The April 09 Recollections

First off…here’s what I forgot from March. As the release of Haunting in Connecticut approached Gold Circle sent the video for Haunting in Georgia. There’s a whole series of Hauntings that run as an hour-long documentary on A&E maybe? I don’t recall. Anyway…we watched Georgia and there wasn’t much there. It wasn’t very scary. There was a strange time jump. And there was zero conclusion. But we started work on a pitch because that’s what you do when you want to feed your family. At nearly the same time we hear of a project called…Slips My Mind…up for rewrite at Gold Circle. Both we and Gold Circle agree to find out where we stand with Haunting first. So, we came up with a pitch and it was good. But it was bothersome that we had essentially done all the heavy lifting for which someone else would take the credit. We took something that wasn’t scary, didn’t make sense and didn’t have a third act and fixed it. Loosely based on true events was never truer. It was like when a kid learns to poke you with his finger. Doesn’t hurt but it’s annoying.

Meanwhile, Mel and I were crashing at Patrick’s…and Mel told her ghost story. Something that happened to she and her family when she was young. I’d heard it before. Patrick had not. I knew it was a terrifying story. Patrick found this out by being unable to sleep. We decided to tell that story and call it A Haunting in Tennessee. First we pitched Brad Kessell. He loved it. Had a couple very smart notes. Then we went back and pitched Paul Brooks. This all took place in January/February.
On March 31st we sent Drive Angry to Andrew Rona. Patrick and Andrew go back. They basically grew up together during the Dimension Films reign. It was the perfect fit. Add in the fact that we had just closed our deal to write ISWYD for Andrew and you understand why we sent him the script a week before anyone else.
On April 1st I attended my first Genre Hacks dinner. I’m sure there’s a story as to how they formed but I don’t recall hearing it. If I had to guess I’d say it was in answer to the huge once a month dinner by the Masters of Horror. Essentially everyone you’ve heard of: Craven, Carpenter, Roth and so forth. Even Patrick is now a member. Genre Hacks is the dinner for all the rest. And I had a wonderful time.

That evening I crashed at Dean’s. He built a fire. We did battle with vodka.

So many meetings. They all blur. This was before a Gold Circle meeting on the 3rd.

Then it was home for July 4th and some lovely bedhead.

And a day or two of chill.
On April 6th, as we prepared to send Drive Angry to our first wave of producers, Andrew Rona passed.
First Wave:
Bob Weinstein
Toby Jaffe (Original Film)
Neal Edelstein/Mike Macari
Mark Vahradian (Di Bonaventura)
Paula Wagner
Gary Lucchesi (Lakeshore)
Derek Douchy (Davis Entertainment)
Richard Suckle (Mosaic)
Jeniffer Nieves (360 Pictures)
Robert Rodriguez

On April 7th we found out that Paul Brooks passed on Haunting in Tennessee. “Not for me, mate.”
That same day, Neal Edelstein and Mike Macari are the first to respond to Drive Angry. And with much enthusiasm.
Later that day we send the Second Wave to producers:
Platinum Dunes
Tripp Vinson and Beau Flynn
Scott Rudin
JJ Abrahams
Kurtzman/Orci
Mike DeLuca
Sam Raimi
On April 8th Brad Kessell sends a very nice email concerning Paul’s passing on Haunting. He’s certain we’ll find something else to work on.

On April 10th…Izzie grows up. Gets a big girl bed and a big girl room.

Only home for a couple of days before it’s back to LA so I devour as much time as I can get with the girls.

On April 13th we meet Toby Jaffe and Neal Moritz at Sony to pitch our rewrite of the remake. We head up to big Sony and sit down with Elizabeth. Like always, we have a very detailed pitch. We have pictures. Gary Tunnicliffe had created some incredible creature designs for us. We tell our story which is very ten little indians. Very Aliens. Moritz spent most of his time texting. Half way thru the pitch Elizabeth stops us and asks, “But what’s the story?” We stare. She goes on to explain that at Big Sony we need more and as she went on I found myself hearing the teacher from Charlie Brown. I caught a few references to Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and some how-to-write-for-Sony advice but while all is polite and cordial…we know it’s over. Walking out the door I notice a big Taking of Pelham poster. That movie would open later and end up making 101 million world wide. MBV only made 93 million world wide. So, Elizabeth was right. Big Sony knows its stuff. Of course Pelham cost 100m and we cost 16m, but that’s how we do things at Big Sony.
On the drive home, Mel sends me the Susan Boyle video. 6’2″, 240, bald. I tear up.

April 14th, with Izzie sitting at her own desk doing some cutting edge work, I get on the phone with Ludon and some executives from Ed Pressman’s company to discuss Wolfbane. Wolfbane is a twisted werewolf story that formed on a walk ages ago with my neighbor Allen Speigel. Pressman’s people ask if it can be shot in 3D. I say yes. They ask if it can be shot in Asia. I say yes. That was easy.
Meanwhile the interest and passes start trickling in. I won’t go through all of them. All of the passes were passes with praise. Bob loved it but was tied up until Basterds and H2. Toby Jaffe loved it but already had their drive fast movie with Fast and Furious… Derek Douchy loved it but said there was no way they could ever do something so violent at their family friendly company. He suggested we change the name. Even though we were getting passes they were passes with regret. We wrote a pretty great spec during a time when everyone was tightening their belts. Studios and production companies were laying off employees. Most had cut the number of movies per year in half…and here we were…trying to sell a spec. The fact that we were getting the responses we were getting during an economic spiral was incredible.

Those interested ranged from the Paula Wagner to Tripp Vinson. Paula, bless her heart, recognized that this script would sell and likely get made but wasn’t quite sure why. She wanted us to do a rewrite then she’d get it to Kurt Russell. We were like, “Why not get it to Kurt Russell and if he likes it then we’ll do a rewrite catering to him.”

Welcome to the Apple Store! How can I help you!
By the 22nd we sit down with Tripp Vinson and Lisa Zambri. Tripp had done Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D. That was a plus. He and Lisa had clearly read and loved the script. Tripp was calm but passionate. Very professional. He had notes. They weren’t bad notes. Certainly well thought out. So far…Tripp was the man to beat. Patrick and I told him we had a couple more places to meet with then we’d make a decision.

Outside Tripp’s office is a big TV. Didn’t occur to me to ask why.
As we left the meeting we hear that Josh Bratman at DeLuca’s read the script, loved it and was getting it to DeLuca for the weekend. We didn’t really want to wait another week but I heart DeLuca. He greenlit my first movie. He was always very cool to me even though I was the dork chained down in the maid’s room at Cunningham’s.

In the meantime we’re working on ISWYD, Cradle and All as well as a couple projects for Hammer Films. At the end of each day I walk, ocean or dine with the girls.

It’s not a bad life if you can get it.

April 27th we get word that DeLuca loved Drive Angry. Wants to meet on Friday. We and Paradigm inform all those that are interested that our last meeting is Friday then we’ll make a decision.

I, of course, learn all of this from inside a clubhouse at Costco.
April 30th. We meet with Mike DeLuca, Josh Bratman and Zach Schiff-Abrams. Within 5 minutes Patrick and I both know we’ve found our home. They were quoting dialog to us. The level of excitement was unfreakingbelievable. Patrick and I talk in short had. I’ll meet you at the place near the thing where we went that time. What was crazy was that suddenly the 5 of us had that same shorthand. When asked what DeLuca would do to the script, he said, “I’d shoot it. People will either get it or not. This is the movie.” Amen, brother.
As we walked down the stairs from their Sony office I could feel Patrick’s excitement. The moment we turned the corner we were machine gunning our words. We’d found a home. We both wanted to pull the trigger in the meeting but thought it polite to tell the agents first.
We told Valarie we wanted to go with DeLuca. She wanted us to wait a day. Let the euphoria wear off. We said fine but knew it wouldn’t make a difference.
And as the sun dipped into the ocean it dragged the remains of April 09 to a watery grave.