I look back through my archive of files on my back up hard drive. There’s a folder entitled “completed”. Inside that folder are some really old files from the early 2000s. Most of them are pretty much garbage. There’s some good ideas in there, for sure.

October 2018. Joe Channell sends me his logo design for his production company Jack Morgan Films. It’s shiny. It’s chrome and it has the ROAR of an engine running beneath it. It’s on instagram. You can find it. We briefly talk logo, and the history behind why the car sounds… when I say, “You know, I have a street racing script.” “You do?”

Next thing you know, I’m digging through that archive file. There’s a file in there titled “Under My Wheels”. It’s the story of a trailer park kid who needs to get away from his abusive family and drive across country to get to college at the end of the summer. It’s a street racing movie. The concept is there. Racing for tanks of gas. The third act is a mess. It was pretty rough.

In February of 2019, I started revising Under My Wheels, and updating it with the vast knowledge of writing I’ve soaked in over the last ten years. Under My Wheels became Galaxie. I finished up sometime in mid 2019, summer-ish. Maybe fall. I was happy with it. It really came around and grew into a great story. Joe and I put it on the back-burner. We were just moving along and knew that someday we would come back to it. We weren’t forcing it. Joe went on to work on a few short films.

Fast forward to January 2020. Galaxie had been lingering on me throughout the holiday season. Something wasn’t quite right with it. I went back in. It took me a couple of weeks, but I figured it out. Galaxie REALLY took shape this time around. I gave the protagonist a physical impairment. I changed the name of the female lead to match her personality. I did a complete 180 on the mother character’s arc. The entire tone of the film shifted and I reached my goal. When I began the re-write, I set out to write something with the emotional impact and action pacing of a Marvel movie.

The moment I finished, I KNEW it was done and wouldn’t get any better. Galaxie turned into a bang up story. Emotional beats, just like those I was aiming for. The ending, as stated by one reader, dodged all of the expected tropes, and is a perfect ending. I couldn’t agree more. It’s a satisfying ending that ties up everything in a neat little package.

Galaxie is a high-octane film with an engine that is powered by the heart and friendship of two unlikely protagonists. I can’t wait to put this beast on screen. It’s a story that needs to be told, and needs to be shown on screen. We need muscle cars back on the big screen. Roaring engines. Squealing tires. Vintage rock and roll soundtrack. Adrenaline and vibrating seats in the theater. Let’s do this!

STAY TUNED!