Our recent silence here has not been because nothing’s happening —
but because there’s so MUCH happening we haven’t had time to tell you about it!
While not an actual part of our filmmaking process, we must acknowledge the recent historical landmark: April 13, 2024 was the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the train. A small ceremony was held at the Gedenkstein Farsleben, the memorial stone erected beside the railroad tracks in August 2022.
Here you see Rani Beeri, son of a survivor of the train, with the flowers he placed at the monument on the anniversary.
Next year will of course be the 80th anniversary and we will have the entire miniseries completed by then, so you can rest assured there will be a screening in Farsleben with as many of you (and us) as we can draw together. Put it on your calendar now!
Speaking of survivors of the train — since our last news update, we discovered — almost entirely by chance — Klara Benjamin-Belkin. At the time I write this Klara is 94, which means she was 15 when she was on the train. Today she is still sharp as the proverbial tack — she’s a world-class cellist, for one thing — and her memories of 1945 are vivid. So we not only made a new friend but her recollections are a priceless addition to our research.
In this 2013 photograph you can see Klara and her husband — along with two guys recognizable to most people reading this: liberators Carrol Walsh and Frank Towers.
You can see and hear Klara play a Bach piece on the cello, thanks to the USC Shoah Foundation, here.
Meanwhile the work on Episode 1 goes on, with endless editing tweaks and lots and lots of imaginative graphics being created. Currently we have some kind of Zoom meeting every day or so, with phone calls and text messages non-stop the rest of the time. There are so many details to work out, so many ideas to try — often try, abandon, and rethink. It is, as they say, a process…
Thanks to their visit to ITV offices in Los Angeles, two of our “Ohio guys” (Producer Chris Martin and Director Mike Edwards) could pay a visit to our man in Hollywood (Creative Consultant David Duncan) — and have a Zoom meeting with yours truly in North Carolina. So here’s a screenshot showing (L-R) David, Chris, and Mike — and on the other screen, me (Screenwriter Lee Shackleford).
We’re all staring at a third screen, where David is sharing some of his storyboard art for the episode’s opening sequence.
The script for the episode’s narration has been changing almost daily, so we are especially grateful for the patience of our immensely talented narrator, Christopher Kent.
And our brilliant composer Jim Papoulis is putting the finishing touches on our score, so that component will be in place very soon as well.
It’s all coming together…!
Yet another serendipity in this project: a German actor named Daniel Warland reached out to me via email with kind words and thoughts about my play Holmes & Watson –which he has translated into German! As our correspondence continued I realized I’d seen him in the gripping German miniseries Das Boot (from which this photo comes), in a role I found particularly touching. Since I knew his excellent acting abilities I asked him to help script, perform, and record some “offscreen dialogue,” namely the German soldiers in charge of the train, debating how to respond to conflicting orders. So now if you listen closely — and quickly — you’ll hear my new friend Daniel. The scope of the production continues to grow!
We want to get a finished and polished cut of the latest version of Episode 1 finished as soon as possible — for a lot of reasons — but nothing motivates like a deadline, and our newest one is May 8th. Because the Governor of Ohio is hosting a premiere screening of Episode 1 in Columbus, Ohio on that day!
Governor DeWine has been a booster of this project from the beginning, partly because the film’s production is based in Columbus, and partly for personal reasons of his own.
The invitation you see here has gone out far and wide, and the last I heard we’ve received 400 RSVPs. So it may be quite a large audience for this! And with so many members of the production team already in Ohio, it’s relatively easy to arrange for us all to be there, even the ones coming from California and North Carolina.
So please come if you can, and look for me because there’s no way I’d miss this and I’d love to meet you in person!
It’s Passover as I write this, so I’ll close by wishing a kosher and joyous Pesach to all who observe. That is to say:
חג פסח שמח וכשר לכל בית ישראל
And we celebrate with you! As you might imagine, all of us Gentiles working on this film now have special love for stories of imprisoned Jews being liberated. Together we pray for peace and freedom for all the people of the world.