenese's THE LAST FIVE YEARS. I enjoyed both films with the former playing along similar lines as BIRDMAN, and the latter as an adventure in music. The movie, sung from beginning to end, is based on the musical written by Jason Robert Brown featuring the talent of Anna Kendrick (PITCH PERFECT) and Jeremy Jordan.
On Friday I went to see an episode of MAD MEN presented by its showrunner and creator Matthew Weiner. Then I went to see 21 YEARS RICHARD LINKLATER, a love-letter to the much beloved Austin filmmaker of such greats as DAZED AND CONFUSED, BEFORE SUNRISE, BEFORE SUNSET, and many others including his most recent BOYHOOD - which was fantastic. Then came Saturday which was filled with wonderful panels, interviews with the crew from DAWN PATROL, including director Daniel Petrie Jr., writers Rachel Long and Brian Pittman, and actor Jeff Fahey and then the premiere of their movie that night. (Stay tuned for more about DAWN PATROL coming later this week!)
And since then have seen WILD, 7 MINUTES, 61 BULLETS, THE LAST TIME YOU HAD FUN, LOOKING FOR LIONS, THE HOMESMAN, PHANTOM HALO, TAKING IT BACK, some great shorts including THIS IS NORMAL, A DAY IN EDEN, and ENTRAIN, and finally tonight THE IMITATION GAME. It's been a whirlwind and my brain might be melting. But it's been amazing to be here with the filmmakers and writers.
Stay tuned - but don't hold your breath - for more stuff heading your way including reviews and my conversations with the crew from 7 MINUTES and director of TAKING IT BACK.