When talented writer/director Warren Skeels came to me in Fall 2019 and said he had a true-life story that would make a great feature, I thought, “Right. How many times have I heard that?” But over coffee Warren told me the story. It was riveting. It was compelling. It was true.
Warren Skeels was a producer on the MTV reality series “Siesta Key” then and he had an impressive filmography on imdb. He also had a great reputation for being the ultimate professional and a delight to work with. He’d read a thriller I’d written and knew that I could be an asset as a writing collaborator, so his company and their partners made a deal with my entertainment attorney in LA for me to write a first draft with Warren.
In between Warren directing episodes of Siesta Key and me writing other spec features, we wrote the feature script of what would be come known as The Man in the White Van. Warren created a pitch deck, kind of a visual presentation of the look of the film, synopsis, characters, dream cast, etc. By Fall 2020, Terri Lubaroff, COO/Head of Content at a prominent film production company in LA called Legion M, read the script and loved it. She had some excellent notes. Warren and I executed Terri’s notes and sent the script back to her. Shortly afterward, Terri presented The Man in the White Van script to her partners at Legion M and the company signed on to produce.
Additional producers came on and Legion M included Warren and me in a special live social media announcement about Legion M adding The Man in the White Van to their impressive slate of projects.
Here’s the announcement video:
Warren has been busy scouting locations for production. There were several states considered for shooting the film, but it appears that Louisiana and its film incentives won out. The script and offers are out to cast now. Principal photography is scheduled to begin in mid-September 2021.
While Warren is busy in pre-production, I’m collaborating on an outline with him for a sequel. Sometimes the good guys win!
