April Pitches

And by clicking Publish, I am caught up. 10 years have I kept this journal. Two years has it taken me to catch up when I got behind. The plan would be to dive into stream of consciousness from this point forward. Post when something catches my fancy. We’ll see. But for now…April 2011.

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First things first… you MUST go to deanlorey.com to read about JASON GOES TO HELL. Dean’s career has been surrogately documented over the last ten years on my journal. Well. Now you can got get it in full detail from his. From now on I will only document his major failures.

We had sent in our Hellraiser outline (step one) so at the beginning of April we were tweaking based on studio notes.

Meanwhile Tom and Tim read Devil’s Commandos and were compiling polish notes.

I had been toying with the idea of joining young master William Schaeffer Tolliver and southern friends at a horror convention in Kentucky. However, after speaking with the organizer, learned that said con fell on the same dates as San Diego’s Comic Con. Oh, Kentucky. You silly rabbit.

On the 5th Dean told me that ABC Family bought his pilot.

April 9th Good’ol Days. It’s small town awesome. Parade Saturday morning. Then Lighthouse Avenue is shut down Saturday and Sunday and stuffed with rides and vendors. Custom clothes to fried Twinkies and a dreamy tri-tip sandwich that only comes around ones a year.

On April 11th I was up at 4am. I stumbled through an uncoordinated workout then washed my balls and brushed my fangs and by 5am there was a shuttle outside my door. I would have napped but I’m a picky sleeper so I listened to the driver’s jazz. I know the guy now. Have shuttled with him several times before. He told me about his estranged son. Again. He’s proud. Has regrets.

Soon he kicked me off the shuttle in San Francisco and I jumped Virgin America to Vegas. Let’s take a moment to talk Virgin America. Best airline on Mother Earth. Clean. LOTS of room. Personal tele. I don’t never wanna fly nobody else.

In Vegas a driver picked me up and shuttled me to the convention center where I first found Ryan Turek. He was hosting our little 3D thingy. Later Patrick and Max arrived. Then Brian. The whole gang. We chit chatted and caught up while Rudy Ruderson miked us. You know Rudy, he wears a keyring outside his pants with twelve hundred keys on it. This guy is VERY important. And rude.

Patrick had prepared clips. Ryan asked questions. And we had a great time to a full room.

The moment we walked off stage I shared a car with Patrick to the airport. He was flying back sooner as he still had to go home before the premiere that evening. We would have hung out but turned out I was at a completely different terminal. So. I found the airport California Pizza Kitchen and drank long Islands until I was silly.

Next, I boarded an American Airlines flight to LA. Ugh. Double Ugh. Cramped seats. No TV. Old. Not Virgin America.

At LAX, Brian “I watch a Horror Movie A Day” Collins picked me up in his Golden Pussy Wagon. He brought me a burger, fries and a coke. He ate my fries. But that’s okay I guess since he paid for them. Then it was off to the Scream 4 premiere. We got there early. Sat next to Alexandre Aja. I had never met Aja. Still haven’t.

Bob gave a very gracious introduction. It was clear he was thrilled to have the gang all back together. Then he introduced Wes who also had very sweet things to say about his cast and crew. And I loved the fact that he talked about how he and Bob butt heads all the time but in the end completely have each other’s backs.

Then the movie started and Brian proceeded to laugh and bounce with giddy pleasure. Later I did something I never do during a movie. I had to go pee. And did. As as a reward I got to pee while Marilyn Manson put on mascara. Welcome to Hollywood.

After the movie Brian and I hit the after party. It was fun. I ran into old friends. And made some new ones. Met Nathan Fillion for the first time. He’s just as dreamy in person. By midnight I was in bar with Matt Thompson, extras actor and working screenwriter. Hours later I was passed out on his couch. I kicked him awake a few hours later and he drove me to the train station.

Train was very disobedient dragon. Two hour delay just getting out of station. More delays along the way. Was so bad Mel loaded Izzie and drove two hours to meet me at a closer station and then we drove home. I’m almost certain we beat the train. You hurt me Amtrak. You hurt me real bad.

During the train ride back I got notes from Tom. I read them the following day. I hate getting notes. Add the fact that Tom and I had been bickering off and on for a couple of years… well I wasn’t exactly looking forward to his notes. But, to my great disappointment, the notes were really good. Really smart. Which both pleased and annoyed me. I replied with questions and clarifications and after a few days I was ready to proceed. But first: Band of Brother and the Pacific. My plate was full with other stuff so I would get my brain ready by watching an episode a night.

On the 14th we had a call with De Luca to discuss Deacon’s, Original Horror and a possible new TV pitch.

On the 17th Rikki texts me about the tumor and coming surgery. He asks me to post pics to FB. To fill everyone in on the bad news but make it funny to show they were in good spirits. Which I did here.

On the 18th we send our updated Hellraiser outline.

Rikki came out of surgery and while we’d have to wait a few days on the results, the Doctors were extremely optimistic.

On the 19th we had a call with Valhalla to pitch the creator of Unnamed Project. I was perhaps a little concerned. I’ve been down this road before. And while most of my experiences have been amazing. For instance, Whitley Strieber was incredible to work with. I’d get stuck, call him up and he’d turn into a suggestion machine. With ideas I would have never come up with on my own. BUT, I’ve also had a miserable experience. So, you never know. We pitched and the creator loved it. He did have some notes but they were actually quite smart. We later learned that we were the first pitch he got behind 100 percent. That was nice to hear.

Follow up meeting with Valhalla set for the 27th.

On the 19th I sent in notes to a writer. Haven’t mentioned this before but Patrick and I are attached as producers on a script. We’d read the rough draft and compiled our notes.

On the 21st the writer responded with a new draft. Am reading it now.

I respond yes to an invite to Jaime King’s birthday party.

Two days late retract the yes. Didn’t realize that was the day before Rabbit Day. You know. I got a four year old.

On the 25th we sent a cast list to De Laurentiis for discussion. Let’s not pretend actors don’t make the Hollywood world go round. Nic got Drive Angry made. Tom Atkins got MBV made. Well no. But it SHOULD have been that way. So we sent a list of names for the main characters. A discussion would follow consisting of who has enough juice to get it made, who’s too big to fit into the budget and so on. It’s simply a tiny part of the machine that makes movies happen.

I also read a new pilot that Dean Lorey wrote which has Mitch Horwitz attached to produce. On page two I laughed so hard I was crying. And it never let up. I caught a type-o. Otherwise it was perfect.

On the 27th I took breakfast to the girls then was on the road to Patrick’s at 7am. We had two big pitches. By 7pm I was on the road home. Sadly I hit construction traffic in Ventura and later in Santa Barbara. I didn’t get home until 3am. There’s gotta be a better way to make a living. As a result of said pitches we send the Drive Angry screenplay to one company and set up a screening of Drive Angry for the other. These are all good signs.

On the 28th our De Daurentiis screenplay had been read by an actress’s agents, approved and sent off to the actress.

And that brings us to the end of April.

So let’s talk Band of Brothers and Pacific. I normally try to stay away from criticisms. It’s not my job. I don’t get paid to do it. Plus, when you’ve seen the guy behind the curtain, when you’ve been in the trenches, you know a million things outside your control can derail you. Basically, you know better than to judge. But what I can do is wonder why. Wonder how. Because I am a bit baffled by the riddle of these two series. Band of Brothers is rich of story and character. Filled with heros. It reveals both that war is hell but uplifts you. The Pacific, while made by the same team, has none of that. The two series are vastly different as I suppose the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific were vastly different. Perhaps that’s the point. But when it comes to entertainment, Band of Brothers uplifts me. Pacific not so much.

Oh and Osama Bin Laden. I’m glad yer dead.