If anyone is attending the Austin Film Festival this coming week, a feature film I wrote and work-shopped on SS, The Suicide Theory, is playing opening night (October 23rd), 10 p.m. @ Alamo Draft Village and again October 27th, 9:30 p.m. @ Bullock Texas State History Museum Texas Spirit Center. The film ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize for best picture @ the Dances With Films Festival in Hollywood, where it was screened at Grauman's Chinese Theaters (one of the most famous cinemas in the world). The film also won the Special Jury Prize, Best Supporting Actor and Best Cinematography @ the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in Melbourne, Australia last month. I will not be in attendance in Austin due to another project I'm working on, but stop by and check out the film, meet the director, producers, etc. Tell them you know me and maybe they'll buy you a beer (maybe).

While I'm at it, a short horror film I wrote and work-shopped on SS about a year ago, The Dead Guy in the Trunk, will be screening twice next month @ Monsterfest in Melbourne, Australia next month. All I know is that the festival is running from Nov. 20-30. Don't have dates and times yet.

-- Michael

Looks like we were an Austin Film Festival staff pick... come see the movie, October 23rd @ 10 pm, Alamo Draft Village.

https://www.austinfilmfestival.com/news/staffpx-suicide-theory/

Well done, mate.

Good job.

BTW, I like this poster better than the last one. I could just do without the green frame, it sticks out too much imo. Ruins the composition. But I think it's a more appropriate poster then the one before, which appeared like a teaser poster.

Good luck on the festival circuit. Any idea when the movie will hit VOD?

Depends on which distribution company picks up the film. We turned down the grand prize from winning the Dances With Films Festival, which was a distribution deal with Gravitas Ventures. And we turned down four other offers. Austin Film Festival is a pretty big one, hence more exposure, hence more distribution offers. Would be cool to get a limited theater release first, but we shall see.

As for the poster, I really dig this one. The director actually designed the art for this one as a promo poster for our Austin screenings, but think it may stick.

@ Demento - Thanks for the well wishes, man, think you actually read the script like 6 years ago when I had it posted on here.

@ Dustin - Thanks for the kudos, bro. Best of luck to future endeavors. Will be more to come, I'm sure.

Great news, bro! You jetting out for the showings? Any chance of it hitting the UK circuit in the near future?

Awesome poster, as well. Really digging that.

Wow, even more great news on the distribution front. Good luck with getting a theatre release.

Quoted from spesh2k @ Demento - Thanks for the well wishes, man, think you actually read the script like 6 years ago when I had it posted on here.

Yeah I did. I was lurking here for like a month or two. I read a few feature scripts. That was the one that stuck out the most. I really look forward to seeing the movie. Hope it does great.

all the best Michael. This is so exciting.

please share all that you can.

its great for us to learn more

cheers

Thanks, guys. I think after Austin, the producers will focus more on choosing a distributor for the film, though we may be in a few more film fests. None of us expected to get into a film festival as big and important as Austin, but the opportunity will most certainly get us a deal that we can all wrap our arms around. Eventually.

Will keep everyone posted. And just a reminder: The Suicide Theory is playing tonight (10 p.m.) at Alamo Draft Village as part of the Austin Film Festival... awards luncheon is on Saturday, so whether we win anything or not, I'll find out then. But if you're in or around Austin tonight, swing through and check out the film! Tell me what you think!

-- Michael

Two new reviews surfaced today as The Suicide Theory approaches its Austin Film Festival tonigjt at 10! The response to the film has been overwhelming! Sure to be a ton of new reviews after the screening!

http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-suicide-theory-2014-film-review-by-neil-mitchell

http://shuffleonline.net/2014/10/23/dru-browns-the-suicide-theory-a-killer-drama/

Just read one of these - wow.

God you must be chuffed (UK term for feeling bloody good)

Well done, hope it keeps going on.

Feeling pretty damn chuffed right now, lol. Can't wait to hear what people think after the screening tonight!

How did it go?  :)

@ Pia -- Was not in attendance, but I heard it went great... some people I know couldn't get in because the movie was sold out... was very well received by the audience.

http://austinfusionmagazine.com/2014/10/23/aff-review-the-suicide-theory/

There will be another screening on Monday. Awards luncheon is on Saturday, so I'll find out if we won anything then...

-- Michael

I got an email from Blacklist today which mentioned AFF and it made me think of your film. Pretty big time! Hope your film does well and keeping my fingers crossed for a win.  :)

Thanks Pia, the response has been crazy via twitter, social media... I know the AFF staff loved the film... hopefully this gets me more work...

Yet another review of The Suicide Theory -- 3.5 stars out of 4. Also, a really cool interview with the film's director, Dru Brown, where Simply Scripts is mentioned (in regards to how the filmmakers found my script)... http://trueviewreviews.com/aff-2014-interview-the-suicide-theory/#more-12606

Michael,

This is all great news and good luck with everything.  I would have been in attendance as I live in Texas, but work sent me to New York since July.  Good to see your hard work has paid off.

Here's one Texan rootin' fer ya!

Jeff

Really cool!

"Dru: A mate of mine had posted a script on a website called Simply Scripts.  It’s a website where amateur guys put their scripts up and other filmmakers can critique them, give them advice, and steer them in the right direction.  I got a few pages into the script and it wasn’t for me, so I started looking around the website and saw this one (The Suicide Theory) and all the comments.  I finished the script really quick and was like, I got to contact this guy (Michael J. Kospiah) and see what’s going on here. That’s a unique script.  What you see on the screen is pretty close to what you see on the original script.  It is just so bizarre and different."

Like I've always said, SS is the best place to get your script exposed to filmmakers! InkTip is nowhere compared, IMHO.

Btw, Kevin and I just signed a contract for Scarred. My 1+6WC script the last go around. It will be shot in 2015. I never posted it here, but the connection to the filmmakers was from here.

Good luck for your script and hope it will get picked up for a theatrical release!  8)

That's awesome, Pia! Kevin (if it's the Kevin I think it is) is an awesome writer, as are you... great to belong to a community with so much talent (including my boy Shawn aka ledbetter) and talented writers like Phil Clarke, etc... haven't been on this site as much as I would like lately, but the support amongst us fellow writers is important, and I'll continue to give dap to this site no matter how absent I may be (I try to give the site props whenever I do podcast interviews, etc., the q and a in Hollywood after the premiere)... good people...

Awesome new review of the film... both film critics (they're a duo I suppose) gave it a higher combined score than they gave to "The Imitation Game"... pretty cool... http://texasartfilm.com/thesuicidetheory.html

So, The Suicide Theory didn't win any Jury Awards at Austin Film Festival, but apparently, we got the audience vote (under the Dark Matters category)... http://movies.blog.austin360.com/2014/11/03/here-are-the-austin-film-festival-audience-award-winners/

Well done. Good luck with distribution.