The WorkNotWork Show [0:37:05]: So I hear a rumour that you're currently pursuing a project to turn Richard Bach's book Nothing by Chance into a feature length movie.
Scratch Mitchell: I would love to do that, but I haven't heard that rumour myself though.
WNW: Okay, I totally made that up. But, seriously, I wasn't going to have this conversation with you without bringing that up because it was the book that kindled my love for everything that flies, as a kid. I've always hoped that somebody would eventually turn that book into a movie. You're the perfect guy to make it and the perfect guy to star in it.
SM: I would love to do both. In fact, Richard Bach had an impact on me as well in his writing. When I was young, going through pilot training, I read a number of his books. I think that's what grabbed me is he was a guy who was a fighter pilot, but he understood the human condition and was able to put it down in words. That's what I'm trying to do with film and television. We're not all that different in the sense that I'm trying to put down what I know about aviation, I'm trying to merge it into film.
A lot of my projects, no surprise, they're about aviation. I have a fascinating project coming up. I'm partnering with a co-producer on a family adventure with warbirds and a little bit of time travel...all the things I love. It's a movie that I would be proud to bring my kids to see. Sure enough, it's film making and it's aviation, it just doesn't get better than that. So if I was ever able, not only to have the privilege of meeting Richard Bach but to...
WNW: You and me both.
SM: …but to speak with him about turning one of his books into a movie, gosh that would be a dream.
WNW: Well, and to be honest with you, Nothing by Chance has become kind of a life philosophy of mine. I don't know if Richard Bach necessarily intended it that way. I've had some ups and downs in my career and I've always said [that] according to Richard Bach, nothing happens as a random act. Somewhere along the line we'll have to see if that's been optioned. I suspect it probably has.
SM: Well, you've now given me another challenge.
WNW: At his core, he's an aviator. The two of you would have so much in common. I would just love to see that happen.
SM: It's interesting you say that word aviator because I'm invited to speak at a number of events and whatnot, unrelated to aviation, at a fire investigator's course or whatnot. I try to explain to these groups the difference between an aviator and a pilot. A pilot just flies an airplane, an aviator, it's in his soul or her soul, and there's a big distinction. I see the exactly what you're saying. Richard Bach is an aviator through and through.
WNW: It was only after the fact that I learned that he was the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. That movie and that book makes so much more sense when you read his other books.
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