SUNBURY -- Joe Thompson has known for almost 30 years what he wanted to be when he grew up.
As a 6-year-old, he was amazed -- you could say inspired -- when he watched the 1954 film "Creature from the Black Lagoon."
"My mom explained to me it was a man in a suit, and I've spent the rest of my life trying to figure out how they did that," said the now 34-year-old Thompson.
It took him almost 30 years to turn the dreams of a 6-year-old boy into reality, but it's clear that, for Thompson, the road has been worth it.
Years ago, while living in Montana, Thompson was assigned to write a short story for a high school class. While the rest of his classmates turned in 10-page papers, he wrote a 45-page story titled "Born of Earth," about ancient creatures that rise from the ground to kidnap children.
Thompson's teacher liked the story so much she offered to show it to a publisher friend, but Thompson left on a train headed for Sunbury the next day and nothing ever came of it.
For about 15 years, he worked as a tattoo artist. Thompson, who sports tattoos on his arms and neck, said he loved the work, "but I had something inside telling me, You're supposed to be doing something else.'"
After a while, he listened to the voice in the back of his head and, in 2000, sat down and started writing a screenplay for "Born of Earth."
Thompson, who has lived in Sunbury for 13 years now, had never written a script before and spent several years reading about the process, writing and fine-tuning the screenplay and then shopping it around to find a buyer.
Last year -- Aug. 8 to be exact, coincidentally Thompson's birthday -- he got an e-mail from an agency to which he had submitted "Born of Earth." He was playing guitar and hanging out with some friends when he read it.
They wanted to buy his script.
"My knees buckled," he said. "I printed it out and I ran around and showed all my friends. I still feel like a kid thinking about it."
The film began shooting in October 2007 and will be distributed in February 2009 by Anchor Bay Entertainment on the Starz channel and on pay-per-view.
Following the "Born of Earth" deal, Thompson formed his own production company -- Campfire Pictures -- with the goal of making films, commercials and music videos locally.
Though not a native of the area, Thompson believes Central Pennsylvania has plenty of potential as a destination for filmmakers.
"Just the backdrop, it's beautiful," he said. "(We) should take advantage of it. I just think the area needs something like this. ... It'll give people something to be excited about."
Thompson already has a short film, "Phobia," in the works under the Campfire Pictures banner, with a full-length feature titled "Goatman" to follow. He hopes to shoot much of "Goatman" -- based on a Washington, D.C. urban legend, akin to the Jersey Devil -- in the Susquehanna Valley.
The existence of a local production company, albeit a fledgling one, that pulls from local talent could give aspiring filmmakers and actors in the Valley an outlet for their creativity, he said.
Thompson spoke to a Horror Film Theory class at Susquehanna University last week and hopes to hold more speaking engagements at local colleges to get the word out about Campfire Pictures.
"Basically I want to tell them, Don't give up on it,'" he said. "You've got to have patience and perseverance for sure. I've had a lot of doors shut in my face."
n E-mail comments to rscott@dailyitem.com.
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