A BIT OF A HOLDING PATTERN…

What with juggling the dayjob, the writing/marketing and so far 42 FIFA World Cup games in 14 days, the term, ‘busy’ would be an understatement typical of the country from which I hail. (incidentally, England is through to the next round with 7 points, playing Ecuador next week in the group of 16, but I digress…)

Down to business: Chris came back from the Banff International Television Festival with some great results. We have over a dozen nods from execs who, based upon the pitch, would like to read ‘DYNAMO’, so looks like I’ll be dropping a few bucks at Staples! If all goes to plan, I’ll be mailing hard-copies off next week. Also, I’ve got a couple of producers in my sights (courtesy of Chris’ rolodex) and a possible line to uber-director, Michael Mann (‘THE INSIDER’, ‘ALI’, ‘HEAT’, ‘MIAMI VICE’) so it’s lock-and-load time…

No new offers on ‘LUCIDITY’ yet, but I have another 7 weeks before I have to give Collingwood Management a yes or a no on their offer.

Still waiting for the first round judging results from the Nicholls Fellowship Competition this year. Let’s hope Oscar’s smiling on me!

Nothing back from our man at National Geographic Kids yet regarding ‘DOWN UNDER’, but it’s a little early to expect one. I’ll follow up with him in the same wave of follow-ups 2 weeks after I get ‘DYNAMO’ into the hands of the Banff delegates. That still gives me over a month to leverage the Collingwood offer into a better deal for ‘LUCIDITY’ at about the same time I should be getting results from the Academy. See, there is a method to the madness.

And I still have 22 soccer games to watch before July 9th…

FOOLS RUSH IN

I've managed to postpone things with Collingwood Management until I confer with Chris Tougas, who arrives back from Banff tomorrow night.  Not only has he generated some fantastic leads while pitching in the Rockies, but he seems to think a quick flip through the rolodex will provide a producer or two who may offer a similar deal as the one I was considering but without this deferred payment clause.  A little 'good-faith money', as it were.

Collingwood was comfortable with this arrangement so I'm proceding with Chris, giving him a few weeks to generate some bites with 'LUCIDITY', chase down the 'DYNAMO' leads he's generated this week in Alberta and pass off the 'DOWN UNDER' treatment to a colleague of his at National Geographic Kids.

Meanwhile, first round cuts with the Nicholls Fellowship Competition begin in about a month.  So many cookie jars, not enough hands…

IT’S AN OPTION…

The postponement of the telephone conference with Collingwood Management actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  The meeting has been re-scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.  Now, it’s become less a fact-finding mission and more a deal-sealer.  See, although the meeting never materialized last week, it seemed that Collingwood Management was as eager to continue with our conversation as I was.  Several emails back and forth provided answers to my questions, gave rise to new ones and eventually resulted in a clear idea of what I wanted creatively and commercially from this project.

The end result:  an offer.

A modest five-figure (deferred) two-year option on a modest six-figure production with a guarantee that I stay on board to write the second draft (deferred-scale) and retain a role in producing.

In layman’s terms, they have 24 months to decide to red or green-light the project and I don’t see a penny until they make up their minds.  But IF they do, I get my own re-write and a producer credit.  Not bad for a script that I had resigned to an early-retirement in the bowels of my hard-drive!

Though not perfect, this is an opportunistic, investment.  Deferred payment is never ideal, but this proposition actually suites my agenda.  A money-up-front option would have disqualified me for the Nicholls Fellowship Competition (you’re non-eligible if you’ve made more than $2000 professionally up to the point of award)  I still fancy my chances with that this year.  It would have to be a pretty sweet deal on ‘DYNAMO’ for me to make that sacrifice-play!

Which reminds me, Chris is smoozing at the Banff International Television Festival tonight with a hot soccer screenplay and a kids-Australian-Outback-Adventure treatment under his arm…

HEY KIDS…

I just sent Chris Tougas ‘DOWN UNDER’. This 30-page treatment of an animated feature script is a co-authorship with sometime-collaborator, Jason Hollefreund.

Developing a kid-oriented outback adventure story was a bit of a departure for me. I’m curious to see what kind of reaction it elicits in Banff. Chris is an amazing illustrator so he’s already got sit-downs with the applicable parties. Might even be something Gotham could arrange, so again, an interesting addition to the arsenal.

Haven’t got much else to relay at this point, so let me take this opportunity to introduce these two friends and colleagues:

Jason Hollefreund is a CG modeler whose experience includes working with an Emmy-winning team of FX-techs on two major network television shows.

Chris Tougas is a character-designer, screenwriter and story artist for several major film and television studios.

Check out their links under RELATED SITES.

DYNAMO’S GOING TO BANFF

 

Nothing ever goes entirely to plan; this week was no exception.

My telephone-conference got pushed back until next week, so I’m in a holding pattern with Collinwood Management. I still haven’t mailed ‘DYNAMO’ to them yet, but currently they’re more interested in ‘LUCIDITY’. 'Bird in the hand', I suppose.

Conveniently, I’ve been able to give Chris Tougas exclusive shopping rights to ‘DYNAMO’ for the month of June – just long enough for him to pitch it around The Banff World Television Festival. We hung out over a coffee this afternoon and surfed their delegate list, planning an eleventh-hour attack (the festival starts in 48 hours). The end result has yet to be seen, but we’re in the process of locking down pitch meetings with Spike TV, The History Channel, Trichon Films, The Family Channel, Movie Central, Bravo, Showcase and Alliance Atlantis. Chris has got a great track record selling shows and it’s an easy pitch, so we’ll see…

FEEDBACK

Check out my latest feature, VIRTUAL STUDIO-EXEC, a poll-link that gives you the chance to RECOMMEND, CONSIDER or PASS on my project.  

THE DOOR CRACKS OPEN…

In his book, ‘SELLING A SCREENPLAY: THE SCREENWRITER’S GUIDE TO HOLLYWOOD, industry guru Syd Field warns,

“You’ve got to remember that everybody’s a buyer and seller in
Hollywood. It is the Town of Sell, built on a foundation of hype, fear, greed insecurity, and ego. You can’t afford to offend anybody.”

Let’s hope Hollywood’s half-brother, Vancouver, proves to be a tad less issue-laden.

Collingwood Management and their production partner want to move forward with ‘LUCIDITY’, which is fantastic news. Details remain vague, pending a tele-conference this Thursday. Hopefully, I’ll have the chance to pitch a few more projects at them while I have them on the line. They’ve already requested a hard-copy of ‘DYNAMO’, which I’m express-posting shortly, however, I’m unsure that they’ll bite on something which clearly doesn’t fit the parameters of ‘low-budget’.

I’m not worried, however. It seems fitting that each script is so different from the other as it enables me to keep each hand solidly in the American and Canadian cookie-jars respectively. On that note, I feel very positive about ‘DYNAMO ‘s’ chances in this year’s Nicholls Fellowship Competition. (I would have a contest progress-tracking link set up, but it appears, as of this writing, that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website is currently experiencing technical difficulties in this area. Keep you eyes open, though. It’s coming soon.)

In the meantime, please feel free to read the excerpt I’ve posted from one of my previous scripts, ‘TAPAS’. It’s a dialogue-heavy dark-comedy about a handful of dysfunctional strangers who, through a series of strange circumstances and hidden agendas, end up sharing a table one evening at a Spanish restaurant in Seattle.

Enjoy!

D.

SMALL WORLD…

It never ceases to amaze me just how inter-connected the players/elements in the film-industry are — good news for those of us who rely heavily on networking and the cashing-in of favors to establish ourselves in this rather closed-door, elitist world.

From my experience, it goes something like this: one person gives you that one promising lead, which will inevitably (if you're a bit slick, charming and above all else, persistent) result in a name-drop, and so on and so on.  Eventually, as in my case you end up with an elaborate web of 'maybes', 'hopefully's', 'we'll sees' and, if you're lucky, occasionally a 'yes'.  It's always interesting when that 'yes' brings you full-circle…

Years ago, when I had just begun writing, my friend Richard told me about a highschool aquaintance of his named Kimani Smith.  Apparently, this athletically-inclined kid had taken off to LA to become a stuntman.  Yesterday, Dylan Collingwood of Collingwood Management Inc. emails me from Ontario.  Apparently, his production partner liked 'LUCIDITY' and they want to move forward on the project, pending a tele-conference with me when he gets back to Vancouver on Thursday.

D.P.:  "Out of curiosity, who is your production partner?  Would I recognize his name?"

D.C.:  "Kimani Smith." 

As I was saying, small world.

FADE IN:

Let me catch you all up on my progress thus far…

I’m currently shopping two scripts around.

‘LUCIDITY’ (2005) and ‘DYNAMO’ (2006)

‘LUCIDITY’ is a San Francisco-based psychological thriller about a newspaper obituary-writer who is haunted by the memory of a freak accident that left him an orphan and an amputee many Christmas Eves ago. As the Holiday Season approaches again, his reality becomes a slow-descent into narcoleptic madness as a crooked cop, a mute piano prodigy and a horoscope-writer all become pieces of the terrifying puzzle he’s finally finding the courage to put together…

‘DYNAMO’ is a true story set in Nazi-occupied Kiev. When the Germans create a small soccer league in the conquered Ukraine, eleven beleaguered bread-factory workers enter a team. No one suspects they are ex-professionals from the once–prolific Dynamo Kiev. No one suspects anything until they beat each and every Nazi garrison team soundly. Embarrassed, Hitler sends in Flakelf, his Luftwaffe dream-team. The rules are simple: If the Kievans win, they will spend the rest of their lives in concentration camp. If any of them dare score, they will be executed after the match…

 

Both scripts have had modest exposure to date.

‘LUCIDITY’ finished top ten-percent in the 2005 Nicholls Fellowship Competition – a prestigious worldwide contest sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences. Since then, it has garnered interest from the William Morris Agency, Lancaster Gate Entertainment in LA and Collingwood Management in Vancouver who are passing it on to their production partners for consideration.

‘DYNAMO’ has been entered into 2006 Nicholls Fellowship Competition. I won’t find out if it made the second round of judging until August. It has also been forwarded to Collingwood Management and is being networked in LA through colleagues Lucas Sussman (screenwriter, ‘THE DEEP’) and Scott Mullen (freelance reader whose credits include work with New Line Cinema and HBO Pictures). Additionally, it is being pitched as a potential mini-series via Chris Tougas (Disney, Jim Henson Productions and Warner Brothers) at the Banff Television Festival this June.

As you can see, I’ve discovered just how invaluable networking can be!

Of course, I have several scripts in the conceptual/research/draft stage of development while also developing a curriculum which I hope to present as an intensive workshop for 16-18 year-old aspiring screenwriters, first in a community-based classroom format and eventually online.

‘Busy’ doesn’t always seem an adequate enough word, does it?