RICHARD CRAVEN (Project Development)

Richard’s journey to Casablanca began in the cutting rooms of Pinewood, MGM Elstree, and Shepperton Studios. In 1976 he founded the Association of Independent Producers in England which became a spawning ground for independent talent, creating a focus to make indigenous movies in Britain with an international viability in the world marketplace. From this initiative emerged the Directors Guild of Great Britain, Channel Four and BBC Films. In 1978 Richard founded the London Script Workshops which are the pre-runner of the Casablanca Development Arena (Go to ‘Writers Submissions/Attracting the Right Writers’ for comparison). In the same year he sat on the board of the newly created National Film Development Fund, another of his initiatives. In 1979 he wrote the New Deal which was an attempt for film-makers to maintain control of their product and maximize their returns (‘Go to Archives/Our History’ for comparison). During the past six years Richard has been honing his skills working with writers and developing screenplays having learned everything he knows from Robert McKee and subsequently putting it into practice without respite. Going for the Motherlode of All Time (The Bre-X Story) was Casablanca’s first project, also supported by McKee, which was put aside when the same story (in the public domain) was Americanized last year. The American version, entitled Gold, set in New York and Indonesia, not Calgary and Indonesia, was filmed in the Fall of 2015 with Matthew McConaughey in the starring role and which will be released later this year. Canadian Distributor gurus thought Going for the Motherlode of All Time made as a Canadian film had the potential of grossing $150m world on a production budget of $16m. (Gold was shot on $70m). In the meantime Casablanca will bide its time to see how Gold does theatrically. Currently the Casablanca has twelve projects in development. Richard’s lifelong experience has been to create structures for the growth of sustainable feature film production. It is a huge ambition, but success comes to those who dare to dream and work to achieve it, and Canada is certainly a good environment for creating a healthy and financially secure production industry. Casablanca is the vehicle that will achieve this.