How I’m Making a Feature Film With My Friend

I’m making a feature film with my friend Matt — about William Laird, a Civil War deserter executed in Maine.

This project has been in the works for over a year. Our first draft, a forty-something page script, didn’t survive long. We sent it to our friend Will Eichler, a director with credits like Chicago Fire, and he promptly tore it apart — in the best way. Between that and life’s usual interruptions, the project stalled.

But I decided it deserved a finish. Matt and I now meet monthly to hold each other accountable. Our first call was just twenty minutes, but it lit a spark. In the days that followed, I cranked out twelve new pages of a fresh plan.

The story began with Jean Flahive’s novel Billy Boy, which fictionalizes Laird’s life. Rather than simply adapting the book, we’re aiming to capture the atmosphere around his execution at Fort Preble in Portland Harbor. We’re exploring multiple perspectives: the fort’s commander, Confederate prisoners caught after attempting escape, and others who witnessed the hanging. Laird himself may have lived with mental disabilities, though the historical evidence is murky. What is certain is the impact his death had on the community around him.

Our goal is to finish a third draft within a few months. I’m keeping the goals realistic: ten to fifteen pages each month. If all goes well, we hope to be in production by the summer of 2027.

We think educators, indie artists, and reenactors will find value in a story like this. But I’d love to know — who else do you think a narrative historical film could reach?

The story, as told by Dan Lambert