Into the River Film Development

I am in the process of adapting the novel to the screen but it is costing me $1700 in publisher's fees every 18 months to retain the rights. I am well down the track of completing the screenplay but I need one more option period to finish.

I have acquired the first option rights on the award winning young adults novel 'Into the River' by Ted Dawe. This book won the 'Book of the Year' award in the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards in 2013. It caused some controversy when a glitch was manipulated in the censorship laws during a changeover of chief censor and got it banned for a couple of months, based on the fact it contained a brief sex scene. Thanks to the publicity generated the book picked up a US publisher.

The book is a wonderful story of a young Maori boy from the East Coast who wins a scholarship to Barwell's School, an old style boarding school for boys in Auckland. There he experiences the pressures to succeed in his studies and on the sports field, but is also subjected to the bullying condoned by the hierarchies of power in the school. It is essentially the story of one boy's struggle to assert his identity and to secure loyal friendships in an unfriendly world.

Please note: the video attached to this page is a short film I completed in 1998 based on James K Baxter's poem Lament for Barney Flanagan.