Filmmaker scopes out north country locations for 'Abducted'

A movie based on David Madden's novel "Abducted By Circumstance" is in its early stages.

Screenwriter and independent filmmaker Zack Godshall visited locations featured in the novel in the autumn of 2008 after receiving an advance copy of Mr. Madden's book.

Mr. Godshall's first feature film, "Low and Behold" — an official selection of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival — weaves fiction with nonfiction to create a story of friendship and loss in post-Katrina New Orleans. His latest film is "God's Architects," a documentary that tells the stories of several enigmatic, "divinely inspired" builders of various structures.

Mr. Godshall was an undergraduate student of Mr. Madden's at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, where he now teaches film and screenwriting.

"I kept in touch with David," Mr. Godshall said from Baton Rouge. "I just asked David one day if he had anything he thought would make a good film."

"I thought it was a great story and would make a great film," Mr. Godshall said of "Abducted By Circumstance." "When I read the novel, I was compelled to go there."

The next step will be to find financial backers and actors.

Mr. Godshall said he hasn't completed the screenplay yet, but believes it will be easy to attract actors for it based on the novel's interesting characters.

"My previous experiences will definitely help me get the script into the right hands," Mr. Godshall said.

"The goal is to shoot in Alex Bay, Watertown and the area, and.in the dead of winter, when the story takes place," Mr. Godshall said.