In Hollywood, writing is a lot like crime — it just doesn’t pay.
So no one is more astonished at James V. Simpson’s success than the Canadian scribe himself.
“It’s the kind of Hollywood story Hollywood sells — some kid gets plucked from obscurity and gets his movie made,” he marvels on the phone from his Vancouver home.
Yet these days the only work of fiction Simpson is discussing is Armored, the thriller he wrote three years ago that opens today. A heist movie about a group of guards who conspire to rob their own armoured truck, it stars Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, Jean Reno and Columbus Short. Impressive company for Simpson, who grew up in Stratford, Ont., where that city’s Shakespeare festival inspired him early on.
“As a kid, I’d get dragged to these theatre productions, which most kids hate. But as a theatre geek, I loved it and it imprinted on me. It made me want to tell stories.”
After high school, he and his wife, Joanne, moved to B.C., where he enrolled in the Vancouver Film School, which also counts Kevin Smith and District 9 director Neill Blomkamp among its alumni.
It would take another decade of “trial and error” before Simpson penned Armored, which would ultimately sell for “mid six figures.”
What got everyone so excited? A script he describes as “Panic Room on wheels.”
He came up with the concept while walking one of his dogs — he and his wife volunteer to foster and train guide dogs for B.C. Guide Dog Services — and noticed how people reacted a passing armoured car.
“There’s an inherent fascination because you know there’s money inside, but you don’t know how much and it’s a rolling danger zone because there are armed men inside.”
Although heavily researched, he cautions the film isn’t entirely factual since “no one wanted to make this a handbook for how to rob armoured cars.”
What it may be, though, is a handbook on how writers should persevere. “Never take no for an answer … And it’s not about having a perfect script, it’s about finding people who believe in it as much as you do,” he says, citing his manager, Dan Farah, who is also one of the movie’s producers.
As for what’s next, Simpson has multiple assignments in the works, although one thing that’s not in his future is a move to California. “We love Vancouver. Where else can you ski and surf in the same day?”
kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca
