Just take one a day - everyday...

I have some good news and some bad news.
What's the bad news?
The DNA results are back. It's your blood at the crime scene. I afraid you're going to jail.
What's the good news?
Your cholesteral is way down....

Things are good and bad. Every day. We are in such a weird place with this movie. We have our stars not because I am such a genius writer - we have them because our director has a really good relationship with them. As such - they are doing this film sort of in the favor category... and this means that their agents and managers are not at all happy about this and have no trouble breaking our balls about it on a daily basis.

So yesterday - while offers went out to INCREDIBLE CHARACTER ACTORS 1-4 for small parts in the film - STAR2's agent sent us a letter saying - effectively - you better be filling this film with stars, and don't be telling them that my client is attached - cause he sure as hell isn't. And while he does have those dates open - he might not for long. And even if you do get other stars - don't expect my star to sign on anytime before the end of July... so screw you...

Or something to that extent. And no, she really wasn't that nice.

Now, I don't believe that Star2 is anything but committed. He was the one who gave us the dates and said that he wants to do it. But that doesn't mean that his agent is happy about it. Couple that with the fact that she represents our two top choices for INCREDIBLE CHARACTER ACTORS 1-2 as well - and my smile sort of turns upside down.

There are many lessons here. One is -you get what you pay for. If we were able to pay the asking price of these actors - I don't think we would ever have any issues. But we aren't. This is a "low" budget film - so you have to ask for favors. And favors go over as well as a crap sandwhich.

Couple that with an all afternoon fight about where we would shoot if we ever get a chance to shoot. The mini-major is really pointing us to one specific area - New Mexico. And while I thank GOD it's not Canada... I wrote the film to take place in the South. Not the South West. But it can work. It's just not optimal.

My two producing partners on this are amazing - but they are most likely going to be leaving me holding the bag with whoever we bring in as a line producer. One is in Alaska shooting with Sean Penn - and the other is about to close a deal for her own company. That leaves me, the new line guy, and STAR1's brother... ugh...

So while the good - offers go out to four great guys - is really good, the bad - agent reaming us out - is never far behind. It is a really emotionally numbing roller coaster that defines the one step closer, two steps back type of thing. And spread this over three years - and it really starts to play games with your delicate constitution.

My good friend David also received some bad news yesterday about his adaption. Check out the Just another Knucklehead blog on the links. Hard blow for him - but he is gonna bounce back. Some of the best things in his script were things he put there - and his new version will kick ass.

On the good side -

I had my initial call with BIG PRODUCER last night. It was a quick one - but very nice. I found out this script had been bought by their company five years ago. They had the initial writer do two or three drafts - brought in another set of writers who did two or three drafts - and now they are ready to try something else. He said it feels as if they are trying to fix a broken car.

He mentioned the direction that his boss BIGGEST PRODUCER was thinking for the bad guy - and - lo and behold - I interrupted and told him that that was my idea too... and told him how I would go about changing some of the things - including the stupidity of the lead character... he agreed with everything and was really excited...

And then the other shoe dropped.

"I love where you are going with this. I want you to take this and just throw it out. We like the characters and the situation - but just get rid of this and make it your own. Make it contemporary. Just start from page one and build it back up."

Last time I pitched this guy - that was what I did... and while I'm sure I overplotted the hell out of it - I did make it something completely new - and in doing so - I lost what they like about the original in the first place... so that was that.

I did get the nice ender - well Greg - we really hope this works out. You're a really smart guy and we want to find something to work on with you. We hope this is it.

I can't be sure if he was honest - or doing the jerk off motion as he said that in his office...

Anyways - the cool thing is that I get to come up with an entire story now. The bad thing is - I get to come up with an entire story now. For free. Again....

Time for another one of those pills... :)