A SCREENWRITER turned crime novel author from Gwent is preparing to visit the lofty heights of Hollywood this week.

Matt Sessions, a former film screenwriter living in Blackwood, is set to go to Hollywood this week hot on the heels of having independently published his first novel.

Mr Sessions first began writing film scripts during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 as a hobby, and began networking with potential producers through social media in recent years. 

He explained: "When I first started writing these film scripts, I had a very set five stage plan in my head. 

"I knew it wasn't going to work out immediately, and I would need to put a plan in place if I wanted to succeed and make it into Hollywood, and I began networking with people in the industry online, which turned out to be a massive help."

A number of his new found connections advised him to continue working on new scripts, and potentially turn his hand from screenwriting to novels, as scripts are "skeletons of books". 

Mr Sessions said: "My friend said I should try it because they're so similar to film scripts and you get chance to really flesh out a story and characters. 

As a big fan of Thomas Harris' 1988 novel Silence of the Lambs, Mr Sessions first came up with the idea to write a novel inspired by and potentially including the characters from the novel in his own work, but after doing some research into the situation surrounding the rights to the characters, he realised it wouldn't work out as originally intended. 

He said: "I ended up changing the story a bit, and coming up with some completely original characters. You can tell from the story, which is about an FBI agent and her experiences with a serial killer, that it's been inspired by these kinds of stories. 

"This has marked stage two of my five stage plan to get noticed in Hollywood, and I've already been able to make some really positive connections with people over there on social media, so I'm going out to meet some of them this week and potentially get the ball rolling and get some people interested in my book. 

"I'd love to work with some big name directors like David Fincher, or Joe Dante, as I see them as people who could bring my vision for this novel to life."

Mr Sessions has already made a number of connections across the pond, including a cinematographer who has worked on multiple Hollywood films including The Prestige as well as having gained a mentor in the form of a producer who has been in Hollywood since 2015. 

He said: "I'm really excited to meet all these people that have been so important to my book and could help with getting my book into the hands of a big name Hollywood producer one day. 

"It's been such a  big step for an author from Blackwood, but one day soon you could be seeing a film adapted from a book by Matt Sessions!"

You can find Mr Sessions' novel The Grim Keeper available on Amazon.