# The film that almost happened · Trapezium part 2 · WonderLoop

> Trapezium, part 2. The script, the plans and the distributor who pulled out.

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## The film that almost happened

Trapezium, part 2. The script, the plans and the distributor who pulled out.

Beeld: Trapezium poster with Amber and Steven

I'll make a feature film before I turn fifty.

I told that to anyone who would listen, for years.

Beeld: The script, full of notes
The script, full of notes

### The script

I wrote the first version of Trapezium at the end of 2013, when I was still living in Istanbul. Back then it was set in New York.

New Year's Eve. Two couples, Steven and Melissa and their friends Max and Janine, go out to dinner at Trapezium, a circus-themed restaurant. The restaurant belongs to Amber. And Amber kissed Steven.

At the table everyone tells what happened. Each version plays out as a flashback, with the listener right in the middle of it. And no two versions are the same. A comic whodunit full of misunderstandings, half-truths and flat-out lies.

When I moved back to Amsterdam, the script moved with me. It became an Amsterdam story, and that's what it stayed.

Beeld: Cinema tickets for a film that never played
Cinema tickets for a film that never played

### Almost

In 2019 Reinier Selen, who I once started Rinkelfilm with, and I tried to make the film with a real cast and crew. A few well-known Dutch actors wanted in. We had a distributor, and they helped secure part of the budget from the Netherlands Film Fund.

The press kit was done. The film wasn't.

Beeld: Trapezium on the cinema lightbox

### And then it didn't

The distributor pulled out. They could only take on four Dutch films a year, because Dutch films never make money.

One phone call, and the whole financial picture fell apart.

I'll make a feature film before I turn fifty. I'm 54 now.

But the script is still on the table.

[Back to Trapezium](/en/trapezium.html)
[Read on: how I'm making the film myself now.](/en/trapezium-3-een-filmploeg-van-een-man.html)