Earthquakes
Tumultuous days in Deadpan’s office.
Where do I even start!?
The year begins for us with our main proposed actor “passing” on our offer to be the lead in our comedy. This certain “wizard” apparently has other plans with his career and won’t be leaning towards our comedy. Too bad, I think it would’ve been awesome with him, but we have to move on. We’ve had wrangling with our co-producing partners about this issue given that this name was someone that came to be an option only after they didn’t deliver on the original name they said they would bring to the table. Very frustrating and infuriating and as a matter of fact, we have a co-producing agreement that states, very clearly, that this Company (X) will “negotiate and provide access to talent and director for the project based on X’s longstanding relationships, including, but not limited to ________insert actor name__________ and ________insert director name_______”. Guess what? They haven’t delivered on either so we went to our own favorite which was different from the original who they said they had a strong relationship with.
Not happy about this but we’re moving forward and pushing for a secondary role’s name that we are actually quite excited about.
On the other front however, a movie that we were involved with just as a potential backup, is now on the verge of closing cast and actually equity (direct, private investment money) has been found to fulfill maybe up to 70% of the budget. I will be able to sell-off the rest through a participation from an international sales company. A taut thriller with sexual undertones รก la Fatal Attraction, I’m actually also very excited about it’s commercial potential and think that if anything (as it happens in Hollywood a lot) this might be a gift from the movie Gods now that our comedy -to which we are still very committed- tries to pick up speed again. This thriller, would actually shoot soon and quick, with an actress that is about to explode in the lead role and who’s playing opposite a HUGE actor on another movie.
Producers, well, sometimes forget, that our job is to produce. And I need to keep active to a) keep the company alive, and b) for my own creative juices to not dry up. You see, we live on producing fees but also on the adrenaline of actually CREATING shit. Without creation, there’s no content, without content, there’s no money and… You catch my drift.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that, sometimes, we need to just get involved with a project thinking about the fact that we will at least stay active, without seeking to win an Oscar or change social discourse every time we make a movie. I’m down with that. I used to work in a Major Studio, I use to tell people that came to me with projects, what I want is to try and make a good film. I don’t care the genre or the subject matter, I like GOOD FILMS. People forget that sometimes that at the base, that’s what matters. Who knows, maybe that’s why I’m not working in the Studio anymore, but I think that that that carries into any genre or endeavor we come on board to. It actually (i think) emphasizes the potential commerciality of our movies. So yes, I will DO a thriller or a comedy or a horror film or a documentary or and action piece and try to make the best darned movie possible with it. Hell yeah.
I wanna be making movies. That’s what I do.
I will rant more on my partners later. Right now, I have to worry about other stuff from previous films we’ve done. I’m thinking about how to approach that on this blog. It would be interesting to describe what a stupid, frivolous entertainment biz lawsuit tastes like for people like us who just wanna be making movies. Have I said that enough?
