NEVADA ZOO

I’ve been keeping this one under my hat for a couple weeks. Dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s, so to speak.  But with all that taken care of, I’m now thrilled to announce that the role of ‘Sidney Tatum’ will be played by Emmy award winner James McDaniel.

Look, I knew we needed someone good to play ‘Sidney’.  Someone with a big-time college coach’s gravitas, the intelligence to project the character’s complicated personal life, and the courage, frankly, to appear in a film as controversial as this one. But to work with Mr. McDaniel, whose extensive acting credits include prominent roles on “Law & Order”, “NYPD Blue”, “N3mbers”, “The Good Wife”, “Malcom X”, and over 60 other titles – it’s just so cool, man.

Check back for updates. If the rest of the cast is half as good as James, this production will be in excellent hands.

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www.nevadazoofilm.com

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56 days, y’all.

56 days until the NEVADA ZOO shoot.

And all we have to do is crew up, secure our location, round out our cast, draft the contracts and oh, finish funding the film.

I wake up thrilled and overwhelmed on alternating mornings, it seems, and spend the rest of the day in a fever cloud of excitement laced with fear and the occasional moment of clarity about how to push this production forward. This film has become my life. I’ve never said that about anything, not even writing - and I consider myself a WRITER, above all - which makes this production feel like a necessary and at the same time STRANGE place to be.

And so, as much as film producers (and entrepreneurs and people who otherwise need help from others to complete their vision) are encouraged to “act as if”, I’ve decided that in order to be true to my life - to what my life has become over these last few months - I’m not going to “act as if” anything.

I’m not going to act as if most of this isn’t new to me. Or as if I don’t worry like hell that I’m not giving the NEVADA ZOO team the support it needs. Or as if I’m not on a Tim Tebow scramble (PRAISE HIM) to get funding, and losing hella sleep over it. This blog is going to be a place where you can get updates about cast and crew and - and eventually screenings! - but also follow the ups and downs of this production.

Some of it is going to come off amateurish. Which is like, whatever man. To me, bravado is cheap, and worse, transparent. So when I talk up this project, I’ll only speak to the things I’m genuinely confident about: the NEVADA ZOO team, which is way more talented and accomplished than I had any right to believe it would be just six months ago. Daniel and Justin (co-directors) and Julian (producer) and Pat (casting director) are also super nice people who I’m going to convince to be my friends for life when this film is done.

I’m confident in the script I wrote, which, all false humility aside, is smart and controversial and frankly UNCOMFORTABLE enough to turn some heads on the festival circuit. Ain’t no sports films about gay characters being made. There just aren’t. And I know with every fiber that of my body that we’re going to tell this story with the sensitivity and fearlessness that it deserves.

So in the future when I post about some real dog-shit production days - and there’ve been quite a few already - trust that it’s coming from a real conviction that ultimately, one way or another, the stuff this project has going for it is going to make for an excellent film.

Check in from time to time. Get your schadenfreude on. And holler at me on twitter or email about whatever fever cloud you find yourselves in these days.

Peace!

Kurt

www.nevadazoofilm.com

http://twitter.com/kurt_c_scott

kurt DOT c DOT scott AT gmail DOT com

NEVADA ZOO Director of Photography and Co-Director Daniel Patterson’s reel. Note THE WIRE’s Julito McCullum.

To see more of Daniel’s work visit prepschoolboys.com.

www.nevadazoofilm.com

http://twitter.com/kurt_c_scott

TIM WALTZ, age 32, is a young college basketball coach on the rise. Smart, telegenic and blessed with a personality that pulls everyone he meets into his orbit, it’s not a question of if Tim becomes a household name, but when.  

And he owes it all to his mentor and former coach, Sidney (55), a giant of Division I hoops. When the final chapter of his career is written, Sidney will stand alongside coaching legends like Indiana’s Bobby knight and UCLA’s John Wooden, as a winner and a man of intense disposition.  

On the surface Tim and Sidney have it all: accomplished careers in sports, families to share their success with, fame and wealth and many promising years ahead.  

The one complication? 

They are both gay, and involved in a sexual relationship with one another – a secret they have guarded for the last ten years.  

NEVADA ZOO is a dramatic short film about a public friendship that is in fact something else; a story about friends who are at once convinced of their right to be together and the disastrous consequences of the world finding out; a story about the life-changing decisions these men make under the threat of exposure.

To tell this story with the subtlety and intelligence it requires, we have put together a team of artists committed to provocative and commercially-viable filmmaking.

Our co-directors, Justin Staley and Daniel Patterson, won the HBO Short Film Competition at the American Black Film Festival in 2010. Their film STAG AND DOE is now running on HBO through 2012.

Daniel, who is also our Director of Photography, most recently shot the feature film GUN HILL ROAD, which was extremely well-received at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

And Pat Golden, casting director of PLATOON, BLUE VELVET and NEW JACK CITY, just agreed to cast the film.

We couldn’t be more excited to share this project with you. Please check back for updates. 

Kurt C. Scott

Writer and Executive Producer

www.nevadazoofilm.com