Jana Brown wrote a screenplay – and it’s going to be a movie soon

By Tim Goodwin - Nov 4, 2014 | 0 comments

Not only is ‘The Divide’ being featured in the ‘Insider,’ but it also made its way on to a primo piece of real estate in Times Square.

King sure does look comfortable as a rancher.

That’s Russ Rayburn, Jana Brown and Perry King just hanging out on King’s California ranch.

The scene opens with Jana Brown sitting at her desk.

The editor of St. Paul’s alumni magazine, Alumni Horae, opens her email to find a class note from Perry King, a 1966 alum. King has written something for the magazine ahead of his 45th reunion.

Brown stops and wonders ‘Is this the Perry King that my mother used to like from Riptide and The Lords of Flatbush’?

There’s only one way to find out, so Brown responds with thoughts of an interview for the magazine, a way to catch up with the longtime actor. Soon the two are engulfed in a conversation that is reserved for old friends.

“Right away we sort of connected,” Brown said.

Now, if someone was going to write a screenplay about the first time Brown and King interacted, we’d have to say that’s a good start. But this is about an entirely different screenplay titled The Divide – and one that just so happens to be written by Brown and will star the aforementioned King when filming begins late next summer.

That one conversation back in 2011 has led to something Brown could only dream of. She had written professionally for more than 20 years, yet never did the thought of actually penning a screenplay cross her mind – let alone for a famous actor with a laundry list of movie and television credits.

During that initial interview, King told Brown they should work together.

“I just enjoyed our conversation,” King said. “Everything seemed so right to keep it going.”

Brown didn’t think too much of it until King called the next day and told her he had a screenplay idea. It was a comedy, and over the ensuing months they put together a 35-page treatment (which is movie biz lingo for an outline). People seemed to like the story, but it never generated a lot of momentum. What it did do, though, was help define Brown as the writer and King as the mentor.

“It was sort of like a crash course of what to look for when you’re writing a screenplay,” Brown said. “We spent hours and hours on the phone talking about what makes a good screenplay.”

Then the working relationship went back to that original conversation.

“He told me the very first time I talked to him he always wanted to film a western on his ranch in California,” Brown said.

Admittedly, Brown didn’t know the first thing about westerns. Then, during a long drive one day, the idea came to her. She used her phone to keep track of her notes and it soon took on a life of its own.

“She just came up with this wonderful story,” King said.

It’s a story set in 1973 about an older rancher dealing with memory loss and a young cowboy who came to work for him. But that’s not all it’s about, and if you think we’re going to give up too many details, you are sadly mistaken. Let’s just say there’s a few plot twists that go along with the phrase on the top of the movie poster, ‘Some fences are hard to mend.’

“Obviously I had him in mind,” Brown said. “I pictured him in the ranch, a very tough cowboy rancher, who was losing his mental abilities.”

That was May 2012, over a year after they first met. In August, they began work on the treatment. By Christmas break, Brown was writing the first draft. But it wasn’t long until the 125-page screenplay was ready for its first read. And for those of you who don’t know, each page equates to about one-minute of film time, so you’re looking at a two-plus hour viewing.

“It took me less than a month to write the first draft,” Brown said. “Because we had already done the hard work of developing the story, the screenplay was easy in comparison.”

But since then, its been reworked more than 30 times. An entire character was even removed. Now it’s good to go.

“We’ve spent the last year and a half honing it,” Brown said. “I don’t even know what draft I’m on.”

The original plan was to film this past summer, but that was pushed back to late August of 2015. Needing that backdrop of a dusty, dry ranch, scenes can only be shot at certain times of the year on King’s El Dorado County ranch.

There’s a budget, pre-production work has already begun and casting is expected to take place sometime early next year. If all goes to plan, The Divide will be released sometime in the first half of 2016.

“Apparently a lot of people have been inquiring about it,” Brown said.

King will direct and obviously play the lead role of Sam Kincaid, since it was his idea to have a western filmed on his ranch – and like we said before, he’s a pretty famous actor – with Russ Rayburn serving as director of photography.

“This is something I’ve always thought of doing, making my own movie,” King said. “It’s each of our dreams to do something like this.”

The three spent 10 days together on King’s ranch in August checking out potential filming locations for next summer’s six-week shoot. 

“The whole time we were there, he was dressed in character,” Brown said.

There’s a Kickstarter campaign to help raise the $30,000 needed for pre-production costs, and so far around $23,000 has been raised. The overall budget is expected to be less than $500,000.

“We want it to be as low as possible, but of the highest quality,” Brown said. “I just want to be proud of what we put out.”

While it would be great to see The Divide as a box office hit, the first step will be to shop it around to film festivals and see what happens.

“I’ve never cared too much about the result. I do it for the joy of doing it while I’m doing it,” King said. “But it would be nice if it was successful.”

To donate to the Kickstarter campaign, visit kickstarter.com and search The Divide. And for more on the movie, visit thepidemotionpicture.com.