I read the manuscript, which was laden with details.  Ricardo (“Lalo” as he is affectionately known and as he will be referred to in our blogs from here on out) has an encyclopedic mind, recalling details about dates and events in an uncanny fashion.

When next we met, we discussed tackling the development of a screenplay in a way that would tell a very honest and human story.  We knew that we couldn’t tell a story that robbed Lalo’s character of all humanity, making him so noble and kind so as to not have any frailties.  When I asked Lalo what his defects were, he raised his eyes toward Heaven, lost in thought…. Until, that is, Nidia piped up with a witty retort, “Oh no, Diana, Lalo is perfect!”

A few moments later, Lalo, who had managed to come up with a modest list of personal defects, inquired whether I was a writer and stated that he wanted me to tackle writing the screenplay.  I gladly accepted the offer, we quickly struck a deal, and then we scheduled a number of meetings in order for me to interview him at length.  In fact, for the next few weeks, we spent close to 25 hours discussing his life, his family, his dreams, and his life-long journey to becoming a doctor.

I spent an additional 25 hours or so transcribing the tapes and then a couple of weeks organizing all of the information, including annotations from the manuscript of Lalo’s memoirs.   Eight weeks later, I submitted a 70+-page step outline for the script, which broke down the plot scene-by-scene, and then I spent another 4 weeks writing the first draft after that.

After Lalo read the first draft, he called and asked for a meeting to discuss the project.  He sounded so serious that I was instantly concerned that somehow I had completely missed the mark in relating his life story.  As our camaraderie had grown, I had forgotten how intense Lalo can be when he is concerned or deep in thought.  With trepidation, I drove out to his home for our next meeting.

Lalo sat in front of me with what appeared to be a scowl on his face.  And when he finally spoke, he said he had some comments about the screenplay, which were these: I had used a couple of medical terms incorrectly, and I had reversed the order of a couple of incidents in his life.  That was it!  That was the extent of his feedback.  Otherwise, he was very happy with the script and felt that it not only captured his life but also conveyed his essence.  I told him and his wife, Nidia, that I would continue rewriting the script, as the best kind of storytelling, in my opinion, is found in the rewriting process.

For the next few months, I rewrote and polished the script several times, streamlining the storyline and delving deeper and deeper into the psychology of Lalo’s character.  I also focused on the emotional resonance of every moment in every scene, always asking myself how it all related back to the theme of the script and challenging myself to be more visual.

Gradually, I also began shifting my focus on producing the film.  In August of 2006, we traveled to El Salvador for a 5-day trip that ended up being a whirlwind of business meetings.  The press and most of the entrepreneurs with whom we met to discuss our production needs and the possibility of filming part of the movie in El Salvador, greeted us very warmly.

We also had a chance to visit Usulután, the small tropical city that is the birthplace of Lalo and his brothers, including Salvadoran President Tony Saca.  Their childhood home is now a shoe store located on a busy commercial street.  We were allowed to explore the premises and had to climb over a number of boxes to get to the steps that led to the rooftop, where Lalo and his brothers spent many hours playing.  Lalo was surprised and touched when he discovered that the tile floor in what was once his childhood bedroom remained intact 40+ years later.

For the rest of our time in El Salvador, we met with a number of the most successful businessmen, most of who offered to help us make the film.  Many of them, in fact, later provided us with seed money that allowed us to hire our casting director and our co-producer/Unit Production Manager.  We will always be grateful to them for their generosity.

It quickly became apparent to us that for the Salvadoran community, FLIGHTS OF FANCY is a project dear to its heart.  Our film is an opportunity to show another side of this beautiful and lush country and its hardworking, warm, and friendly people.

Toward the end of the trip, we spent an evening with President Saca and First Lady Ligia Saca, at their family home, meeting and greeting extended family members.  To our delight, we were served “pupusas,” one of my favorite delectables from El Salvador.  The night was capped off with a conversation with President Saca over the storyline of the script and our production plans.  President Saca was concerned about how we intended to depict El Salvador and asked whether or not we were going to address the civil war that ravaged the Central American country during the 80s—the period that is covered in the screenplay.  We assuaged his concerns by explaining that by the time of the civil unrest, Lalo was already living in the U.S.  Besides, it is not our intention to make this a political film but rather to relate a universal theme in the story of one man’s journey to fulfill his dreams.

It has been two years since we visited El Salvador, and in that time, the project has progressed by leaps and bounds.  I have continued rewriting and polishing the script (we are currently on draft 10, while working on the final polish with the director’s input), completed the casting process, locked in the director and the cinematographer, and are now completely focused on the raising of financing….

Next: The casting process and finding the right director.

My first impression upon meeting Ricardo was that he was intense and somewhat guarded.  I cannot blame him, as he was meeting a complete stranger to whom he was considering entrusting his life story.  However, within a few minutes and after some perfunctory introductions, I found myself sitting on his plush sofa in the living room, holding the manuscript of his memoirs, while he rushed around the house grunting under his breath as he passed me by that he was in the process of printing something.

A few moments later, he appeared with a copy of a screenplay titled, ILLEGAL CROSSING, which was an adaptation of the manuscript that sat on my lap.  Ricardo looked at me with curiosity and asked, “So, what do you think?”  Never mind that he had only now given me the screenplay and that I had been at his house for all of 10 minutes.  He wanted to know what I thought of the manuscript, and I considered quipping that the cover page looked very pretty, but I sensed that this was not the appropriate time for joking.

Ricardo’s wife, Nidia, arrived home, apologized for not having been there in time to greet me, scolded Ricardo for not having offered me anything to drink, rushed around the house for a few minutes, and then finally joined us.  Nidia is a very astute and often funny person, who is Ricardo’s Rock of Gibraltar.  While he may be king in his castle, there is no doubt that it’s the queen who runs the show.

Ricardo has a tendency to hold an intense scowl on his face when he is deep in thought, which can often be disconcerting, giving one the impression that he is dissatisfied with something one has said or done.  In reality, he is very open and affable and when one gets to know him, one realizes that he is as human as anyone else.

Which is how we progressed into a discussion of the potential for turning his life-story into a film.  Over dinner that included platanos fritos (fried plaintains), we talked about Ricardo’s close relationship with his younger brother, Tony, the current President of El Salvador.  Ricardo embodies the American Dream while President Saca embodies the Salvadoran Dream.  I very quickly became convinced that there was indeed a story to be told cinematically, but I wasn’t sure whose.  This was in March of 2006, and President Saca’s term had only recently begun.  Ricardo’s admiration for his younger brother’s success often pulled the focus of the story away from him, re-directing it toward Tony.

I considered the possibility that the film could be about the two brothers, but that eventually would prove not to be the best creative path to take.  Regardless, at the time, I had not yet read the manuscript or its screenplay adaptation, so this was an opportunity for us to simply get to know each other.

One amusing anecdote about that evening is that I wondered who had written the manuscript and the screenplay.  Ricardo told me that he had worked with a journalist on the manuscript of his memoirs.  However, when it came to the screenplay, he had had no connections to anyone in Hollywood, so he bought himself the book, Screenwriting for Dummies, and read through it.  Somewhere in this bible of screenwriting brilliance, there is mention of a ghostwriting service available to those who want to contract a screenwriter as a writer-for-hire and own the copyright of the work that is created.

Ricardo found himself a ghost screenwriter via this service, who adapted the finished manuscript into a screenplay.  The writer was paid an hourly rate or a rate per page–something like that–and a few weeks later, Ricardo was in possession of a finished script.

I like sharing this story not just because it shows Ricardo’s innocence about how screenplays are developed and written and how the film industry works–why would he know, he is a fantastic internist–but because it reflects how he thinks.  Ricardo is very methodical about breaking down tasks into all of their necessary steps and absolutely driven to complete each one of them, in order to achieve his goals.  This trait of his is precisely why his life story is so remarkably inspiring and engaging.  The fact is that he would not be a doctor today, if he were not completely determined to see all of his dreams to fruition.

Next up, the screenplay and the manuscript, oh my….