The producers of The Fidelity Files have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to attach principal cast and a director and pitch the project to the Hollywood talent agencies.
The raunchy comedy is based on US author Jessica Brody’s 2008 novel The Fidelity Files and its 2010 sequel Love Under Cover.
The protagonist is Jennifer Hunter, who goes undercover as a ‘fidelity inspector’ to figure out if spouses and boyfriends are the cheating type. When her BFF Sophie gets engaged to an Australian sports star, Jen believes his playboy lifestyle will ruin her best friend's life and decides to uses her skills to check him out.
Neophyte producer Bella Le spotted Love Under Cover in a Melbourne bookshop during the 2012 Melbourne International Film Festival, contacted Brody and her agent and took an option on both novels.
Aaron Jackson has come on board to produce with Le and to write the screenplay, taking over from the original writer, American Nina Colman, who departed the project amicably.
“The goal of the crowdfunding is to raise funds to attach key cast/crew, to present the film to Hollywood agencies and to possibly bring on a third local producer,” said Jackson, a Yank now based in Melbourne.
“We are also using the campaign to build up the film's fan base and engage the book's built-in audience to support the film.”
The producers are applying to Film Victoria for funding and intend to send the script to potential directors next month. They have a letter-of-intent from The Backlot Studios. The Indiegogo campaign aims to raise $20,000.
“As for casting, we have initial thoughts for both American and Australian casting and we will be approaching them shortly,” he said.
“We have some insight into how we want to market the film as we feel the current slate of Australian films is lacking in the female comedy demographic and in matching the evolution of current American popular comedy. We definitely see this as an American-Australian film.”