The Finer Things: Snow takes film honors with 'Lunker'

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Anyone who possesses the financial wherewithal and a great love for the Ozarks, please take notice of "Lunker."|ret||ret||tab|

That's the title of Woody P. Snow and Sandy Dillbeck's award-winning comedy screenplay, set in the middle of a bass fishing tournament on Table Rock Lake.|ret||ret||tab|

Snow, longtime KGBX morning radio host, and Dillbeck, also a Springfieldian, were honored this spring at the 34th Annual Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival the same festival that's honored Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, Ang Lee and the Coen Brothers. This year more than 27,000 attended the event which, according to a news release, is the oldest and largest film festival in the United States.|ret||ret||tab|

Snow and Dillbeck received their award in April, competing with more than 4,300 entrants, including another former Springfieldian, Merlin Miller, whose film "Jericho" won the Judges Choice Platinum Award.|ret||ret||tab|

Snow hopes the award will attract someone who will produce "Lunker" in this locale. What better way to promote the Ozarks than to make the film right smack dab in the middle of lake country? |ret||ret||tab|

"The problem with dealing with Hollywood companies is that they will invariably tell the writer to make it edgier,' which is code language for adding more profanity or sex or blood," Snow said. "They are totally out of touch with the values of the people who live in what they call fly over' country." |ret||ret||tab|

"Lunker" is clean, Snow said, and a story families could see together. It has all the important elements bass fishing and the lake. John "Lunker" Johnson is getting to ready to be named the greatest bass fisherman of all time by the Guinness Book of World Records, and his nemesis wants to bring crime and gambling to Branson. The bad guy is a prime contender for the heart of Lunker's former girlfriend, and there's even a jewel heist.|ret||ret||tab|

Snow thinks Branson is perfect as a home for the film. "Seven million people a year go to Branson. There's a built-in audience." Snow calculated that if just 20 percent of the people who visited Branson in the last five years, and 20 percent of America's bass fishing enthusiasts go see the movie at seven bucks a head, that's $124 million. |ret||ret||tab|

"We don't really know much about the business end of the movie industry," Snow said. "But I know we've got an award-winning script. I know it's going to be beneficial to the whole southwest Missouri area I know it's just going to be the bee's knees."|ret||ret||tab|

Already the screenplay is in the hands of director Ron Howard and his Imagine production company and three other major production companies in California, Snow said. But he really hopes someone here will rise to the challenge so the control over the film will be here, too.|ret||ret||tab|

Snow looks to films like "Fields of Dreams," as an example of what "Lunker" could do for the Ozarks. That film increased tourism to Iowa where the baseball field is still maintained, he said. And then there was "Dances With Wolves" which did the same for America Indian lands in Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas.|ret||ret||tab|

Believe it or not some folks have never heard of the Ozarks or Branson, a revelation which surprised Snow when he was being interviewed after the award ceremony by a Houston television reporter to whom he had to explain the Ozarks phenomenon.|ret||ret||tab|

It appears there's a whole generation that was exposed only to "Beverly Hills 90210" and not "The Beverly Hillbil-lies," the 60s television show that brought fame and tourist dollars to the Ozarks. |ret||ret||tab|

It took Snow seven years to take the idea the brainchild of Car-Fi owner Rick Snelson and bring the character of "Lunker" to life, he said. With the aide of Dillbeck "who has as much knowledge about screenplay structure as anyone on the planet," according to Snow the play was finished and sent off to Houston. Snow forgot about it until he received a call that he and Dillbeck had won the award. "I was rude to him," recalls Snow. "I thought he was a telemarketer."|ret||ret||tab|

Dillbeck, whose own screenplay about Red Foley, "Peace in the Valley," which Snow helped her write, was honored last year at the Houston festival. She will be teaching screenplay writing at Southwest Missouri State University this fall. Snow said he couldn't have completed the project without her help about 85 percent was his and 15 percent was hers. For her winning screenplay, the numbers were turned around, he said.|ret||ret||tab|

"When you're so close to a project even though you've written the whole story, fully developed all the characters, there are things that you miss or don't see. That's why you get someone else. They'd go, That person wouldn't do that. Wouldn't it be more likely they would do this?' And you say, Why didn't I think of that?'"|ret||ret||tab|

Snow has worked hard on his writing. A self-professed poet, he loves lyrical phrases and writes poetry all the time. "I was a published poet in the eighth grade." As a songwriter, he has the "Flying High Now" theme of the first "Rocky" movie to his credit. |ret||ret||tab|

"I generally work on the words first ... to paint a lyrical picture within three or four verses if I can do that skillfully, the music will pretty much show up on it's own." |ret||ret||tab|

He finished a novel last year, which he's turning into a screenplay "because it's so bad" as a novel, but a great story. He's also written short stories too.|ret||ret||tab|

He has gleaned writing advice from other authors and summarizes them this way: "Writing equals butt in chair. You can't get it done walking around thinking about it or planning to do it. You gotta sit down and face that page."|ret||ret||tab|

"Also, don't get it right, get it written. Do not worry about it. Do not censor yourself, just get through the thing. It doesn't matter how bad it is. Just get to the end. Then you have this pleasure the part I love the rewrite, when you get to go back and rediscover those characters and flesh them out."[[In-content Ad]]