Toronto, ON May 14, 2008 - There is an old axiom in the movie business which says "Never use your own money to make a movie."

It’s a rule that filmmaker Wilson Coneybeare knows -- but clearly hasn’t followed. "Sometimes you just have to say ‘I have a dream’, roll the dice and risk. Maybe that makes me a throwback to another era, it could bankrupt me, but my son wasn’t getting any younger and this is a story I absolutely needed to tell."

Traditionally when filmmakers talk about the "story they need to tell", it’s something so offbeat or abstruse that no traditional studio or backers want to come near it.

In Coneybeare’s case, it couldn’t be further from the truth.

"Gooby" is a $6,500,000 family film about an eleven year old boy (Matthew Knight, The Grudge), whose childhood stuffed animal comes to life in the form of a craggy six foot trouble-making monster named Gooby (Robbie Coltrane, Harry Potter movies). Mayhem and comedic chaos ensue as monster teaches boy how to have fun, but the advance says that the film packs a hefty emotional wallop on the subject of fathers and sons. Head of World Sales for Porchlight Entertainment, Ken DuBow, says, "If you aren’t crying at the end of this movie, there’s something wrong with you."

Coneybeare seems pleased with the buzz the film is causing, but that son who wasn’t getting any younger is his main focus.

"I wrote the script when my son was seven. I wanted to tell him a story that would help him get through a lot of the fears he had about the world around him. And I figured, everyone likes family movies – how hard could it be to get made?"

Five years later, Coneybeare was still unable to get the film off the ground. It wasn’t just that his only writing and directing credits were in television ("I know nothing about feature films," he says quite openly), it’s that he couldn’t find distributors or investors who believed that family films could be profitable outside of the studio model. "To my amazement, I discovered that most of the people I talked to believed that unless it’s Disney or Dreamworks or one of the other majors, there’s no way to get a family film to the audience." Even government doors were closed to Coneybeare, a Canadian.

By now the son for whom the project was written was edging up to age 12. "I decided that if I didn’t make this movie soon, he’d be too cool to get any fun out of it. And I wanted to say something to him about fathers and sons." So last spring Coneybeare made the rash decision to raise the money through his television production company and thus put himself on the hook for the film’s budget.

"Suddenly the movie became a ‘little engine that could’," says Coneybeare. "I had the ideal cast in my head and amazingly, everyone we sent the script to said yes."

The first catch was Robbie Coltrane, who was to voice the title character. "I figured with all those Harry Potter movies to his credit, Robbie Coltrane was not going to be interested in another family movie." To Coneybeare’s amazement, however, Coltrane read the script and committed right away. "Then we needed our immediately identifiable bad guy, someone who could bring our antagonist character to life with mischief and charm. I thought Eugene Levy was a long shot, but he also committed right away." Landing David James Elliott as the dad in the film was an even more surprising coup. "There isn’t a person in the world who hasn’t seen JAG," Coneybeare says. "I think it’s even syndicated on the moon." Elliott read the script on his computer and within three hours the deal was done. "A Hollywood record, I think," says Coneybeare.

And the title character? How does one do a 6 foot orange monster on a limited budget? "Actually, it wasn’t a budget question," says Coneybeare. "It was an artistic approach. Originally, the character of Gooby was to be 100% CGI. But I just didn’t see how our young star was going to be able to hug and love a CGI creation. We did a whole bunch of tests and finally decided to go entirely retro and basically make Gooby a massive puppet." The decision created its own set of technical challenges, but fit within the film’s retro approach.

"I think the reason a lot of people didn’t want to do the movie in the beginning is because it was so simple. I really am trying to make an old-fashioned family comedy along the lines of "Harvey." Whimsical, but touching. The message I was getting back is that the world doesn’t want to do a "Harvey" today – they want something with more edge, that kids want hip, cynical, and that there has to be strain of adult humor throughout this kind of movie. I don’t know if that’s true. I hope it isn’t. Not just for the sake of my movie, but because I’d hate to think that movies like "Harvey" or even "Lassie" – movies that still retain a touch of innocence – are gone forever."

It may be at Cannes that Coneybeare discovers whether his gamble has paid off economically. "Basically I have my career riding on this thing," he says. "But, as Gooby tells the boy in the movie, ‘sometimes you just have to let it rip.’" As for the 12 year old boy who inspired all this? "My son saw a rough cut and laughed and laughed," says Coneybeare, "but he hasn’t seen the finished film. When I get back from Cannes, he’ll see it on the big screen. That will make the whole thing worthwhile."

 

Coneybeare Stories Announces Start of Production on
NEW Family Entertainment Feature "Gooby"
-Featuring Robbie Coltrane and Eugene Levy-

Toronto, ON (October 15, 2007) - Wilson Coneybeare, President of Coneybeare Stories Inc. (Monster Warriors, Time Blazers) announced today that principal photography on its new, live-action family entertainment feature, Gooby, is set to commence October 15th in Barrie, Ontario.

Filmed with a blend of live action and CGI, Gooby will feature the talents of Robbie Coltrane (Harry Potter films, James Bond films, Cracker) as the voice of Gooby, Matthew Knight as the lonely, young boy, Willy, Eugene Levy (Bringing Down the House, American Pie, Best in Show, Ghostbusters) as Willy's eccentric teacher, Mr. Fish and David James Elliott as Willy's dad, Jack Dandridge. Gooby will receive worldwide distribution through Porchlight Entertainment's Condor Releasing division and Canadian distribution through Seville Pictures.

Gooby, is the story of a boy named Willy and his beloved stuffed-toy monster, Gooby. When Willy moves into a new neighborhood and feels lost and alone, Gooby comes to life as a loveable 6-foot tall scraggly orange furry creature. Through their fun and often hair-raising experiences their friendship grows as Gooby teaches Willy the essentials of life. But life with Gooby is not all fun and games and when a fight between Willy and Gooby erupts and Willy's dad comes to the rescue there is a revelation that surprises everyone. An endearing tale for the entire family to enjoy, Gooby was written by Wilson Coneybeare, who will also produce and direct the feature.

"After five years of writing, planning and pulling together all the production elements, I'm thrilled to see this project come to life," said Coneybeare. "As with all of our projects, this film is privately financed and independently produced. The icing on the cake is to have both Seville Pictures and PorchLight Entertainment as our distribution partners."

"Gooby is where Harvey meets Harry and the Hendersons," said Ken DuBow, President of PorchLight Entertainment's Condor Releasing Division. "Not only is it an engaging and entertaining film for children, it will also amuse and perhaps enlighten parents and audiences of all ages."

Gooby, shooting on location in Barrie from October 15 until December 1 will be ready for delivery in Summer 2008.