In the winter of 2002, Erie actor and director Chris Bucci took the idea and began the process of adaptation. "I plopped in the film and began to transcribe it word for word, making countless notes on the best ways to adapt it for the stage. Scenes were re-arranged, characters were cut, segments were shortened, and areas were elongated with filler material (about 20% is new script). Most of this was done in order to keep the entire show within one location on stage to cut-down on the number of scene changes. The result? A stage-workable Oscar script complete with two acts and a lot of laughs."
"After many months of rewrites, the script was finally to a point where I wanted to collect feedback. I began to garner some interest in the project little by little. I showed numerous people the various rough drafts along the way and received nothing but a positive response. The buzz had begun and Oscar was heating up."
"The next phase of the process, however, would prove to be the first in a set of two immense hurdles in the way of getting the project completed. You cannot just take something copyrighted and decide to use that work for your own. You have to receive permission by the original owners in some form in order to make it legal and do it right. After writing and calling the various film studios, writers and producers, I was beginning to get discouraged at the lack of response."
"After many months of rewrites, the script was finally to a point where I wanted to collect feedback. I began to garner some interest in the project little by little. I showed numerous people the various rough drafts along the way and received nothing but a positive response. The buzz had begun and Oscar was heating up."
