Upon completion of the screenplay, Joe Scott sent the finished product to his 'readers,' a small group of family and friends that he trusts and to whose opinion he listens regarding his screenplays. "I don't trust somebody who tells me they like all my stuff," explains Joe, "I need criticism. I need to find ways to make things better. So I only listen to people who tell me that I've sucked from time to time." But this occasion was quite the opposite.

The overwhelmingly positive response surprised Mr. Scott. "I've gotten many good reviews in the past, but I really don't think I've ever had the response I got from this one. People said they couldn't put it down, they said they were laughing, they were crying, two people actually threatened to kick my ass if I didn't make it." He realized he had captured something with this screenplay and if he was ever going to make his first film, this would be his chance. So, work began on bringing Ocean Front Property to life. Scott jokes, "I didn't even want to do it, but I was gonna get my ass kicked, so I had to!"

First order of business was to get his cast together. The first character to be cast was the easiest, the character of Pierre, the new husband of the ex-girlfriend. With this character, Scott had one person in mind from day one. Thad Newton, a friend of Joe's from their college days. Scott and Newton had worked together several times before, including two of Scott's previous short films, My Roommate, The Psycho, and 9 Minutes. So good looking you want to hate him, but so friendly and charming you have to love him, Newton is the embodiment of Pierre.

Scott says, "Thad seems in a lot of ways like the kind of guy that I would typically hate. You know, he's good looking without even trying, the ladies love him, everything just seems to come so easily for him… But I have to like the guy; he's just a great person. And that's exactly what I needed in Pierre. He has to be despicable at first just because of who he is, but by the end, he has to win over the audience because when all is said and done, he's the good guy."

Getting Newton to play the part was easy. "Joe and I had worked together several times so we have a great working relationship and he's a friend," Newton says, "Frankly I'd work on anything he does, but after reading the script, I was definitely on board with this project. I knew it was something special."

Joe Scott held auditions to cast the other parts, and along with casting director Juan Zuani, was surprised at the quality of talent available in Dallas. In the end, he chose Erin McGrew for the part of Jordan Locke, the psychiatrist who talks the main character into going to the beach house. "Jordan is probably the purest character of the bunch," says Joe Scott, "She has to be the most likable person in the world. If she was senselessly beating the Pope, we'd still like her. And we picked Erin as much for her natural personality as for her read. She's just a genuinely likable person."

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