1. Project origins

In early 2025, Rob Drake and Mike Took met on an entirely unrelated promotional photo-shoot, and realised they each had a certain affinity with the film industry. Rob introduced Mike to a story dating back to his childhood, a book entitled "The Bonus of Redonda", which was a tale that Rob had always believed would make a fabulous feature film. Mike read the book, agreed with Rob, and the two of them decided to give it a go.

The book was not only beautifully written, it was a technically perfect construction of narrative and character, and Mike could see that with only a few modern additions and alterations this would be a timeless story that resonated in the twenty-first century and offered a wholesome, family appeal. Rob and Mike knew that there was an appetite for this kind of gentle genre in the intense and heady world that was film and TV at the time, so a few months later Rob bought the film rights to the film through his company, Parallel Audio and Film, and Mike wrote the first version of the screenplay, adapted from the original novel.