Dear Friends,
With the end of the year I am sharing some exciting news about the movie Safe Haven which Globaldreamers has been given acknowledgement for the hard work we have all been doing around the world to make our world a safer and better place for the future.It is so exciting to see this.
It has been a fantastic year for Globaldreamers and I am including the Globaldreamers with the hope that you will all continue dreaming with us again next year.
With love and best wishes and please keep in touch,
Marsha Goren
Dream coordinator
Subject: Universal Studios
NBC Universal To Consider Safe Haven Film
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June 6, 2009
Port Orange, Florida
Blue Heron International Pictures announced today that its latest Holocaust documentary -- Safe Haven: The Warsaw Zoo -- has been submitted to NBC Universal for feature film consideration.
"We believe this story has great potential to become a major motion picture," said Executive Producer Richard Lester.
"It has heroes, villains, and a powerful message which is currently resonating among young people around the world."
Award-winning director Gary Lester agrees that his documentary should only be the beginning.
"It is a compelling story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Now it needs to be a major motion picture," said Lester.
NBC Universal holds what basically amounts to an audition process for film-makers each year.
"It's called NBC Universal Shortcuts, and it is designed to attract high-interest level stories which are well told by an ethnically and culturally diverse production team. We meet both criteria," said Gary Lester. "Our main producers are from Poland and Israel, as are two of the main characters in the story."
As for interest level, Marsha Goren, Educational Outreach Coordinator for the documentary, reports that she has received e-mails from scores of students and educators in Israel, Poland, Holland, Belgium, India and the United States.
Blue Heron International Pictures, the Florida production company that released the internationally popular documentary in March, has also been besieged with requests for the film.
"We're on our third production run and simply can't keep up with demand for the DVD," said Richard Lester.
That's not surprising. At the end of May, the Internet Movie Data base (imdb.com) was reporting 2.9 million hits on the film's web page.
Safe Haven premiered on network television in Israel in April. Since then, Israel Channel 10 has been streaming the documentary from its website, with both Hebrew and Russian subtitles.
Will Hollywood be the next stop for a compelling story about the heroic Warsaw zookeeper and his family? "I'd like to think so," said Richard Lester.
"However, it's a long and difficult road from documentary to feature film. I expect approximately 1,000 other stories will be submitted to Universal for consideration, and only three production deals will be offered."
Director Gary Lester remains upbeat about the possibilities. "You can't win it if you're not in it, and two copies of the DVD are now on their way to Universal Studios in California."
