Project of the Day: ‘Bears Discover Fire’
IndieWire Staff
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Tweetable Logline: Bears discover how to use fire–causing an amazing chain of events for a rural family in this sci-fi tale set in small town America.
Elevator Pitch: Bobby, a middle-aged everyman on a lonely farm is watching his young nephew, Junior, for the weekend. Meanwhile, Bobby’s elderly Mother is fading away in a nursing home. Bobby’s no good with kids, Junior’s scared of Mother and Mother just wants to die. Suddenly, bears discover fire! No one knows what to make of this. Except Mother… News of the bears and their campfires in the woods gives her a breath of fresh life, and she escapes from her Home to go see them. It’s up to Bobby and Junior to go save Mother. But does she need saving?
Production Team:
Ben Leonberg – Director / Co-Writer
Scott Riehs – Producer / Co-Writer
Alex Cannon – Co-Writer
Jan Reichle – Director of Photography
Chloe Lenihan, Peter Todd, and Tina Braz – Co-Producers
About the film: Terry Bisson’s original short story “Bears Discover Fire” is a remarkable and quirky tale. It’s hard for two people to take away the same meaning from it. Over the past year, our writing team has adapted the story into a short script that I am producing as my graduate thesis film at Columbia University. We have put together a creative team that is determined to make a movie adaptation that lives up to the wonderfully other-worldliness of Terry Bisson’s short story by utilizing practical special effects and photo-realistic bear puppetry throughout the film. It’s going to be a wild ride!
Production Status: We are deep into pre-production.
For more information and to support this project: Kickstarter Page
