As readers of this blog know, each year around this time I do an “audit” of what I achieved this year pegged against what I hoped to achieve this time last year. And I outline what I hope to achieve in the coming year.

This year was all about the release of The Way, My Way.

We released the film on 100+ screens across Australia and New Zealand on May 16th. The film opened out to about 330 screens and went on to become what many film analysts described as “the surprise hit of the year.”

We ended up playing in cinemas for 20 weeks – at a time when a film is lucky to last three weeks – and we did theatrical Box Office of close to $2.5m in Australia and New Zealand.

For Jennifer and me, this exceeded our expectations well and truly. I would have been cock-a-hoop with a 6 week run and a BO of $1m.

But the film was cleverly and adroitly handled by distributor Maslow Entertainment, headed up by Marc Wooldridge. Marc, along with his associate Alex Taylor, did a superlative job managing the film.

Marc quickly came to understand the Camino ethos and spirit, and it was that understanding that helped him power the film to the result that we got. Marc will be using his unique approach to help distribute the film across the US, commencing in March.

On a personal note, I very much enjoyed working with Marc this year. I quickly came to respect his knowledge and love of cinema, and his belief in the commercial viability of home-grown movies. Plus we laughed a lot. In this business, tough as it is, you’ve gotta have a laugh.

With the Australian release, Jennifer and I did our bit doing Q&A screenings around the country. It was exhausting, but we got to meet our audience on a personal level, which for us was enormously fulfilling. The Q&As also allowed us to witness first hand the impact the film had on many. Some people told us they’d seen the film five and six times.

We were joined for a few weeks on the Q&A tour by Camino legend and Elder Statesman Johnnie Walker – and that time spent with John was one of the highlights of the year for us.

As was later in the year when we screened the film for a large convention of European Camino leaders in Pula, Croatia. John organised the screening – he was there, with Jennifer and me, and we once again witnessed their overwhelmingly positive response to the film.

We got the same reaction, if not more so, when we screened the film later in the year as part of the St James Day celebrations in Santiago, Spain. Once again John set up the screening, held in a grand old theatre in the historic centre of the city. It was glorious, but scary. This was a cinema full of very experienced pilgrims. There could be no more critical audience. But fortunately they loved it.

John later hosted all of us – some of the cast that had attended the screening, and Executive Producer Rudi Wiesmeier and Sales Agent Simon Crowe – to an unforgettable lunch in John’s favourite restaurant in Santiago. John’s generosity and support for this film has been incredible.

In amongst all this I did other things.

Jennifer and I spent a good deal of the second half of the year working on a project to be shot in India, a story based on true events concerning what’s called a double honour killing. Unfortunately that film fell over – the Indian producer we were working with was not able to pull it all together within our timeframe.

So, how did I go with my laundry list of things I wanted to achieve this year? Here’s what I hoped to achieve this time last year, and in bold, what I actually did or did not achieve.

• Release The Way, My Way theatrically in Australia and other territories world wide. Done, kind of. We did release the film theatrically in Australia and New Zealand, but not in other territories. That’s happening next year – 2025.
• Release Facing Fear online globally. Done.
• Publish a ten year anniversary edition of The Way, My Way. Done. I wrote an updated edition with an extra 15,000 words and it was published through Arcadia Press.
• Publish a book of my Camino blog posts, called The Way, My Way – Posts from a Blog that became a Book that became a Film. Done – an 80,000 word manuscript that’s in the final stages of publication and will be available on Amazon by Christmas.
• Complete the filming of Hope – the third in the series which includes PGS Intuition and Facing Fear. Not done. Couldn’t find the time.
• Further development of my elephant film to be shot in India, tentatively titled Elephant Mountain. Done. The film is now called Mother Thunder. Development is continuing.
• Write the screenplay to the sequel of The Way, My Way – titled The Way, Their Way. Done, although the film is now called “The Way, Her Way.” I’ve completed the script and Marc and his team at Maslow will be distributing once again.
• Begin writing another novel – a metaphysical thriller. Done. Or rather, doing… The book is called “Dead Image,” and I’m 30,000 words into it.

On top of all this I commissioned Dan Mullins, of My Camino Podcast fame, to do the audiobook of The Way, My Way. That will be published on Audible.com by Christmas. And I’ve also begun active development on another movie, a crime-caper movie involving a group of dysfunctional pensioners. It’s a comedy.

As well, I spent time this year writing a non-fiction work detailing how I’ve changed since walking the Camino. The book is called If I can Change, You can Too. I’ve already this year written 15,000 words and will look at completing it this coming year.

So what do I hope to achieve in 2025?
This next year is going to be massive.
Here’s what I wish to do:

• Release The Way, My Way in US and Canada – and support that release with a Q&A tour, from the beginning of February to the end of March.
• Release The Way, My Way in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and support that release with a Q&A tour in April.
• Screen The Way, My Way to an annual gathering of North American pilgrims in Vancouver in mid May.
• Screen The Way, My Way to a convention of Camino leaders in Malta at the end of May.
• Walk the Portuguese Camino (for the 3rd time!) in preparation for the shoot of The Way, Her Way.
• Release The Way, My Way later in the year in Italy, and support that release.
• Shoot The Way, Her Way on the Portuguese Camino in September / October.
• Work on the post production of The Way, Her Way.
• Write the first draft screenplay of the next movie in my Camino series – called The Way, His Way. (I aim to become the Taylor Sheridan of the Camino! haha)
• Complete the writing of my metaphysical thriller, Dead Image.
• Complete the writing of my non fiction book, If I can Change, You can Too.
• Write a treatment of my dysfunctional pensioner crime-caper screenplay.
• Shoot more material for the Hope film.

Seems like a lot?
It’s about how you use your time.
I try not to waste a moment.
I try…
But I am, by nature, a lazy man.

Mounting the production of The Way, Her Way in Portugal is once again going to be a big and complex undertaking, but that’s what Jennifer and I do. We’ve shot films on the remote Nullarbor Plains (Kiss or Kill), in Nova Scotia (Two if by Sea), in Papua New Guinea on the Trobriand Islands (In a Savage Land), in New Orleans (Tempted) on a remote Barrier Reef island (Uninhabited), and of course we shot The Way, My Way on the Camino in France and Spain. I seem to love setting my stories in exotic and logistically difficult locations!

On the health front, I end the year in my seventh year since diagnosis of my Parkinson’s disease. This year, with all the traveling and the tension involved in supporting the release of the film, and not being able to keep up my fitness regime, I saw a deterioration in my condition. That said, my neurologist, one of the country’s top Movement Disorders specialists, still rates me his gold-star patient – and hasn’t materially altered my medication for the past two years.

This coming year, I’ll be having cutting-edge stem-cell treatment in the US with one of the world’s leading experts in this field. He’s had spectacular results with Parkinson’s patients. Fingers crossed it slows the progression – it might even go some way to reversing the condition. We’ll see.

So that’s it – I achieved pretty much all of what I set out to achieve this year, plus some. And I’ve set an agenda for next year that would be challenging for someone half my age. But I don’t see age as a barrier. On the country, I feel more energised, and more capable, than at any time in my life.

Bring on 2025 is what I say!