Universal Insurance, Screenplay, Review And Interview

Universal Insurance was part of the 2019 Filmquest film festival (website) and chosen as one of the top 35.

Synopsis

When a rebel fleet is badly damaged in an enemy attack, a lowly insurance adjuster must embark on an intergalactic adventure to file paperwork and save the galaxy from the forces of evil.

Jack Lilburn, the writer, shares his inspiration for Universal Insurance and for becoming a filmmaker. He also shared about other things of interest to him along with telling us about other things he is working on.

What was the inspiration for Universal Insurance?

I graduated film school hoping to make a splash in an industry I had always dreamed being part of. Like many people, I found myself working low-paid, monotonous industry gigs just to keep my student loan interest at bay. 

At the same time, I've always wanted to write a space epic. However I've always found archetypal heroes inaccessible. I wanted to tell a sweeping sci-fi story from the POV of someone more like a regular person. Out of this, I was hit with the inspiration to write a cosmic adventure from the POV of a working stiff with one of the worst jobs in the galaxy: a spacecraft insurance adjuster.

What project(s) do you have coming up you're excited about?

My next script is called MIDDLEFINGER, about a fictional, brutish, working class, knight for hire, who invented giving people the world's most famous obscene gesture. He gets hired by a band of masons to go to war with a corrupt Lord who's enslaved his workers to build the biggest castle in Europe. Think YOJIMBO meets the EQUALIZER - set in the 12th century. It's set almost exclusively to 90s East Coast hip hop. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

What was your early inspiration for pursuing a career in film?

I spent most of my childhood making movies on a VHS camcorder with my friends. It was more or less the only thing I was good at and passionate about, so it seemed like either a great idea as a career - or that my life would serve as a warning to others.

What would be your dream project?

To write the final INDIANA JONES adventure and set it during the Vietnam era. It would by Indy's UNFORGIVEN.

What are some of your favorite pastimes when not working on a movie?

I love trail running with my dog and best buddy Sam (A.K.A. "Bark Twain",) reading anything Jack Handey ever wrote, going to the art house theater or multiplex and volunteering for good causes.

What is one of your favorite movies and why?

The original THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1,2,3. It's such a perfect distillation of everything good and bad about old, dirty New York. It's also hard not to love a movie where Robert Shaw plays a cold-blooded mercenary villain, and the only cop that can stop him is… Walter Matthau? Just perfect stuff.

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