electric mist

when you least expect it

Script / novel update. Normal entries back by Friday.

Last week, a producer in L.A. e-mailed me about trying once again to get the romantic comedy made. She had a new avenue she wanted to pursue, which was nice to hear, but I had to check on the producer here who had been telling me over and over that she wanted to make it. I understood why she hadn't progressed here... first, they had landed a bunch of films to be shot here, several were bigger budgets than their originally planned $3 to $5 million budgets, and several have pretty big-named stars attached... all of which means she's working like crazy to keep everything running. In addition, she was divorcing one partner and buying out a third. And signing an exclusive distribution deal and some other financing deal which would give her her own discretionary money to develop her own films. (The films she's shooting now are financed by an outside entity and she does all of the actual production work here; they do this because Louisiana has offered a tremendous number of incentives to bring films here, which seems to be working.)

At any rate, I didn't know if she was still going to want to make mine. I had heard through some of her employees that she still did, but it's not the same thing as hearing it from her directly. And then she called this morning, telling me about the above mentioned distribution deal and financing (I knew things because I have a friend on her staff) and telling me all the things she was now ready and able to do to get the film made. She called it a "slam dunk" which surprised me. She's going after the MOW market first because, believe it or not, for a film this size, that's the best scenario for us to make more money. However, should that not work, she believes she can now get it made as an indie.

What shocked me was that she also had been holding onto my big budget action / comedy and also wants to make it here. I'm fairly shocked, to tell you the truth, because it's going to have to be a really big budget, at least twice what she's currently doing, if not greater, but she seems to think that's not a problem. I'm not giving her free reign to make it -- she hasn't optioned it -- but I'm willing to let her run with it for a little while and see how far she gets. Which will help me, ironically, with the book.

The book is the novel version of that big action comedy. The best-selling author friend who read it, loved it, and only had minor notes. She was at a meeting with an editor from a big publishing house last weekend and pitched her the book and now the editor wants to see it. I'm supposed to be finishing a synopsis so she can give the chapters and the synopsis to her own agent so that he can be the one to submit it to the editor. Meanwhile, another author read it and was extremely positive about it (so far, she still has a couple of chapters to read), but she's a best-seller in the same genre, so if she continues to like what she reads, I think I can get a blurb from her... which would help also with the agent and how he represents it to editors.

I just have to finish the damned synopsis, which I hate writing. And get a letter from the producer. And keep the producer moving forward and not getting too side-tracked with other projects. And... and... and...

It could all still be air. It's kinda nice air today and I'm glad it's good and I'm going to enjoy it for a few minutes, but mostly, I'm tired of being "almost" there. I've been doing the almost thing now for too too long, and hopefully, it'll move on into actual thereness very soon. (Of course, nothing will happen during the holdiays, so expect nothing else until spring, probably.)

Thus endeth the update. Funny will be back here tomorrow. If it can waddle this direction again.

Posted by toni at November 24, 2004 10:40 PM