JOE LYONS’ dramatic short script, “Salvaging,” won the 2010 IFP/Production Fund Grant out of “an unprecedented number of finalists,” said Production Fund co-chair Laurel Ward.
Lyons, a Local 476 lighting technician who has worked on major movies for A-list directors since 1999, will receive $100,000 in goods and services from local vendors to direct “Salvaging” next years.
Ward, a producer for Harold Ramis’ Ocean Pictures, also declared Lyons’s script was “one of the best portrayals of a certain kind of Chicago life.” She announced the award at IFP’s Dec. 17 holiday party.
Lyons said the script is based on a personal story from his childhood, when he and his stepfather forged a relationship while dealing with an old car. “I’ve been writing for 20 years, all shorts, and co-wrote two features,” he said.
He plans to start work on “Salvaging” next summer and said he will pursue some grants or other means of raising the additional $10-$20,000 needed to complete the film.
Lyons worked as a P.A. in 1995 and joined 476 in 1998. His first movie was 1999’s “Love and Action in Chicago.” Since then he has worked on 18 major studio movies, including three directed by Clint Eastwood, Harold Ramis’ “Ice Harvest” and “Year One” and Sam Mendes’ “Road to Perdition.”
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