History of "The Conclave"

Writer/producer Paul Donovan's grand plan for The Conclave was for it to have an exciting film festival premiere followed by an art house run successful enough to trigger a Borgias television series. The TV series would begin with the conclave of 1458 and end with Cesare Borgia's death. Paul's plan failed.

After its completion, The Conclave was rejected by all the top film festivals. Since festival programmers have become the de facto gate keepers of the specialty cinema world, The Conclave's only theatrical release was in ultra-Catholic Poland.

Paul nevertheless pitched his Borgias series around Los Angeles. Showtime, who met with Paul, green-lighted another Borgias project, one that originated with Neil Jordan. A company in Europe that Paul also pitched to green-lighted a second Borgias project. This was not illegal as the material is public domain. Paul's only significant international credit (as showrunner of the SyFy series Lexx) plus his Borgias pitch proved insufficient to sway the television powers in both L.A. and Europe.

Uncertain what to do after that, and unwilling to give it to YouTube for next-to-nothing, Paul sat stubbornly on The Conclave for a decade until he finally uploaded it onto Amazon Prime so the few can find it and hopefully enjoy it.