Movie-Star Ready

So … I did it.
The script is now 128 pages, aka a Movie-Star Ready length.
[I had to look this up within my own blog, but apparently my fully transposed novel into screenplay started at 302 pages.  Even remembering that is exhausting.]
I felt that I could give my producer a draft that was 150 pages if I had to, knowing she’s in it for the long haul and that she’d sort through the fat.  But we could never really share that with anyone else.
Yet at 128 pages, we’re at a length that’s totally appropriate –– and I’m sure will get even more lean after tomorrow night’s reading — given that 120 is the standard, 2 hour movie page length.
Tomorrow night at 7pm is the reading and I’m nearly cast, although much of this fell into place around 5pm today.
I fell in and out of love with a bunch of actor possibilities.  This was highlighted by one seemly perfect and well-recommended actor who turned out to be in London, which seems a reasonable excuse for not calling me back immediately.
Interestingly, I’m roping more friends ho do not define themselves as actors into this reading than I’ve ever done.
And I’m hoping we can Skype LLS in as well.
One other great thing:  I’m utterly in love with Final Draft Pro.
Beyond the fact that I’m thrilled not to have to constantly be repaginating and making endless judgment calls about line breaks –– the big drawback to creating your own template in Word –– one of the most extraordinary time-savers of my life was its ability to instantly generate cast lists, complete with page numbers.
Gone are my days of going through the script page by page and making sure I’ve covered every speaking part so there’s not an awkward moment when a character is unassigned and someone has to jump in.
Honestly, if I’d known about that feature alone, I’d have brought the program ages ago.
Alright then … Mercury’s out of retrograde.
My script is movie-star ready.
Spring is officially here.
Onward and Upward!