Lucy Mills
Writer of I'll See You Next Year nominated for 2022/23 Edition
Lucy Mills is a British born writer working in poetry, prose and scripts. Her background is in filmmaking which she still enjoys doing. Lucy has multiple chronic illnesses; this just means she has more time to watch films, read books, and write stories with her two cats.What is your project about?
I'll See You Next Year is about a group of eccentric millionaires (Eddy, Linda, Julian, Lillian and Susan) and staff (Jack and Ona) celebrating Christmas in 1928 when an uninvited guest (Stephen) turns up; the man they thought they killed last year. Snowed in, there is nothing else to do but wait for the authorities to come. Through a series of comedic mishaps, they can't tell if Stephen is, in fact, dead or not. With the authorities arriving, who turns out to be Arthur Conan Doyle, they try to get to the bottom of their uninvited guest or ghost. Will they see him next year
What are your ambitions with your project?
My ambitions are to make people laugh and enjoy themself whilst reading the script or, hopefully, whilst watching it. Comedy never wins the oscar but is worth a lot more.
Tell us something about your shooting. What pleasantly surprised you?
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed writing the script and being with the characters. I love each of them a lot but especially Linda and Lillian. They are both very freeing to write in different ways. Linda finds life fun and Lillian oozing confidence.
Why should distributors buy your film?
Murder mystery is and always has been a popular genre. Mine has a great twist to it in that the murder has already happened but you don't know if the victim is dead or not. Agatha Christie is still as popular as ever and there is a market for period murder mysteries. They are loved by all ages, plus mine is set at Christmas giving it a great selling opportunity. Ever since the pandemic people just want to laugh so a Christmas murder mystery period comedy is just what the doctor ordered.
Which topics interest you the most?
I, myself, am disabled and so representation of disability is incredibly important to me. Representation is really lacking in film. Actors win awards for pretending to be disabled and hailed as brave and brilliant for it when it's actually disrespectful. Actors with disabilities don't get roles that able bodied actors play. Characters with disabilities are being taken away from actors with disabilities. What it really comes down to is the roles aren't being written for actors with disabilities so it has to change at the start to be seen on the screen.