A King Sized Idea

I've been trying to get this idea off the ground for a few years. I thought you'd appreciate the thought process.

From: Cameron Bonsey [mailto:cameron@safelawns.org]
Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 8:27 AM
To: 'Marsha DeFilippo'; 'Dale Duff'
Subject: Maine Film non-profit



Dear Marsha,



Thank you for the follow up and letting me know that Mr. King has other issues directly before him right now. I am not in a hurry and I want to make sure that I respect Mr. King’s time.



The idea of this non-profit is to set up a sustainable organization to employ and educate Maine residents in the media production industry. Any profits from any production would be returned to the non-profit to invest in future productions and education.



In a recent article in the LA Daily Times by Greg Hernandez and Lisa Friedman it was noted that movie making in the U.S. provides 1.3 million jobs, $60.4 billion in revenue and $10 billion in state and federal taxes. The article starts with the quote, “With filming taking place in almost every state in the U.S….”



The unfortunate part of this story is that Maine is not one of those States. I believe that we can change that.



Because of Stephen King’s success, respect and fame, a non-profit with the rights to one of his stories, and the mission to employ Maine citizens in the theatrical production of said story, would attract the money and talent needed for pre-production, production, post-production, marketing and distribution.



“Horror is the most profitable film genre around. Each new film can almost be guaranteed a large slice of the teenage-boy market, the last demographic devoted to spending Friday nights at the movies,” writes Richard Corliss in an October 2006 article on www.time.com .



A Stephen King story produced in Maine would attract not only the very best talent from Maine (there is a deep pool) but some tremendous, established Hollywood talent with extremely strong ties to Maine.



With an experienced producer and the tremendous goodwill that would develop through this non-profit the movie could be shot inexpensively, by Hollywood standards, and maintain a very high quality.



Mr. King has certainly done more than his share in giving back to the state. By donating the rights to one of his current or future stories to this non-profit he would be helping to establish a new portion of the Maine economy that would continue to grow and help to expand and improve the standard of living for citizens throughout the state of Maine.



At some point, when it is convenient for Mr. King, I would like to meet with him face to face to further explain this concept and hopefully convince him of the value and potential that it represents.