Glen Dolman.
Glen Dolman has drawn on a painful personal experience in scripting I Met a Girl, an uplifting romantic comedy-drama to be directed by Luke Eve.
Co-funded by Screen Australia, Screenwest, Create NSW and Soundfirm, the plot will follow Devon, an aspiring musician with schizophrenia who is in love with the mysterious Lucy. When she vanishes, he takes off across the country to find her, forcing his brother to try to rescue him.
“I started writing this more than 10 years ago when I was struggling to process the death of a close friend who had suffered from a serious mental illness,” Dolman tells IF.
“In doing research for another project, I met a beautiful couple who both suffered from schizophrenia but were coping and thriving despite their illnesses. They joked about only having one psychotic breakdown at a time.
“In film and TV, we don’t often see positive representations like this and I became inspired to tell a story of someone learning how to manage their condition, which is also a relatable coming-of-age story. It’s funny, romantic and life-affirming, which was inspired by the various sufferers who I met with.”
Dolman, who has been based in Los Angeles for several years, initially aimed to set up the project in the US. But he was keen to collaborate again with Eve after they joined forces on High Life, a dramedy about a bipolar teenager which aired online and on the Nine Network. “This felt like the perfect project for us, especially with Luke’s dramatic and comedic sensibilities,” he said.
Melissa Kelly and Adam Dolman (Glen’s twin brother) will produce the film with shooting due to start in Perth early in the new year and post in Sydney. The executive producers are Tait Brady, whose Label Distribution has the Australian rights, and Tim White. Alliance Media Partners will handle international sales.
Dolman wrote Bloom, a six-part supernatural love story packed with adventure, mystery and horror, which Playmaker Media is producing for Stan, directed by John Curran and Mat King.
Shooting of the series starring Jacki Weaver, Bryan Brown, Phoebe Tonkin, Ryan Corr, Daniel Henshall and Sam Reid wraps in Victoria in two and a half weeks.
Its creator could not be happier, observing, “It’s looking beautiful. Geoff Hall, our DP, is doing an incredible job, as are all the cast. It’s very cinematic.”