I had an e-mail tonight from a producer friend who loves the romantic comedy mentioned a couple of entries down. She's done a couple of features and many Movies of the Week (MOWs). At one point, about a year or so ago, she tried to get financing for the romantic comedy as a theatrical release, but she's not a "big" producer -- she's small by her own admittance -- and her one financial source didn't bite since they decided they wanted to do thrillers. Ever since then, we've emailed or talked, and she keeps wanting to be involved in getting the romantic comedy made, which is very nice. She's been a terrific cheerleader through this process, and has come up with very helpful suggestions.
A while back, she had access to a major network (one of the big three) and she asked if she could pitch it there as a movie of the week. I had mixed feelings -- of course, prestige-wise, I'd rather it was a theatrical release. But when my brain actually kicks in gear and the common sense bitch slaps the ego cells back down to where they belong, I recognize that, duh, I don't have a film made yet and getting something made means (a) hey, I have something made and (b) I got paid for it. So I said sure, she could try to pitch it to that group.
She did, and nothing really happened (not a "no" but not a "yes" either). Since then, whenever she's had an opportunity to pitch the project to someone, she's written to ask permission. I've always said sure, since (as mentioned in the status report below), nothing much was happening anyway.
An odd little thing happened tonight -- she e-mailed me and said she'd gotten a opportunity to pitch it to another one of the big three networks; this opportunity apparently came out of the blue at a lunch for something else. She pitched it and they're interested in seeing more, so she's sent them the project. The teeny little niggly detail is that I didn't know about this first, so I didn't give permission. And the reason that matters is that I had told the director she could run with trying to get actresses on board, which is essentially a producer's job, and I know this director has no real desire to do this as a MOW. I think, should the deal actually come through and I was able to say to the director: hey, we can get this made and I still want you on board, she'd go for it, because she keeps stressing she loves the material.
But...
I probably should give the director a heads' up about the possibility that a network might want it, but I'm not leaning towards doing that. For one thing, the potential that they might want to make it is slim to none, and then it's a moot point, so why derail the director's enthusiasm right now with something that's nothing? Still, a part of me feels guilty, like I should call and tell her, just to keep her informed.
And then the producer mentioned above asked me about the current script. The one that's gone to my agent already that she's going to take out. She had read an earlier draft of it and I had completely forgotten that I had promised to send her the polished version (just for her to read) when I was done. Completely. Forgot.
oops.
It's not like she's going to option it -- I don't think she has that kind of money or access. I doubt my agent would look too kindly on her having it before some other people that the agent wants to have it, but I did promise that I'd send it, so I'm going to. And I'll tell her about the agent taking it out next month, because that's only fair.
This is such a strange business. It's always nothing nothing nothing for months on end, then a flurry. Then nothing again. I swear, Hollywood exists in a different dimension, some sort of quasi-reality where "tomorrow" could take six months. I wish I aged like that.
Posted by toni at February 5, 2004 01:43 AM