"I thought a story that showed how someone helped a great writer break through that barrier of isolation and re-enter the world would make a terrific story. It struck me that it would be even more interesting if the person who brings the writer out is someone young-a teenager, for example-who is also in some way gifted."    Screenwriter Mike Rich

Director Gus Van Sant was also intrigued by the relationship posed by Rich's script, and regarded Finding Forrester as a logical progression from and natural extension of his Oscar-winning 'Good Will Hunting'. Jamal finds a teacher in Forrester who not only instructs him in his work, continues Van Sant, "but also in life."

Mike Rich had faith in his completed screenplay and compelling storyline, but he wasn't sure how to get it produced. "I faced the typical roadblock for any first-time screenwriter, which is getting somebody to read what you've written. A friend in the business suggested that if 1 really believed in the script, 1 should enter it into a competition." Rich submitted Finding Forrester to the prestigious Don and Gee Nicholl writing competition that is sponsored each year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The only rule is that authors must never have sold a screenplay before. In 1998, the year of Rich's submission, there were an astonishing 4,500 entries. Forrester survived several cuts to emerge as one of the five finalists, with a prize of $25,000 attached.

The word was out in Hollywood about a terrific new screenplay, and everyone wanted to read it. Jonathan King, president of production for Laurence Mark Productions, obtained a copy of Rich's screenplay on a Friday night. He was so captivated by the drama between the two leading characters that, after he finished reading the script, he read it through a second time. Early Saturday morning he gave his copy to Laurence Mark, who was quickly taken with it and purchased the script.

The idea of playing a Pulitzer Prize~winning author held a lot of appeal for him Sean Connery, whose interest went beyond just playing the role. He did not only decided to star in the film, but  joined the team as a producer. "This is the kind of film 1 like: a contemporary drama that tells a constructive story about friendship," says Connery, who looked forward to playing a significant role in the further development of the screenplay along with Mark, Tollefson and Mike Rich.

"I thought writing the screenplay was the hard part. Little did 1 realise that my work was really just beginning," Rich says with a laugh. "I hadn't written the role with Sean Connery in mind. Now 1 had to further refine the character. The first thing to do was to fill in the Scottish background, but there were other aspects that Sean came up with that never occurred to me. We made him more reclusive, more eccentric, more compassionate. This is a guy who's ingratiating on one page and infuriating on the next, Rich says.

Connery wanted the secrets of the character's background and the conflicts he carries in his soul to remain unrevealed in the drama for as long as possible. And, as an actor renowned for playing powerful leading men-hardboiled heroes who beat the odds-he was intent on stressing Forrester's more vulnerable aspects. Yes, the character was tough, cranky, brilliant, hard-drinking, but he also had his fears."

Connery and the producers worked carefully with Rich on delineating these fears and on enriching Forrester's inner life so that his past, and his reasons for retiring from the world, were completely convincing.

"Sean's character notes were amazing," says Rich. "It was all in the details. For instance, it was Sean's idea to make Forrester a birdwatcher. Birdwatching is the reason he's always looking out his window at the world, and why the world below sees him looking and wonders why." Rich worked diligently and expeditiously from these notes and it wasn't long before a new draft of the screenplay was written that met everyone's approval.

Several elements of the screenplay appealed to director Gus Van Sant. "Films condense and expand time in the telling of a story. I liked the way Mike's script had accomplished that. It  communicated so much in a compressed period of time. Things go on that the audience doesn't necessarily see, but the story moves forward. The characters themselves were great. 1 felt the characters suggested the visuals."

Tagline: In an ordinary place, he found the one person to make his life extraordinary.

Concept: An uplifting story about the unusual dynamic between an isolated author and the confident teenager who changes his life.

Synopsis: He was a vibrant personality who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning classic novel four decades ago. And that's the last the world heard of William Forrester. That is until Jamal Wallace, a brash 16~year~old with writing aspirations of his own, cracks the veneer of Forrester's sheltered existence and re~ignites the dreams of this literary legend in the winter of his life. 

Because of scoring exceptionally high on a state wide standardised exam and being an exceptionally good basketball player Jamal Wallace is sent to a prestigious prep school in Manhattan. He soon befriends the reclusive writer, William Forester. Known as the neighbourhood recluse, silver-haired Forrester is a man whose mystery and eccentricity border on the mythical.

Forrester is Jamal's unlikely guide on his Journey into the strange, strait-laced academic community in which he must now prove himself as a writer. The friendship leads to William to overcome his reclusiveness and for Jamal to overcome the racial prejudices and pursue his true dream - writing.

Compelled to look past skin color and suppositions, Jamal encounters not only his first fan, but a mentor who will challenge and change him forever, and Forrester has his first reason in years to emerge from his self~imposed solitude. Family isn't always what you're born with-sometimes it's the people you find, Sometimes it's the people who find you.

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