Tim Kirkman on the Most Challenging Aspect of Writing the "Loggerheads" Script: "I always think you write the movie three times: before you shoot, while you shoot, and in the editing room. And so I found that in writing the three different timelines, it was a really big challenge. How much information do you give to an audience and how much do you let them figure it out for themselves? That was the biggest challenge because we all receive information differently. Some of us read it, some of hear it, some of us experience it through dialogue. Some of us don’t pay any attention to those details at all. They just let movies wash over them and then feel it in some way. I had to apply that and in cutting the film, figure out how to incorporate visual, verbal, dialogue and text to reinforce the idea that these were three different years. That was the biggest challenge."
Kip Pardue on the Movie's Title: "It’s a nice double entendre though. The expression being at loggerheads with someone… It’s this idea of people not speaking to each other and speaking about things that may or may not be important, in this case I think they are important. But also the metaphor that the turtles bring to Mark’s life – my character’s life – I think it hits on a three-pronged level. The first of which is that these are an endangered species that need human care, which Mark very much needs.
I think it’s a story of an animal that is raised without its mother, which Mark was and is. And thirdly and most importantly, it’s an animal that comes back to exactly where it was born to lay its eggs, which you learn in the movie. I think that’s a really kind of stoic representation of what Mark is going through looking for his birth mother. So the turtles to Mark are very important. Whether or not you know it’s a turtle coming in, I hadn’t even thought about it."
Tim Kirkman on Why "Loggerheads" is Being Released Unrated: "It’s unrated because the distributor was terrified they’d get a PG-13 or an R. Adults aren’t going to go to a PG-13 film and kids need to see this movie who are adopted, especially who, for whatever reason, they don’t want to tell their parents they want to go see this movie, their adopted parents. The movie is about people not talking to each other and for an adopted kid who’s not 17 yet, especially a gay one, this is a movie that that person should see. And there’s nothing objectionable in this film."
Tim Kirkman on Selling This Film and Who is the Target Audience: "That’s a good question. It’s a question I don’t think very much about because I’ve been really focused on the story more than the film itself. I think there’s something for everybody in this movie. I feel like all of us are touched in some way by adoption, whether you know it or not. That’s what the story is about to me.
It’s a story about people who are trying desperately to do the right thing, and the right thing is a subjective idea a lot of times. I mean, you do the best you can with the information you have at the time. I hope that’s a universal experience. I hope that people who go to this movie will be touched by it and think about not only their own lives but the lives of people who are more directly affected by these issues.
I think it’s a family movie. It’s kind of weird. It’s a mature film, in a way, but there’s no profanity. There’s no sex, there’s no nudity. It’s sort of like this weirdly family film without being… That means so many things now, the idea of a 'family film'. But to me that’s what it is."
