Saturday, October 11, 2025

Randee Dawn's "Leave No Trace," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: Leave No Trace by Randee Dawn.

Her entry begins:
Leave No Trace began as a movie. Well, it began from a movie. I was pretty young when I saw the New Zealand film Smash Palace, which is largely about an ugly divorce. But there was one scene where the father, who's gone off the deep end a bit, kidnaps his young daughter and decides they'll live off the grid, in the New Zealand bush. It's lush and tropical there, and this kind of thing actually happens in real life from time to time. The kidnapping is short-lived – the daughter gets a cold, and they're both rounded up when dad goes to get medicine at a local pharmacy – but that idea stuck with me: What if they'd never left?

That was the birth of Leave No Trace, so I would have to ask Roger Donaldson, who is both from Down Under and the director of Smash Palace (as well as classic other films like Sleeping Dogs, The Bounty, and Cocktail) to take on the job. He knows the territory and he knows the concept already. Kind of. But at 79, he might not be up for the gig, which means I'd turn to fellow New Zealander Taika Waititi, who aside from being a handsome genius who could definitely play Tony, is known for...[read on]
Visit Randee Dawn's website.

The Page 69 Test: Tune in Tomorrow.

Q&A with Randee Dawn.

My Book, The Movie: Tune in Tomorrow.

Writers Read: Randee Dawn.

My Book, The Movie: Leave No Trace.

--Marshal Zeringue