Glastonbury: Isle of Light Media Kit

“The Glastonbury script will have a grand effect on screen. An original and engaging chronicle

and a very promising idea and concept.”- Chris Morley, sCript AnAlyst-Jerry BruCkheiMer FilMs

ISLE OF LIGHTGLASTONBURY

w w w . g l A s t o n B u r y F i l M . C o M

Script treatment

While a minor character in the biblical records, Joseph of Arimathea achieves superstar statusin the later medieval legends. Considered the origi-nal keeper of the Holy Grail and the ancestor of King Arthur and Sir Lancelot, no biblical figure

other than Christ equaled the amount of popular press given to Joseph of Arimathea during the Middle Ages. Through the high-spirited trials of Joseph and Caractacus, Glastonbury, as Avalon, becomes a famous sanctuary of magic and legend rightfully earning its title from William Blake as England’s “Je-rusalem”.

GLASTONBURY: ISLE OF LIGHT is an epic tale of great conflict both within the human spirit and on the physical battlefield. A first-of-its-kind based on the authentic legends of Joseph of Arimathea and Prince Caractacus, GLASTONBURY is a unique narrative centering around the ancient inland island that once existed in southwest Britain. As Joseph returns to Britain he is reunited with the ancient Celtic kings and together they set

GLASTONBURY ISLE OF LIGHT

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“Great breadth to the story. It really was a pleasure to read which is often not the case!”

-Robin GuRland, StaR WaRS CaStinG diReCtoR

©2010 Galatia Films, LLC -www.galatiafilms.com -ph. 864.650.7103 -fx. 854.654.8122

out to rediscover the hidden island in the hopes of un-locking the power toredeem their nation. Both history and tradition teach that within the first century, Joseph of Arimathea along with twelve companions, journeyed to the most far-flung corner of the Roman Empire: the Island of Britain. It was said Joseph achieved wealth in the tin and iron trade within the mining districts of Cornwall and Somerset. As an unlikely character to cast as the founder of the Christian church in England, Joseph became one of the centerpieces of Medieval literature and Arthurian legend. While little is written about Joseph within biblical accounts, he was certainly a popular figure in both apoc-ryphal writings and in numerous medieval Arthurian epics, including Mallory’s “Le Morte D’Arthur”, and Robert de Boron’s “Joseph d’Arimathie”.

Early on, following imprisonment for “acts of sedition”, Jo-seph is taught the mysteries of the Grail by St. Peter, and so initially, Joseph’s mission is to protect the fabled Chal-ice. With Rome’s coming persecution and the Sanhedrin’s present antagonism, Joseph begins his quest by narrowly escaping to the safe shores of Britain. During this journey he doubts his ability to successfully complete his mission, feeling remorse for not fully committing to the message of the Way. Over time he begins to realize his mission is far greater than simply protecting the Holy Grail.

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“I think Glastonbury is a very praiseworthy production, and if I might add very professionally created.”

- RiChaRd bRay, CinematoGRapheR, bbC

Soon he is introduced to the rebel leader Caractacus who appreciates his fondness for British independence but is skeptical of his new teach-ings. Caractcus became the king of the Catuvellauni during the Roman invasion in AD 43. He emerges from historical accounts as one of the few early Celtic Britons with a distinct personality. He and his brother, Guilderius, were said to be sons of the British king, Cunobelinus. After the king’s death, they become the leaders of the anti-Roman cam-paign.

Over time Caractacus begins to learn from Joseph that the war for liberty is equally waged within the hearts and minds of the people. Unfortunately many, including one of Caractacus’ own brothers, Adminius, accept Roman rule in return for great wealth and power. As the war ensues, Caractacus’ father, older brother and uncle all die fighting Roman expansion leaving both he and Joseph alone to com-bat an army of legions.

HiStory and Legend“ In books lies the soul of the past time; the articulate audible voice of the past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream... All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been; it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of Books. They are the chosen possession of men.” -thomaS CaRlyle

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“Glastonbury’s subject material is definitely original considering no other major studio has tackled this realm of human history in a feature film before, and this in turn bodes well for the international market because of the reach/accessibility of its core story.”- hollyWood ReadeR

As an original epic, the fascinating events upon which Glastonbury is based surprisingly have not been made into a feature length film. While working with BBC cinematographer Richard Bray to produce a long overdue documentary on the early history of Glastonbury, writer/producer Daniel McNicoll (Reclaiming the Blade) was inspired to write a narrative screenplay on the same history and time period. This story follows the historical character Joseph of Arimathea and his companions as they flee a hostile Jerusalem only to find themselves on the other side of the globe facing a more extreme enemy. Upon their arrival in Britain, which is on the edge of war with Rome, they implore the help of the warrior-prince Caractacus in an effort to de-fend their sacred customs and ancient ways. Amidst the ensuing battle, fought to guarantee the freedoms of the Celtic tribes, Joseph and Car-actacus must face the harsh realities of both betrayal and defeat, as Caractacus’ final fate seems to fall into the hands of the brutal Emperor.

“The script does well to show how Joseph gradually finds his faith, great internal conflict.”-oxyGen netWoRk

Glastonbury has been called the Bethlehem of Britain and is the actual burial ground of numerous kings and saints. The Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset England, tra-ditionally the oldest above ground Christian church in the world, sees visitors from over seventy countries (con’t next page)

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“A bold and massive work, a script of beauty, action, passion and very intricate character connections; a great story -

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(con’t from History and Legend)

each year. It has become a most sacred place due to the rich his-tory that surrounds it. Historians regard the Battle of the Medway between the Romans and the Celts led by Caractacus in AD 43 as the second most decisive event in Brit-ish history. It is clearly one of the most significant battles ever fought on British soil. Despite this, its achievement and romance remain least known in Britain’s colorful history.

Decades of research have gone into the writing GLASTONBURY, with the development team devot-ing many years to the study of first century historical records of Britain. From classical historians including Herodotus and Josephus, the birth of Glastonbury presents a tale that would give inspiration to any great fantasy writer. Copies of the script are available to industry professionals.

- of freedom. Good, epochal cinema here. The characters breathe, live and give meaning to this wonderful, exciting story which I never

knew!” - peteR belSito, Film FindeRS, imdb

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epic environment

Some historical epics, if they are great enough stories, bounce back into our lives and into cinemas every forty years or so. From

Cleopatra to the Alamo, some legends of history never seem to leave us. However, in an age where it seems new ideas are scarce, people are often looking for fresh and perhaps even familiar stories that they have not yet witnessed on the silver-screen. In an effort to keep up with audience imagination, studios are actively seeking forgotten yet significant tales of history, which ultimately translate into prime Hol-lywood ‘real estate’. From this perspective, GLASTONBURY: ISLE OF LIGHT is a magnificent discovery.

“Strong target audience. The historical nature of the story transcends re-ligion… it presents a lush and intriguing idea to build a story around.”- JaCkie inGleS – yale univeRSity, Film Study CenteR

Vast amounts of historical writings, poems, and even music exist that are based upon the legends of Glastonbury. One of many examples is England’s most cherished patriotic poem turned anthem, William Blake’s, “Jerusalem”. Truly Glastonbury has inspired some of the highest forms of art, but within all this, the cinematic experience of Glastonbury has yet to be explored.

Variety magazine acknowledges that the studios “will continue to mine history in hopes of finding a blast from the past”. The legends of Glastonbury have gone unnoticed long enough. The developers of this project are ecstatic to have found an untapped story of such adventure and profound historical significance.

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partiaL BiBLiograpHyStory based on historical records between AD 36 to AD 50

The History of England, RossChronicles of William of MalmesburyThe History of Gaul, GuizotChronicles of Geoffrey of MonmouthJoseph of Arimathea, SkeatsThe History of the Jews, MilmanEngland’s Greater Churches, NicholsonThe Celtic LibraryTacitus: The Annals of Imperial RomeThe History of France, De WittEncyclopedia Judaica, 1971Bede’s Ecclesiastical HistorySt. Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury, LewisCeltic Christianity in Cornwall, TaylorConcilia, Sir Henry Spelman

ClaSSiCal ReFeRenCe WoRkSJosephus, Herodotus, Virgil, Martial, Tacitus, Juvenal, Caesar.

Language eLementThere is a very strong Welsh language element within the film. While the main dialog of GLASTONBURY will be in English, some prose will be delivered in ancient Welsh. It will be the first movie of its kind to include spoken ancient Welsh, or to be more technical, Brythonic, thelanguage that would eventually evolve into modern day Welsh. Project ambitions will be to revive interest in a dying yet very beauti-ful language and to help preserve the cherished language of many writers and admirers of its culture. From one of the earliest Welsh language writers, Maelgwyn of Llandaff, who recorded the burial of

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Joseph of Arimathea, to J.R.R. Tolkein, who was inspired by the phonetics of the language, GLASTONBURY will deliver an insightful look at this romantic lan-guage reminiscent of a bygone age. Support from the film will go to the Welsh Language Board, which endeavors to keep the modern language of Welsh alive.

“The main character, Caractacus, has great internal as well as ex-ternal battles, and that’s the best part! There’s an abundance of rich material to be found here, indeed this is a sweeping epic. The words spoken by all the characters create a certain kind of poetry.”- baSeline StudioSyStemS

“I am very excited to hear of your efforts toward the preservation of the Welsh language through Glastonbury”

- david Salo, tolkien linGuiSt

tHe teamGalatia FilmS, llCBased on the East Coast, Galatia Films includes writers, producers, and technical people that have worked for various Hollywood studios and TV production companies including War-ner Bros., the BBC, the History Channel, ESPN,

Sony, Disney and ABC. Galatia Films’ scope includes both history and fantasy, bringing legends from the past vividly into the forefront of au-dience imaginations. Galatia’s team includes acclaimed writers and a top-notch creative group that is capable of all aspects of production. The company’s commercial clients include, BMW, International Paper and Clemson University.

david miCkey evanS - WRiteR/diReCtoR, dGaAn established director, Evans wrote and co-di-rected the classic film Radio Flier for Columbia Pictures staring Elijah Wood and Adam Bald-win. The following year he went on to write and direct The Sandlot. Cherished by audiences

and critics alike, Sandlot was produced by 20th Century Fox staring Dennis Leary and James Earl Jones. Recently David directed The Final Season for Yari Film Group staring Sean Astin, Larry Miller, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Michael Angarano. A director with a keen eye and vision, Evans’ catalog i cludes films for Universal, Sony, and Disney.

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ned doWd - pRoduCeR, pGaHollywood producer, Dowd possesses a great deal of experience in every aspect and stage of film production. He has held the role of produc-er, executive producer, line producer on some of the biggest epic period-films over the last three decades including, Last of the

Mohicans, Count of Monte Cristo, Apocalypto, Reign of Fire, King Arthur, 13th Warrior and Veronica Guerin. Working out of Ardmore Studios in Ireland but available for worldwide production, Ned Dowd is conveniently located near a few famous Irish actors, such as Peter O’Toole, who are interested taking roles in the epic feature.

RiChaRd tayloR - Fx, Weta WoRkShopDrawing on more than 20 years of filmmak-ing experience, five-time Oscar-winning Design and Effects Supervisor Richard Taylor has been intimately involved in the Glastonbury projects from concept through to delivery. Richard is the creator and Director of the film prop and special effects company, Weta Workshop.

Founded in 1987 by Taylor and his partner, Tania Rodger, Weta Workshop has produced physical effects for Lord of the Rings, Avatar, Chronicles of Narnia, King Kong and The Legend of Zorro.

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daniel mCniColl - WRiteR/pRoduCeRDaniel’s first film Reclaiming the Blade (#1 Doc-umentary on iTunes) featured Viggo Mortensen (Lord of the Rings) Karl Urban (Star Trek) Bob Anderson (Star Wars), John How (Narnia), Richard Taylor (X-Men) and John Rhys-Davies (Indian Jones). As a screenwriter the LA based

ScriptShark has described his writing as both “original and engaging with strong market value”. Current projects include a film on the Keysi Fighting Method (KFM) as seen in the films Batman Begins and Dark Knight with Liam Neeson and Christian Bale. He is the founder and president of Galatia Films, LLC and a sales rep to Apple iTunes.

miChael C. donaldSon, eSQFor more than thirty years, Michael Donaldson has been an entertainment lawyer. Previously, he was president of the International Documen-tary Association (IDA) and is currently general counsel to the Independent Feature Project/West (IFP/W) and Writers Guilds of America/

West Foundation. He is the author of several best selling books includ-ing Negotiating for Dummies and Clearance & Copyright.


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CaRl amaRi - FalCon piCtuRe GRoupCurrent CEO of the The Falcon Pictures Group, Carl is the producer of the #1 audio Bible: Word of Promise, staring Sean Astin, Richard Dreyfuss. Christopher Lee, Jim Caviezel and many others. The world’s leading licensor and distributor of radio programs, Carl produced

the award-winning nationally syndicated radio show Radio Movie Classics (host Jeffrey Lyons) and served as Executive Producer of Leonard Maltin’s Video Views and Walter Cronkite’s 20th Century. His cinematic audio Bible features 600 actors, including some of the biggest names in Hollywood. It won the highest Evangelical award, “The Christian Book of the Year”. A few top actors joining him on his next cinematic Catholic audio bible include John Cusack, Stacy Ke-ach, Malcolm McDowell and Michael York.

John hoWe - ConCeptual deSiGnJohn was a lead artist for Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and illustrated for books such as Beowulf and Robin Hood. He also contributed to the film adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis. Other notable work includes his story-board development and design for Jackson’s

King Kong and Del Toro’s The Hobbit due 2011.

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Randall FReeman - SaleS aGentVice President of Victory Multimedia, Randall has worked in the film distribution business for 20 years with current associates and clients at Warner Bros, MGM, Paramount, Sony and Fox. Victory Multimedia is a private entertain-ment company established to promote and

distribute top films, they are located in Inglewood, CA and were established in 1988.

Sydney levine - pRoduCeR’S RepSydney has over 29 years experience in the en-tertainment industry. Before creating FilmFind-ers, she served as Vice President of Acquisi-tions for Republic Pictures and previously spent three years acquiring feature films for Lorimar. Co-founder of FilmFinders, Sydney has also

worked in international distribution for Twentieth Century Fox and marketing for ABC. FilmFinders was founded to act as a back office for acquisitions executives in both distribution and sales. In 2006 she sold the company being acquired by IMDb in 2008 where she inte-grated FilmFinders into IMDbPro.


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Robin GuRland - CaStinG aGentBeginning her film casting career working with Francis Ford Coppola, Robin worked as a local casting director on over a dozen features in-cluding The Joy Luck Club. Her first feature as Casting Director was on James and The Giant Peach. In 1995, Gurland was hired by George

Lucas as Casting Director for his latest installments to the Star Wars series. Gurland worked for George Lucas until 2000 assembling an international cast of actors from Los Angeles to New Zealand. While at Lucasfilm, she also worked on special projects for Lucasfilm and ILM. Gurland continued as an independent Casting Director with Bee Season starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche for Fox Searchlight and has been very busy ever since.

kent SpaRlinG - SkyWalkeR SoundAs a visual and recording artist living in North-ern California, Kent works in the world of mo-tion pictures at Skywalker Sound. Most notable films include Lost in Translation, Titanic, and Star Wars Episode I and II.

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peteR belSito - pRoduCeR’S RepAfter receiving his masters in film from UCLA, Peter Belsito worked professionally as a cin-ematographer and has helped produce a wide variety of feature films. He was a founding member of the Independent Feature Project (IFP) in New York City in 1981 and opened the

IFP office in Los Angeles. In 1988 Peter assisted Sydney Levine in the founding of Film Finders, a blue chip film acquisitions tracking, consulting, and publishing firm. Peter’s client list includes the William Morris Talent Agency, Warner Bros., and Disney. Film Finders has recently merged with Withoutabox and IMDb.

maRk Cole, eSQMark is a business lawyer and serves as Vice President and General Counsel to U.S. Devel-opment Group LLC. An active political leader, he has been involved in numerous political cam-paigns and has served as a director of several

non-profit organizations. He has earned degrees from Baylor, Yale Divinity School, Notre Dame Law School and the University of Hous-ton Law Center.

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John RhyS-davieS - pRoduCeRA Welsh actor and vocal artist, John is perhaps best known for playing the charismatic excava-tor Sallah in the Indiana Jones films and Gimli from The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which he also voiced Treebeard. He also played Agent Michael Malone in the 1993 remake of the

1950s television series The Untouchables, as well as portraying Pro-fessor Maximillian Arturo in Sliders, General Leonid Pushkin in the James Bond film The Living Daylights, and Macro in I, Claudius. Addi-tionally, he provided the voices of Cassim in Disney’s Aladdin and the King of Thieves.

eRiCa blaCk - pRoduCeRErica Black completed her BFA in Film Produc-tion at the University of Colorado, Boulder. After receiving a Masters in Graphic Commu-nications from Clemson University, she taught photography for the same institution. Currently Erica is spearheading development at Galatia

Films, LLC. She has experience working in nearly all aspects of both live theater and film. She has worked in production for both Warner Bros. and Morgan Creek Productions.

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more QuoteS and reviewS

“The dialogue and settings are rich and well thought out… no doubt about it, dialogue is a standout element”-oRiGinal FilmS

“I would LOVE to work on Glastonbury! This is really a sweeping and mystical historical epic.”-kent SpaRlinG, SkyWalkeR Sound, luCaS Film ltd.

“I really liked the script and want to work on this. I think it has the bones of a great production and I really enjoyed reading it.”-John hoWe, ConCeptual deSiGneR, loRd oF the RinGS

“Certainly wets the appetite… a milieu and an environment that is most intriguing.”-miChael donaldSon, inteRnational doCumentaRy aSSoCiation, pReSident

“An AMAZING script! I would be honored to be a part of this project.”-John RhyS-davieS, aCtoR

“The fact that one of Caractacus’ brother kills their uncle and accepts Roman rule is amazing in terms of its stakes, not only for their family but also for their whole country. The stakes don’t get much higher than that. Stakes is one of the key elements in any script but in a historical epic, they are super paramount. The stakes are so high for everyone in this script”-SCRipt ShaRk

“Our congratulations to you for your Glastonbury project. We are very interested in exploring this further. It’s a wonderful thing and we look forward to it.”RiChaRd tayloR, Weta WoRkShop

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gr A p h i C De s i g n By Du s t i n Cr ow t h e r ∙ D C r ow t h@g M x .C o M

Glastonbury: Isle of Light Media Kit

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