Tory Hartmann’s screenplay, The Ghost of Harvey Milk, written with Shea Kerry, is in production by American Films, Inc. Shooting began in March 2008. (WGA #1263650)

Hartmann says, “Shea Kerry rented a copy of the documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk, picked up my name, and e-mailed me. After corresponding for a month or so, he wanted to read some of my work and I forwarded him some of my short stories as well as a short screenplay. He said he wanted to talk about a project and we met in the Castro for a cup of coffee. We talked for four hours and hashed over his screenplay idea. I got excited and agreed to write it.”

The screenplay, both a love story and a tragedy, is set in 1978, a tumultuous year in San Francisco.

In the midst of this tumult, two people, a teacher and a reporter, fall in love and are cruelly wrenched apart. Harvey Milk is not only chronicled in 1978 as the historical figure he is, but in 2008, he comes back to the bedside of dying journalist and anchorman Jack Simon. Is Harvey real? Or is he a figment of the dying reporter’s imagination?

“It’s a great concept,” Hartmann says, “but best of all, I had the privilege of writing Harvey’s quick wit. No one can match Harvey’s superb off-the-cuff style and his words tumbled across the paper. I love the story and I think audiences will too.”