Donovan's Echo

Following the success of his Comic-Con award-winning short film, Tomorrow's Memoir, co-writer/director Jim Cliffe began conceiving an idea for a feature-length screenplay, inspired by a moment of déjà vu. Taking a cue from co-writing teams such as husband and wife duo Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Jim enlisted the help of his writer girlfriend (now wife), Melodie Krieger, to flesh out what would become Donovan's Echo. From the beginning, the two imagined an older protagonist with a tragic past and a lifetime of regret, who was now experiencing a phenomenon he couldn't comprehend. Donovan's tragic background included the idea that he worked on the Manhattan Project as a theorist. "I thought it might be interesting to have a character with a set of tools to try and dissect what is happening around him."[1] explains Cliffe. "That was a pretty momentous moment in our history that hasn’t really been covered a lot in contemporary film."

In late 2007, the first draft of Donovan's Echo placed quarter-finalist in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. Out of 3000 international screenplays, the script also won the Bronze prize for Drama in the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards. While the script gained Hollywood interest, finding producers willing to take a chance on a first-time director proved challenging. Jim approached producer Trent Carlson, who he'd worked with before as an artist. Trent agreed to produce and brought on producers Andria Spring and Mary Anne Waterhouse to begin a phase of development and rewrites; refining the story and bringing it more to a production ready point.

Another boon to development was from a former co-worker and friend of Jim's, Lance Priebe, whom Cliffe had met in the late-’90s when they were both artists. Priebe had gone on to develop Club Penguin, a virtual game for children, that in 2007 was sold to Disney. "We both were let go from the same company at the same time. He wanted to create games, and I wanted to create films," explained Cliffe. Lance and his wife Kim came on board as executive producers and helped finance the film alongside Telefilm and other Canadian production sources, bringing in a modest budget of around $3M. "It magically came together. We were able to get all our financing and production done in Canada, as well as distribution with a company out of Toronto," said Cliffe.[2]

A casting agent put a list of names together for potential "Donovan's". One name in particular stood out to the filmmakers. That actor was Danny Glover, best known for his roles in The Color Purple and the Lethal Weapon film franchise . "We could so easily see him play into this world," said Cliffe,[2] who after hearing that Glover was attached, was soon able to cast Canadian born Bruce Greenwood. Along the way they also found the rest of their cast in Natasha Calis, Sonja Bennett, David Lewis, and Ian Tracey.

With casting in place, Donovan’s Echo went into production in late 2010. The tight 20-day shoot included multiple locations around Vancouver, Maple Ridge, Fort Langley and Pitt Meadows, British Columbia, Canada, with the bridge scene being shot near Harrison River. The shoot also included various time periods and stunts. With a background in illustration and animation, Cliffe storyboarded the movie as well as some pre-viz animatics. But as a first-time feature director, Cliffe soon realized that his shots and sequences were a little too ambitious for such a tight schedule. As a result, he condensed his vision to suit a smaller film.