Heidi McDonald – The Castle

We had the opportunity to interview Heidi McDonald, the screenwriter of The Castle, which is an official selection of the Utah Film Festival. 

Wouldn’t you love to see the epic war raging inside the mind of a teenage girl? This teenage girl’s world is high drama — inside and out. The Castle is a teen comedy-fantasy about a high school girl whose internal Arthurian-fantasy world mirrors her external battles with malicious rivals, pesky suitors, and her own worst enemy — herself.

What was the inspiration for coming up with The Castle?  

Not surprisingly, my inspiration was, well…life.  Specifically, my life when I was an awkward, dorky, hyper-imaginative and socially challenged teenager.  Wouldn’t it be great if it was as fun to live it, as it is to write about it in hindsight?

How long did it take you to write The Castle?

I’m not sure, actually.  Like a lot of writers, I have multiple projects going and switch back and forth among them, so I’m not sure how much time it took to write it.  Probably a couple of years.

What was the biggest challenge in writing The Castle?  

It’s always the third or fourth draft that’s the worst.  It’s when I’ve let the project sit for a while and then I come back to it with fresh eyes — and see with terrible clarity all of the major structural flaws and lazy dialogue.  And realize that even though I thought I was almost done and have put hundreds of hours into already, I’m about to embark on a major rewrite.  That’s the real test: if I’m willing to sit down and do it in spite of the feeling of dread, then I know that it’s a good project and is worth the effort.

What was your favorite scene to write?  

Oh, no question: the duel at the end between Reva and Chelsea.  It was a lot of fun and extremely rewarding to walk the line between fantasy and reality, between humor and truth.

What was your favorite character to create?  

Well, he’s probably the furthest from “real,” which may be a little bit of a cop-out, but Bernard the Wizard was a whole lot of fun to write.

How/When do you plan to make it into a film?  

Actually, I’m hoping to convince some very talented filmmaker to make it into a film.  Preferably soon.  That would be pretty cool.

What do you have next in the works?  

As I mentioned, I usually have several projects going at once.  I just completed an action/comedy screenplay called The Alchemy Effect.  It’s the story of what happens when the world’s unluckiest CIA agent crosses paths with the world’s unluckiest “supervillain,” and features some of my favorite people in the world: Canadians.

How can we learn more about you and your projects? 

I’m relatively new to Utah, but I’m hoping to become more involved in the film industry here.  So far, the people I’ve met have been very awesome, and I’m looking forward to getting to know people better!