Patient screenwriter nearing his payoff

It’s been a decade — but Christopher Painter patiently waited. Now, the New Mexico native is getting his break in the movie world — and he has some big names attached to his project.

Painter wrote the screenplay for “Convention,” which is slated to beginning filming in the fall and gaining buzz in the film industry.

The project already has snagged Mark Duplass and Ben Kingsley, while Jennifer Aniston has shown intense interest.

“It’s amazing to have these actors believe in something that you’ve written,” he says during a recent interview. “It’s also a relief because I’ve been working on this project for a long time. When I was writing it, I did have an idea of who would play each character, and these names have surpassed what I thought.”

Duplass will be seen in the upcoming film “People Like Us.” Kingsley has starred in “Hugo” and has been cast in the upcoming blockbuster “Iron Man 3.”

For Painter, the road to getting the project up and running has been a long one. He wrote the screenplay 10 years ago, had producers attached to it about six years ago and got a director — Justin Reardon — about four years ago.

“It’s been a long and slow process because it’s not being financed by the big companies,” he says. “This is completely an independent movie. Now that we have stars signed on, it becomes easier to get funding.”

“Convention” is set at a national box convention, and Duplass will star as an inventor who unveils his latest creation: the five-sided box. The mysterious new design initially seems perfect, until the inventor learns that each time he creates its special fold, he rips a hole in the space-time continuum.

It’s up to him and his sister to put things back together and save the world before Kingsley, who plays a company owner, takes a chance at overtaking the duo.

“It’s very sci-fi, and I totally had freedom with this one,” he explains. “There probably isn’t a box convention, but I had to write it like one would exist. So I did get all of these ideas in my head and made them very believable.”

The inspiration for the screenplay came from his own book, “Taco Gnome.” The book is a collection of 16 odd, unique short stories. The stories are told by ghosts who aren’t dead, vampires who do not consume blood, retail customers who don’t know what they’re buying and time travelers who can’t change the past.

Each one of these stories is set along Central Avenue in Albuquerque.

“Surely the only name I kept in these stories was Central,” he says. “All of the side streets and government names are all made up. But I did have a lot of fun with the book, and I thought that if I could write short stories like this and make them believable, then I wanted to try my hand at a film.”

He is looking at filming part of the movie in New Mexico.

Painter grew up in Alamogordo and graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1992 with a degree in creative writing with a focus on film and TV. While at UNM, Painter volunteered at KNME and also worked at a game distributor in the Duke City.

But he was always was fascinated with science fiction and film.

“When I was at UNM, they didn’t really offer too much in film and TV,” he says. “So I sought out my own ways to produce things. I made a lot of videos around town and in my apartment that I would produce. It was just the beginning.”

Painter currently works at Disney Online Studios in Los Angeles, where he creates virtual worlds for online games such as “Pixie Hollow” and “Toon Town.”

“I’m interested in every aspect of filmmaking and gaming,” he says. “I like that I get to switch between the two and keep my creativeness going on different levels.”

SEND ME YOUR TIPS: If you know of a movie filming in the state, or are curious about one, email film@ABQjournal.com. Follow me on Twitter at @agomezART.