With the end of the first season, I considered a couple of times how I would deal with rebooting Urban Numina. While I have been planning a second season, I felt that certain elements of the experiment prevented me from telling the story of Urban Numina to the best effect.
Upon thinking more about this, I began playing with a movie script version of Urban Numina. In a movie format, the story would need to be tighter and the characters better defined. It would require some tough decisions about various plotlines I had considered, but also could allow me to focus more on the themes of the show.
With the advent of the Make My Movie competition, I have had good reason to complete the movie script. As a result, the reboot is stronger, funnier and much more polished than the series - benefiting both from the writing and shooting experience that it gave me.
How will Urban Numina The Movie be different?
It will be centred on the core ensemble of Andrea, Devon, Deus and Mel. More attention will be paid to each of these characters and their relationships. The idea behind the movie is to have the feel of an independent relationship comedy that has had an epic godly conflict drop unexpectedly into the middle of it. To this end, Andrea, Devon and Mel will have real world relationship issues that they are trying to deal with at the same time as Deus, Urge and Anima come around to mess with their lives.
There will be no Nemesis or series based plots going on in the film. It is a new story built from the same original starting point of the series and written to be resolved in a single film.
But what about Moira/Aoibheann/Jenna/etc?
Some of the secondary characters of the show are still in the movie script - but in order to keep it a low budget film with VFX, I have kept my focus on the original four protagonists and three antagonists.
How can I help?
For now, vote for us at http://www.makemymovie.co.nz/entry/urban-numina using Facebook, Twitter or Google + - then tell your friends to do so as well. There is a synopsis below of the start of the film, just enough to give you a feeling for what it will be like, and they can watch the videos of the web series to get an idea of the kind of humour that they can expect.
Further more, I am offering enticements to those who vote and help us win the competition - Note that these will be active if we get into the second stage of the competition. I will be setting up a page to track all supporters - so keep coming back.
- Everybody who votes will get a supporter mention in the end credits.
- If you convince 20+ friends to vote - you will get special mention in the credits.
- If you convince 50+ friends to vote - you will get an Executive Producer credit.
- If you convince 100+ friends to vote - Executive Producer credit and a special personalised video from cast and crew thanking you for your support.
- If you convince 150+ friends to vote - Executive Producer credit, personal video and a signed poster. If you are based in NZ and can get to Wellington, I'll include a walk on role and dinner with the cast.
But what if you don't win? There's a lot of movies on offer!
If we don't win the competition, I am already working on a crowdfunding plan to raise the funds - but that will be managed at a later date.
So that Synopsis?
Currently due to rewrites the synopsis has changed. I'll be updating this shortly. Keep following the main blog to learn more about the development of the film. Here is a short summary:
Devon is heartbroken, Andrea is trying to get heartbroken and Mel is just breaking hearts. Just when the three friends feel they are getting on top of their problems, an amnesiac god named Deus literally drops into the middle of their lives.
Now Devon is trying to get his boyfriend back while having to babysit Deus, Andrea is having to turn to the man she wants to break up with and Mel is not only breaking hearts but contemplating breaking bones too. And that's when things get really complicated...
