Hello, friends! It is with great pleasure that we announce that Joshua Heaton, screenwriter of the 2024 Get Repped Now “consider” IT LIVES IN THE SHED, has signed a shopping agreement with award-winning Producer/Manager Joshua Weinstock from Sea Smoke Entertainment. Sea Smoke’s credits include the Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated Nightingale for HBO and Netflix’s #1 global hit feature thriller Intrusion). Weinstock is currently in post on the horror- thriller Arachnid with Thunder Road/Badlands.
This development caps weeks of excitement and many Zooms between the US and Australia-based Heaton, as several other Get Repped Now producer/managers were also interested in this project.
The horror/thriller concerns a boy who discovers a mysterious creature his father has imprisoned in the backyard shed of their new house. Heaton’s deft, soulful writing proved irresistible to Weinstock, who means to develop, package, shop, and produce the film through his Sea Smoke banner.
“The characters, the world, the tone and the elevated sense of writing and storytelling all made for a taut and unpredictable read,” said Weinstock. Once started, I couldn’t put down and immediately knew by the end this was a script that needs to be produced.”
“I’m so excited to be working with Josh to bring this script to life,” said Heaton. “I know opportunities like this are rare, and I’m so grateful to have been able to connect with him through Coverage Ink!”
This is just the beginning of the journey, so it may be a while until we all find out what’s in the SHED. Indie movies can take years to put together. We look forward to bringing you updates as the project proceeds through development to script lock, then production, and eventually, movie screens.
Let’s all raise a glass to Joshua Heaton for showing us all how it’s done. Cheers!
WHAT’S IN THE “SHED”?
Now some of you are no doubt wondering what was it exactly about IT LIVES IN THE SHED that proved so attractive to our panel. There were two things in particular:
1. Pro Voice. Heaton’s writing voice is simply top-notch. The way he crafts a sentence, the way he gets into his characters’ heads; it’s just a great read. The words you choose — every one is important. Everyone in Hollywood has ADHD. Average or even good writing is easy to ignore. But when someone comes along with an undeniable writing voice that you can see from 20,000 feet, people take notice. A great script grabs you by the throat and defies the reader to put the script down. Those experiences are indeed rare, but when you find one, you want to tell everyone about it.
2. Genre and Marketability. The lead in “Shed” is an 8-year-old boy. Savvy students of the biz know that this is considered commercial death. There are no 8-year-old movie stars. And indeed, a few of our managers passed for this exact reason. No one wants another boulder to push up the hill.
BUT: the simple, elegant genre concept, juicy adult roles, and the tightly plotted mystery — combined with the aforementioned voice — keep people turning pages. Our little lead is scrappy and savvy and has been through some trauma, and — guess what — he’s a horror movie nut. About to find out… he’s in one.
Genre is king right now, and this story is contained as can be — small cast, minimal locations, making it eminently producible on the indie level. 8 years old? Eh, not a problem. (although don’t be surprised if he winds up 16 in the final movie, once those foreign sales guys have their say.)
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And before you ask, no, we have not locked the start date for Get Repped Now 2025 yet... (psst – most likely late March.)
