Is It True Film Productions
JONATHAN ELI HERRICK
Screenwriter and Producer
IsItTrueFilmProductions@gmail.com
415.722.9446
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A seasoned screenwriter, Jonathan seeks a co-producer, a production company, a director, a bankable actor, and/or an investor to help co-produce Raindrops in the Palm of Her Hand. He seeks the same for a six-part mini-series, Encounters on a Far Lake, his coming-of-age romance set on a remote, Midwest lake.Jonathan left the film industry years ago to pursue a spiritual journey, during which he was mentored by many of the world's foremost spiritual and psychological teachers. He successfully avoided success as a screenwriter before he was prepared for it and became a psychotherapist. Recently, his passion for filmmaking has returned full force.Once upon a time: Disney offered to buy his screenplay, The Sky’s the Limit; Oscar-winning director Will Vinton hired him to write a Saul Zaentz feature film; Family Feud hired him as their first writer; Lorimar Productions hired him as a f/t story analyst; CBS and Dustin Hoffman hired him as a freelance analyst; his play, Desire, directed by Paul Warner, premiered off-off Broadway; and Pauline Kael called him to complement his screenplay. He attended USC’s Graduate School of Cinema Arts where the screenwriting chair considered him the program’s finest writer, received an MSW from NYU and a B.A. in Cinema from New York State University at Binghamton. He has three daughters and divides his time between Los Angeles and Martha’s Vineyard.
Projects
• Raindrops in the Palm of Her Hand: A True Story - An upbeat, family drama, feature film being co-produced by Anna Pokorska: CEO, Dikanka Films Ltd
• Your Hand on My Face Is My Hand: A Coming-of-Age Romance - A Six-part mini-series.
• Seven Remarkable Women, Six Months, Five Countries, Four Continents: A True Story - Through encounters with a series of remarkable women, in six months, on four continents, a man makes startling sexual and spiritual discoveries that transform his life. It Happened One Night meets Sunrise meets Eat, Pray, Love. - In progress
• Last Chance - A Romcom Political Thriller feature - In progress
RAINDROPS IN THE PALM OF HER HAND: A TRUE STORY
FORMAT – A feature film, family drama, and upbeat true story.
I own full rights to this story - it is my daughter's and my story.LOGLINE: Abandoned by her parents, a young girl struggles to survive outdoors in the Himalayas…while 10,000 miles away in New England a mother loses her son and falls into despair. Trekking in Nepal, the mother and husband discover the girl, adopt her, and bring her home to America.This is the screenwriter’s own family story, for which he has full rights. It is not based on, but is a true story about the magic of love. A Himalayan child loses her family, an American family loses their child, yet across 10,000 miles they find each other to make each other whole again. The story weaves together two radically different families and locations, one in a primitive Himalayan village, the other in a tony New England town.COMPS: Blind Side, Instant Family, Rabbit HoleWHY THIS STORY NOW: It is an upbeat, unsentimental, feel-good, true story that offers the possibility of recovering after the loss of a child. In a time of relative darkness, it reflects the power of indomitable determination and selfless love.
The extraordinary odyssey includes a law absolutely forbidding adoption, Nepal's prime minister, First Lady Hillary Clinton, a powerful U.S. Senator, a forgery, and an attempted kidnapping.
Half the film can be shot in Nepal, combining the majesty of the Himalayas, the exotic world of Kathmandu and low-cost production.PRIMARY LOCATIONS: Upscale New England suburb; Kathmandu; A remote Himalayan Village.THE TREATMENT, SCRIPT & PICS of the rescued girl at three and at thirty are available on request.Jonathan sent this poem to First Lady Hillary Clinton. She then asked the State Department to reach out to the Nepal government.MAGIC KINGDOM
I don’t know the significance,
but this is true:
two unlikely paths crossed in Kathmandu.
The West’s most powerful woman
from the world’s grandest home,
and a little girl from a chicken coop
in a remote mountain town.
Both at one gathering
in a magic kingdom:
one spoke, the other played,
then one left and the other stayed.
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The little girl is Brinda just prior to adoption, in Nepal. The young woman is Brinda at about 30. The couple are the parents who adopted her.
ENCOUNTERS ON A FAR LAKE
FORMAT – Six-part mini-series / A coming-of-age romanceLOGLINE: A young teenage artist, vacationing on a remote lake with his family, becomes sexually obsessed with a woman twice his age. She challenges everything about him and opens his heart to love and spirituality.Adapted from the writer’s novel, it is loosely based on the writer’s experience and inspired in part to challenge certain PC assumptions. Though written as a six-part mini-series, it also could be condensed into a feature film.COMPS: Call Me by Your Name meets Diary of a Teenage Girl meets SiddarthaWHY THIS STORY NOW: To challenge contemporary PC preconceptions of right and wrong, to subvert assumptions about power imbalances, and to depict a sexual relationship that transforms into a spiritual journey. Semi-autobiographical, it also is an exploration of Jonathan’s own sexual-spiritual journey.
LAST CHANCE
GENRES: ThrillerFORMAT – FeatureLOGLINE: A pair of brilliant political strategists mastermind a billion-dollar art heist to take down a rogue U.S. president...then run for their lives, crisscrossing the continent, as his pair of bungling hitmen pursue them.COMPS: Midnight Run, His Girl Friday, North By Northwest, Three Days of the CondorWHY THIS STORY NOW: With American politics seemingly on the verge of disaster, what better way to cheer us all up than a romcom political thriller?
Contact
Connect with Jonathan about moving forward with any of these projects