CrimeRocket.com ‘s coverage of the Chris Watts’ stands apart as the most comprehensive, accurate and compelling version of what actually played out on Sunday night and Monday morning in 2825 Saratoga Trail, Frederick Colorado on Agust 13th, 2018.
The TWO FACE book series is the definitive account of the Watts Family Murders. In spite of these efforts, the mainstream version of events continues to echo Watts’ dubious version . Weld County also appears content to recycle Watts’ doubtful version of events.
True crime documentaries like HLN’s Killer Dad and ID’sFamily Man, Family Murderer thus far have not even begun to scratch the surface, or interrogate the evidence, of what actually happened in the Watts case .
Isn’t it time a proper documentary, from someone with expert knowledge, covered the Chris Watts case?
MY PITCH
Since covering true crime as a full-time author, I’ve become increasingly appalled at the documentary coverage of high-profile cases. From cold cases like JonBenet Ramsey all the way to the latest documentaries on Chris Watts, the quality is invariably shabby. The producers seem to do little more than a tip-of-the-hat to the actual meat-and-potatoes of these cases.
A few years ago, I approached filmmakers and had several high-level discussions with a view to converting many of my crime narratives to the medium of television. In some cases they offered contracts to buy the rights to some of my books. In the end, I turned these down because I didn’t have confidence that any of these producers had close to a gut feel for how to go about rendering these narratives. The bigshots in the industry, with experience in the genre, seemed to lack confidence in my work because it was self-published.
I also negotiated with a producer based in New York, affiliated with HBO. In 2018 a major American network stole major elements used in a narrative series. When confronted with these infringements, the network offered a licensing agreement, and agreed to credit my work, but refused to pay for their appropriation.
I’ve also spent some time reaching out to part-time podcasters and videographers. Thus far it’s been very stop-start. Some aren’t au fait with true crime, others who are have other jobs they do fulltime.
The best solution seems to be to write, produce and direct a documentary myself. I have photographic experience as former professional photojournalist for mainstream magazines.
I recently watched the excellent series on Netflix called The Family. All of it is based around the narrative of investigative journalist Jeff Sharlet. Sharlet produced the series and also appears in it to narrate the often complex backstory.
The way to go will involve starting up a GoFundMe with a goal of $50 000 in seed capital. This will involve travelling to the US, purchasing equipment and filming on location for 3-4 weeks. The documentary will be rooted in the research found on CrimeRocket, and throughout the TWO FACE series.
Who’s with me?
Share and spread the word at this link.
This is like a dream come true! There is no one else that can do this the way it really happened. I’m behind you 100%
I really hope you DON’T get major backing of the film industry.
I don’t mean it in a bad way but holywood seems to have a habit of ‘sexing up’ a true story and it gets ruined and turned into a complete mess. good on you. go for it.
I’m behind you, I’ve got 1 more of your books to read on Chris Watts. A documentary would be just as accurate.
Thanks for your donation Kim. I wish I could send you a signed copy or something. Will have to brainstorm some ideas.
So happy to hear this. Wishing nothing but the best!!
Donated ♥♥
Wishing you much success…there’s always a market for the truth.
You may want to check out the Gosnel campaign on Indiegogo for inspiration. https://www.indiegogo.com/campaign_collections/indiegogo-most-funded-film-and-video-campaigns
I’m on an extremely constrained budget where I can’t donate right now. I’m reading your Bethlehem trio about JonBenét presently. I will donate in the future. I would certainly pay for Lifetime not to make movie about this case. At least Lifetime will be happy that the Watts live in the type of home their characters inhabit, despite financial reality (wherein waitresses prance around in perfect, unaffordable suburbia). In my opinion, that network is a much a problem in contributing to unrealistic real estate as part and parcel of American life, with their target audience being quite similar to the demographic involved in this crime. It is very irresponsible.
Hi Nick,
I read one of your blogs on the Watts case regarding the white Lexus. I did some digging and discovered some company literature on the Le-Vel VIP Auto Bonus program if you are still looking for more information on that. Please advise if you would like a copy.
-Stacia
Hi there. Since I can’t donate, I asked for some industry feedback on your behalf. Are you looking to crowd-raise 50K for a pilot to shop around? It’s been suggested that a Netflix docuseries would be more costly than that.
Thanks. The original amount I suggested was $50 000, you’ll notice we lowered that to $30 000 and still couldn’t raise $200. One route we could take is to make a cheap but quality documentary, straight to YouTube. At the moment I’m in negotiations with a New York based producer, but not for a documentary on the Chris Watts case. The other side of the coin is if the readers on this site aren’t interested in donating anything, perhaps that in itself is a message worth heeding. Perhaps it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie. God knows I’ve already over-committed on free content over the past year.
Please dear people, I know that many of you have been commenting on this case since day one. How many hours a day do you spend reading this blog? I know for me it is many hours. We have the privacy of being behind our little assigned emojis while we greedily consume, on the daily, what Nick pours out freely, at no charge, in blood, sweat and tears and he CONTINUES to do so. It’s time to give back and support him IN THE WAY HE NEEDS so he can do the documentary we all want from him. With all due respect, please get your wallets out ladies and gentlemen. Please give as much as you possibly can. I know some are not in the position to give but many of us are. Some are fortunate enough to be able to give generously. He can’t do this alone and he shouldn’t have to. PLEASE!!!! I BEG YOU!!! If we don’t respond and support him he will think we don’t care, so why should he bother? I CARE and I believe you do too! What if Shan’ann was your daughter? If we accept how quickly and conveniently this case was shut down without any attempt to push back or fight for the entire truth, that sets a precedent. Next time it might be your daughter, or my daughter.
NICK, PLEASE DON’T LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE. You are the ONLY ONE that can do this right!
I’ve donated….because I want to watch a quality account of this crime and I know from being a fan of these blogs that that’s what it will be If it can be made. Good luck.
Fantastic – thank you. Officially knighted a TCRS SuperFan 😉
The reason why filmmakers would not be interested has nothing to do with the truth, or your skills and knowledge. Just like any film or series, they want something that will appeal to a wide range of people, and in this case, especially, if there’s anything in your documentary that THEY THINK the majority would not agree with, even if it’s written in a very subjective manner, then they will not take a chance on it. It all comes down to one thing: money & budget.
How can AD get 41K subs and manage to make this case a career and hire 5 moderators that he must be paying to work for him?
I guess you would have to build up a YT channel and then a Patreon account connected with FB? And do live videos as he does where he is getting live donations..
Then Do the YT documentary and forget the cable channels.
They will be obsolete soon and YT will be the first source