Thanks guys. It really is a ridiculous opportunity.. and I'm glad I didn't faceplant.
Iceman, that was great
How long did it take for you to produce the short?
How did you get this opportunity?
Good work man.
From the moment I got involved, December 6th, it took another month and a half to get all the individual pieces done and the final film edited. We had a hard deadline of January 26th to reveal it.
I wrote the first draft in one day, then revised it over the next three days after the other three story/game creators chimed in. Then we handed it over to Paul Rudd to look over and make any changes. He said it was good and that he was going to add some of his own jokes (I will forever treasure that email). All we had left was to tinker with the dialogue for Keanu's voice over work (which was recorded before Paul's part was filmed). We were working through the evening the day before his recording (on the 7th of January).
My friend, Spyridon Michalakis (Spiros) is a quantum mechanics researcher at Caltech and in charge of outreach. I had met him through volleyball though (He's quite great at it, by the way). We're both really competitive, intense and cerebral so we just clicked.
Anyway, Spiros had consulted on Ant-Man with Paul Rudd (who co-wrote the blockbuster) and they hit it off. Over the last year Spiros had been developing this quantum chess game with a USC grad student, Chris Cantwell, and Spiros, excited by its prospects, somehow got Paul on board to help promote it. Spiros already had an ongoing conversation with Stephen Hawking - who frequently visits Caltech. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter were suggested and by Ed Solomon - the godfather of this whole operation (the writer of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, etc.).
Spiros had created a narrative for Paul Rudd but it soon got to the point were a screenplay was required to go any further. That's how I got involved. I have been training to be a screenwriter for some years now. Once I handed over my version (and that's a whole story in an of itself) then it was a race against time to pull together something virtually impossible. It was a freaking fun and stressful and overwhelming and fulfilling and educational, and on and on and on, ride.