Sunday, August 20, 2006

Survey Says...

So Charlie's right. The script is in his hands. He's doing this whole "buying a house and moving" thing. Producer Dude is in Latvia trying to drum up funds for Siege, the script he still hasn't read, and I'm not the easiest guy to get a hold of. Although in my defense, I'm always available, just only for a couple of minutes at a time while I Kid Wrangle. And if Charlie doesn't answer my IMs for an hour, is that my fault that I'm not there when he responds?

Meanwhile, My Manager and My Agent sent out My Script a few weeks ago to all sorts of Hollywood people.

The end result?

Nobody wanted it.

My Manager and My Agent assure me this is an expected result. Nobody in Hollywood buys a spec script from an unknown writer. So I shouldn't be discouraged. Truth is, a lot of these same people who didn't want to buy my script want to meet with me. So I'm heading to LA in a bit for a week of meetings.

That's totally cool.

It's quite possible that I'll walk away from the meetings with nothing more than a laurel and a hearty hand shake, but I'm grabbing for the ring. Working on new pitches, new ideas to pitch these Industry Folk. Always getting ready to listen to their ideas and say "Yes, that's a fantastic idea. And I'd love to write it for you!"

True-ish story (I'm slight fuzzy on some details, but it's a good story.). Before we moved here to New York, we had a neighbor in LA. This neighbor was a writer. This neighbor got involved on a story with a producer, who loved it. It was the producer's story (not personal story, but one they wanted to make) and the neighbor worked on it and wrote it for over 2 years with the producer. 2 years, writing for free. So what happened?

It got made, starred a huge star, and made a ton of money.

Because this writer was that good? Sure, but no.. It got made because the producer, who bounced around from studio to studio, like most of them do, wanted to get it made. And he kept at it for 2 years until he got it made.

True story.

What does this have to do with me? Well, I may leave my LA meetings with nothing more than a project to work on with a producer or executive in a production company. But that's often how unknown writers like myself and like Charlie get a start.

So cross your fingers, though the meetings aren't until October.