With the completion of the screenplay came the need for "a really experienced producer who knows how to get tough movies made." My Dog Skip required a producer who understood the challenges of an intimate, personal film. Russell and Hancock turned to Academy Award-winning producer Mark Johnson.

"For a producer, sometimes the smaller independent movies are more challenging, and consequently more fun. You’re asked to be more resourceful and more imaginative in solving problems because you don’t have money to throw at that problem. And for me as a producer, I much prefer that," explains Johnson.

Recognizing the power of Skip as a catalyst for young Willie Morris, Johnson also took from the story the message that being different is okay. "This is something that’s really important, especially for kids. We’re all different in one form or other. Here is a boy who could have become like all the other boys, but instead embraces his sensitivity and his love of reading and writing. That’s what drove Willie to later become a Rhodes scholar.

"There’s a certain gentle sweetness to the tone of this story that was clearly expressed in Willie Morris’ own language in the book, and we wanted to preserve that tone, to show that a certain kind of sentimentality can be a wonderful thing, in a boy and in a story."