LA-based filmmaker Sophie Webb thinks the world is ready for a romantic comedy that tells it like it really is; a movie where friendship takes centre stage instead of unrealistic 'happpily ever after' endings.
And the former Blaxland High School student hopes she will bring just such a movie to the big screen.
Webb has co-written a "truthful" rom-com and hopes to direct the movie, Going Together, next month if a crowdfunding campaign reaches its target by September 4.
"I think moviegoers from my generation (millennials) definitely are ready for a comedy that stresses friendship over romantic love," she said.
"Many of us are waiting longer to get married and to start families - and many of us are choosing to stay single. We've entered the world with much different options than our parents so it makes sense that we would have different values," she said.
"As much as the idea for the movie seems radical, I don't think it's a secret that romantic comedies have become less and less relevant. When almost everyone's parents have divorced - and it's no longer an embarrassing or terrible thing - I think that the 'happily ever after' convention of romantic comedies winds up feeling kind of silly."
The plot of Going Together centres on five friends living in Los Angeles who each "struggle to reconcile their own disappointing experiences with romance with the representations of love that they've seen in movies", said Webb.
She can thank some of her own dating disasters in LA for sparking the idea.
"Los Angeles is notorious for being a terrible city for dating," she said. "The script actually originated from many of my own bad dating experiences here. Many of the people and situations I encountered were so depressing to me that I felt I could only write about them in a humorous way - or they'd be too sad!"
Webb finished Year 10 at Blaxland High in 2000 before completing her senior schooling at Newtown Performing Arts High School. She had a recurring role in the 2012 season of Underbelly before moving to Los Angeles to pursue her creative dreams. She worked on the script for Going Together for 18 months before auditioning actors, casting roles and assembling a crew - all the while working odd jobs to pay her way.
The former Warrimoo resident hopes Blue Mountains movie-lovers will get behind Going Together's crowdfunding campaign which needs to reach $20,000 by the end of August. Details at igg.me/at/goingtogether.
Rewards for supporters range from the small - like receiving a screenplay signed by the cast and crew - to becoming an executive producer on the film and having their name in the credits.
