Author: Todd

Let’s take a moment to interrupt our July broadcast to deliver a message from modern day. Couple nights ago, I see the digital camera sitting on the desk, I grab it, hit record and toss it on top of the printer. I forget about it. Music’s playing and Patrick and I have a deadline which I’m pounding away to meet. Later the mem card finally fills up and the camera beeps. I ignore it and keep writing.
Tonight I notice the camera sitting there and download the vid. While I can’t share it all, when a certain couple of songs played back to back it made me smile so that much I can share.
Please ignore the oddly goofy way my head bobs and weaves. I do not know what that is about and wish it could be nuked. But alas.

Now back to your previously scheduled trip back to July:
July 1st, Jake, the manager, calls. He tells me DeLuca now has Fright Night. I tell him been there done that. I fill him in, catch him up. Told him the job went to Kring. He calls back later, he’d spoken to someone at DeLuca’s office. Kring didn’t get the job either. Job is still open. Crazy business.
We catch world that DeLuca sent Drive Angry to Norm Golightly, who read, loved and gave to Nic Cage to read. Exciting but you try to keep that sort of excitement in check.
July 2nd, Patrick and I join Ludon on a call to Singapore to speak about possible Korean content funding. It’s similar to Canadian Content except it is not as good a deal and unproven. We leave the phone call with less confidence than when we entered.
July 3rd. Agent hits us with an email. An offer came in via Relativity for Drive Angry. Agent left it in office. Well call us Monday morning.
…sigh. Assumption is…the offer blows and no one wants to tell us that going into the weekend.
July 5th I get a last minute request to do a Horror House interview for Scott Sigler talking about Messengers II and Raimi. Ends up being easy. They shoot me some questions, I boot up the mac and let it film my answers. I shoot them a hi-def file and tell them to edit, cut, work their magic as they please.
July 6th Patrick informs Zach and Josh that Paradise 3D heads to location on the 20th. If they and Relativity want to meet them then the meeting needs to happen before the 20th.
Later that day we remind the agents, “Hullo? Offer came in Friday? Uh…it’s Monday? Hullo?”
Conference call with agents and lawyer. Offer is dismal.
Within two hours we counter via our lawdog extraordinaire, Jeff Frankel.
July 7th Ludon has been arranging meeting for Tom Jane and I for Comicon. Meetings with investors and meetings with different vendors and producers. Tom’s also published graphic novels of Alien Pig Farm as well as Bad Planet. Wolfbane, Devil’s Commandos…this promises to be our busiest Con to date.
July 8th, I suggest Ludon and his investors take a look at Patrick and Joel’s Condition Dead 3D. Patrick shoots me the latest draft. I read again then send to Ludon. He calls me fast. Wants to meet with Joel.
Why do I do this journal again? I do it because I have been rode hard and hung up wet. I do it because I’m stretched thin like butter over too much bread. I do it because I have kilt braincells that I shouldn’t have kilt. I do it to remember. I’m not here to blow smoke. I’m not here to make it sound pertier than it is. So, here’s the ugly…
The lowball offer from Relativity was a gutshot. A nutcracker. A demeaning girlslap like Kurt Russell bitchslapping Chubby Billy Bob in Tombstone. We have done so much work. Not only did we not get Fright Night…we not getted it twice. We took The Fly right up to the door of the big meeting at which point the big suits locked the door and didn’t even want to hear our take because we weren’t either visionary Zack Snyder or Chris Nolan. Haunting in Tennessee, Ghost Rider 2. Passes. We write a spec that everyone seems to love but that no one wants to buy because they’re too busy laying off their work force. Even our big win with MBV wasn’t a win. The studio made 93m on a 16m investment and no return business. Hollywood. High highs. Low lows.
This was a low.
We asked our agents to call Matt at Weinsteins’ and see if that outline gig was still available.
At the end of the day we hear that Nic read Drive Angry and LOVED it. Wants to do it pending a meeting with Patrick.
Like I said. High highs. Low lows.
This was a high.

July 9th we get the reply from Matt. “Maybe.” Then he sends a script to consider rewriting and a book to consider adapting. Patrick reads the script immediately. I read slow. We all have our crosses to bear. Patrick digs the script, alot. It reminds him of another movie and was likely written to capitalize on that other movie but we eventually come up with a take that keeps everything that’s so cool while not ripping anyone else off. We get back to Matt with interest and tell him we’ll work up a pitch.
July 13th. We get our second offer from Relativity. Nic’s interest does nothing to raise their interest in us. In fact, their offer comes down. In a move I’ve never seen before, they actually came down on their already insulting offer. Nic has a deal with Relativity so none of this made much sense. We assumed they were simply calling our bluff. Bottom feeding. Figured no one was buying, they’d grab it up for pennies.
DeLuca jumps on the phone with them. Do you want this or not? He warns them that we are about to walk. We’d rather have nothing as what they’re offering. They assure him they are interested. Excited even. So we jump on the phone with agents and lawyer and come up with another counter.

Sanity. There’s a reason Hollywood types are so freaking weird. Others are otherworldly insane. It’s due to this never ending, crazy roller coaster of evil that we willingly ride day in and day out. I try to get off the coaster from time to time. It’s how I keep any semblance of sanity. And it’s a part of my story.

I only mention this because I got a semi-snotty email recently commenting on all my daughter pics. Tell you what, numbnut. You got two choices. One, if you don’t like it you can go read someone else’s blog. Or two, we can meet up in LA, face off, bow and then I’ll punch you in the forehead.
July 20th it is recommended that we put the Weinstein stuff on hold and see how Bastards and H2 does.
We also learn later in the day that Nic’s agents sent Drive Angry to Millennium, who Nic also had a deal with. Not only had a deal but the deal’s deadline was approaching. Millennium had a couple of project they wanted Nic to do but he wanted to do ours.
Many things happen very fast.
One, Millennium wants to know if this can be done without DeLuca. We say, “No.” We gonna go home with the one what brung us.
Two, Millennium wants to meet us on Tuesday before Comicon. We scramble to make this happen.
Three, we catch word that Nic is toying with the idea of playing the villain in Green Hornet in the fall. Millennium wanted to shoot in the fall. This would push us to February.

The Millennium meeting was confirmed for July 21st at 11:30am. I was booked to fly to San Diego on the 22nd. In typical fashion, the airline would not let me change the flight so late. So, not wishing to leave the girls without a car, I borrow Allen’s car and drive. I arrive at Patrick’s at 9:30am. I park Allen’s ride, pile in with Patrick and he drives us to meet DeLuca, Zach and Josh and as a team we head in to meet Joe, Danny and Boaz of the team Millennium/Nu Image.
Meeting goes…well…goes very very well. The LOVED the script. Loved the 3D concept. Suddenly the roller coaster has picked up speed again.
July 21 word hits that Rob Zombie is remaking Season of the Witch H3. Interesting.
Why is this interesting? Well, although I’m writing all of this as if I were still living in July…fact is…it’s late September and the beans have spilled. A month or so back, Weinstein Co started talking to us about a number of their projects. We ended up pitching four of them. One of those pitches was Halloween 3D. Not the Season of the Witch 3 but a sequel to Rob’s two films…but in 3D. While told they loved all four pitches…we never heard really got a yes or a no to any of them. Thus hearing that Zombie was doing Season of the Witch was, in fact, interesting.
July 22, I hear that Raimi will be directing World of Warcraft. I drool. He’s perfect. I’m happy and jealous.

Melanie, in an attempt to keep me sane, will send me multiple daily pics of Izzie.
July 23, We give Millennium the numbers we initially gave to Relativity.
Comicon 09!

Let’s sum up.

Tom self published Bad Planet and Alien Pig Farm trade paperbacks. They move like mad.

Ludon introduces us to guys with money. Possible investors in our two companies.
Wolfbane teaser is a big hit.

We do the annual dinner with Darabont. I’ve never taken pictures at the party, at least I never publish them…because it seems too…intrusive. But this shot of Tom and Frank afterward was cool.
One highlight at the party was when the talk turned to Cameron and Avatar’s 3D. I mentioned that Cameron had recently called my latest a giant step backwards in the 3D movement. Gale Ann was quick to jump in saying how much she loved MBV. Wasn’t until later I remembered that she and Cameron were married at one point. I always think of her with Hensleigh…as it should be.
Ran into Jaime King who had spoken with Kevin about Monkey’s Paw. She loved the script. Tom walked up and I noted that I had actually written it with both of them in mind. She and Tom bantered about the script.

Tom takes us to the True Blood party. Nelsan sits with us. I’m giddy as a school girl. The whole cast is there. It’s Anna’s birthday.

There’s cake. And blood.
Business-wise it was a great weekend. Personally it was the worst. Egos clashed and I left early Sunday.

July 27, Patrick passes on recutting Wolfman as we wait to see what happens with Drive Angry.
On the 28 we send Alex our outline for Parasite as we feel it would make a great Hammer film. Could even plug one of their old titles into it. 3D 15m budget. Slam dunk. We do this in prep for our thursday meeting.

July 30 with Alex Brunner and Tobin Armbrust re: Silo, Golden Vamp and Parasite. It’s a good meeting. They loved Parasite and sent it to the UK for approval. We pitched a rewrite for Silo and gave them a teaser opening pitch for Golden Vampires.
July 31 we learn there are issues with rights between Virgin and Cradel & All. Must be dealt with before we can continue.

July 31, I have a Long Island for the road and tool home. I arrive with gifts for Izzie and even grabbed a gift for Mark Wheaton’s daughter (as of late September I still haven’t put it in the mail cuz I suck).

And thus we reach the end of July at which point we can do the math and learn that 56 days later Rona still has not paid us for Delivery of ISWYD.

June 1st uncovers the mystery of the Weinstein biz affairs offer. It’s interesting to say the least. It’s a one step deal. Not for a screenplay but for an outline. Over the previous months we came up with four takes which we pitched. This was one of them and the company was offering to buy it. Not exactly thrilling to us for numerous reasons. Our guess, the previous writers still owed a draft and would likely be handed our outline.
Look folks, I’m a fan of writers. ALL of my best friends are writers. I correspond with young writers, offer advice, encouragement, whatever I can. Mark Wheaton rewrote me and ended up getting credit and we are good friends. I read scripts for writer friends. I like writers. I respect writers. Writers automatically start out with my loyalty. You don’t gotta earn it…its a freebe. Basically for me to dislike a writer…they gotta eff up. Bad.
These cats effed up. Bad. I won’t get into the details because it doesn’t matter but we couldn’t really stomach handing our idea over so that these two jokers could take credit. I know Hollywood is a town that prides itself on rewarding bad behavior but no. Can’t do it. There aren’t as many jobs out there as there used to be. The idea that some fakers are taking jobs from good writers annoys me. I’m not saying that I should be King and decide who is worthy and who isn’t but I want to be King so I can decide who is worthy and who isn’t.
We passed.
Shame too. Because we wanted to be in bed with the Weinsteins. Patrick’s made 22 films with them. Not even Lucas understands the true symbiotic relationship that’s going on there. And I was more than happy to tag along.
While I didn’t write down passes on Drive Angry…we did have them. But again, they were praise passes. Weird. I’ve gone out with specs before. Most of the time you simply get, “pass”. Not this time. This time it was just weird. We LOVE it. Wish we could buy it but we can’t. For instance, Adam Goodman LOVED the script. Loved us. Kept saying he’s got to get us over to Paramount to write for him. This was before Adam took head office. He said if they were still making 20 pics a year it would be a slam dunk…but with less than ten slots…
June 2nd we finish ISWYD. We’d sent it to friends. Other writers. We had collected the feedback, tweaked, adjusted and were pumped at the outcome. Of course, we had yet to receive our contracts. Sigh. A phone call was made informing the powers that be…that we had a finished draft in hand. Four weeks early. Contracts showed up at the lawyers office an hour later. Imagine that.
It would take a few days to reach an agreement. At which point it was recommended that we hand in the draft. This actually annoyed me a bit.
When did we drop from “a finished script forcing a check to arrive” to “a finish script forcing an agreement to be reached”? You know what they do to you at the drive-thru don’t you?
But…we did as we were told. We handed in the script.
June 4th. Lesher/Weston out. Adam Goodman takes over as Grand Poohbah at Paramount. Interesting.

On June 8th we learn that Dreamworks passed on Fright Night. We were told that Spielberg had decided to go in a different direction.
We also learn that Relativity is doing a budget for Drive Angry before they’ll make an offer.
June 9th: We get paid for Commencement on ISWYD…even though we delivered four days ago. And only Commencement. NOT delivery. Even though we delivered four days ago. Even though it was a one-step deal which we delivered four days ago.
We also begin the heavy lifting that comes with creating a pitch. The Eyes of Laura Mars. It amazes me the amount of energy and brain power required to create a pitch. It is a massive undertaking.
That evening…around six or so…we learn that Relativity wants to meet at 10am the following morning. Only time they have. Quick shower/shave and I’m in the car. Pacific Grove to Agoura Hills. I’ll crash with Patrick. Two hours later I see an email about the meeting being postponed. I call Patrick. He’s on the phone with Zach. There’s much debate…will it or will it not happen? Finally I turn around and go home.
June 10th the Relativity meeting takes place at 11am. I miss it. But Patrick meets on our behalf and they love our little screenplay. Wheels are in motion.
June 11th. Rona responds to ISWYD. “It’s exactly what you guys said you’d deliver, but I’m having buyers remorse.” He tells us he feels the villain should be changed to a masked killer or a ghost because that’s what the kids want to see. But Andrew, we pitched you Three Days of the Condor in High School. Collateral meets Breakfast Club. Rona said he needed to think about it and get back to us.
We knew the romance was over.
Later we have a call with the producers on Eyes of Laura Mars. Turns out Clint owns the rights and hasn’t signed off. Sigh. Without Clint’s consent it’s all a waste of time. We try to explain this to the producer. Deer in the headlights.
June 15th: We meet DeLuca, Zach, Avi, Ari and Rachel at Sony and pitch Ghost Rider 2. We LOVED this pitch. We gave Ghost Rider a kryptonite. We created a smart villain who could go toe to toe. It was full of action. It had a smart, empowered female lead. It was scary. We pitched what we were asked to pitch, the horror version of a superhero story.

The pitch can be a high. You can tell when it’s going right. When it’s simply smoking. You can feel the electricity. You can see the sparkle. The giddy bounce of excitement in the listeners. The smiles, the laughs, the nods of enthusiasm. Now. None of that means anything in terms of getting the job or not. But it does mean the pitch went well.
On June 16, on her own, Jaime King sends a beautiful email to Avi and Ari praising what it was like working with us.
Later that day Jaime tells me she and Kyle are looking for a thriller that can be shot for under 15 million. I send her Riddle Me This. I also mention Monkey’s Paw which I wrote for RKO. She and Kyle are good friends with Kevin, an RKO exec. I tell Jaime that I actually wrote it with she and Tom Jane in mind. She says she’ll call Kevin.
June 19th, I drive into LA to meet with Geoff Steir. Geoff and I met ages ago. We developed a take on Magdelena based on one of David Wohl’s old Top Cow Comics. By the way, hot Catholic girl fighting evil in tight spandex. BIG fan. Now, Steir’s working under Goodman at Paramount. I drove in. We chatted. Was good to catch up. Something had come up so he needed to end a little early. So. I left. Let’s recap. Six hours to LA. 20 minute meeting. Six hours home. Who wants to be me?
June 20 Tom commission John Wrightson to begin work creating a sculpture for Devil’s Commandos. He’d already commissioned several AMAZING drawings from Bernie.

Same day, Bradstreet begins working on a Wolfbane poster for Comicon.
June 23rd. We’d planned on talking to Goodman about Damn Nation. It hit our radar a month or so ago. Dark Horse wanted to go one way. Paramount another. But it turns out Damn Nation was one of Westons. Which means it’s likely on its way into turnaround.
At the end of the day we learn Avi passed on our writing Ghost Rider 2. He said our take was too violent.
June 24th: Fright Night, Ghost Rider…even though we had great feedback and solid movement on Drive Angry…we really thought both of those were slam dunks. Not getting them was tough. It was a couple gut shots in a row. So, we refocused and got back to work.
Back when we were doing Haunting in Tennessee there was talk of a rewrite at Gold Circle. We all decided to wait until after HiT played out. Then we got busy doing other stuff. We asked one of the agents to follow up with Brad. See if it was still available. It was still available. But they wanted to go more four-quadrant and felt we weren’t right for it. Right in the gut.
But since the pass Patrick and I had taken Haunting in Tennessee and renamed it The Wanting. It was ours afterall. Based on my wife’s ghost story. We debated making it our next spec.
On June 26 we’d still heard nothing back from Rona. Due to his statement that kids only want to see masked killers and ghosts…we decided to send our very detailed outline for The Wanting to Dark Castle. Patrick jumps on the phone with Gambino who reiterates how much he loves ISWYD. But obviously it’s out of his hands.
End of the day we learn that Relativity is about to make an offer on Drive Angry.
June 30 we have a production meeting with Relativity. We’re told we’ll have an offer by the end of the day. We meet DeLuca, Zach and Josh then go up to meet with Ken Halsband (head of physical production) and Jason Barhydt (suit). Overall, it’s a good meeting. It’s very clear by the end of it that Patrick Lussier is no fake. He started as an editor. His brain is an encyclopedia of movies. He knows 3D like few others. It was a good meeting.

And thus brings us to the end of June.

25 days later Rona has still not paid us for Delivery of ISWYD.

So…in recap…Patrick and I write a spec called Drive Angry. We send it to a bunch of producers. Some pass. Others want in. We meet with and discuss and DeLuca blows them all out of the water. Tough love folks but that’s how she went down.
It takes a couple of days for DeLuca and our agents to connect. But when that finally happens the trigger is pulled. Mike DeLuca and team will produce Drive Angry. Our agents inform the other producers who had shown interest.
Now…I have been doing this Hollywood thing for a looooooooong time. Here’s how it normally works. There’s a job. I go in and pitch a story. This is not unlike going in, pulling your pants down and allowing everyone to inspect your penis. Sometimes they discuss your penis while you are in the room. Sometimes they tell you to go home so they can discuss your penis behind your back. Sometimes you get a call that says, “We thought your penis had some nice girth, but we’ve decided to go in a different penal direction.” Most of the time you simply hear nothing until you read on Nikki Finke or the Reporter that said producer went with someone else’s penis. And very rarely you’ll get a call informing you that we love your penis and would love to see more of it. Again. Rare.

But this is Hollywood for the writer. It’s what they don’t tell you in the brochure. I’ve said it before. Ain’t nearly as glamorous as you are led to believe. But in the end, it all comes down to the penis.
However, in this situation…Patrick and I wrote a spec. Producers read it and some wanted to be involved. So, we met and tried to determine who we thought would be the best fit. Pun…intended We were polite and respectful and once we made a decision, our agents made calls and we personally sent emails thanking everyone for their time and consideration. WAY MORE than we ever get when we are turned down or simply dismissed without a second glance.
And you know what…everyone was gracious. Everyone understood.
Except Tripp. He was angry. He felt cheated. He said it wasn’t fair. He felt DeLuca had more time to prepare. He felt we should choose him because he met with us so quickly. He announced that if we go with DeLuca then he gets to take the script to Screen Gems. Say what? I wonder how many writers have come back to Tripp angry when they didn’t get the job. Saying they felt cheated or that it wasn’t fair. Or that another writer had more time to prepare.
As a writer I’m not allowed to get upset. To throw a fit. I have to touch my knees and say, “Thank you, sir, may I have another.”
The double standards are exhausting.
Over the years I’ve heard great things about Tripp. This was not his finest hour.
On May 3rd Tom phones. He’s gonna do a graphic novel of Alien Pig Farm for Comicon and wants a preface for the book. I pound one out. Something mostly crude and vulgar in keeping with the tone of the book.
On May 4th after informing Neal and Mike that we went with DeLuca the four of us decide to pursue an old remake together.
On May 5th we send an email to the DeLuca team informing them how thrilled we are to be working with them.
May 8th I do an interview for Written By magazine, the WGA publication. It’s for an article about 3D. Specifically about writing for 3D. As always, I don’t sugar coat it. At least two directors will later be annoyed by what I had to say.
We also send our treatment for “Virgins” to the producers. Have I mentioned this one? Not sure. Patrick and I had started an adaptation of an old Patterson novel. With the Drive Angry hoops and ISWYD and half a dozen other gigs we were chasing, we figured we’d break the rules and just send our treatment to the producers. The heavy lifting was done. Either they’d love it or they wouldn’t.
May 11th ISWYD is announced in the Hollywood Reporter. Patrick and I are co-writing. I’m producing. Patrick’s directing.

On May 13 we sit down with DeLuca, Zach and Josh. The meeting is a blast. We talks strategy. DeLuca will have to go to Sony first. It’s a first look. Sony will likely pass. It’s a violent movie. Not a sequel or remake…not something Big Sony is likely to get. If they do want to pursue then we’ll likely end up going to Clint and Screen Gems (Tripp will be annoyed). During the discussion, I mention our pitching Fright Night to Clint and how he quickly shot us down.
DeLuca grinned.
Turns out…DeLuca recently acquired the rights and cut a deal with Dreamworks. Patrick gave them the quick pitch and Mike said he’d call Dreamworks to set a meeting.
On May 15, Dean and Elizabeth’s dog Lulu passes.
May 18. Melanie and I have been married for one million years. Happy Anniversary.

We expected Sony to pass on Drive Angry. They don’t. Rachel, the exec, wants to screen MBV.
May 19th, Sony is still bullish on Drive Angry. They won’t pull the trigger but they won’t give DeLuca the pass. He doesn’t wait. He sends the script to Fox, Uni, Relativity, New Regency and Adam Goodman at Paramount. He lets everyone know about Sony’s interest.
Meanwhile Patrick and I are pounding out ISWYD. Dark Castle has been politely pressuring us to finish. It is hinted that if we can deliver what we pitched they have the slot and the money to go into production immediately.
On May 27th we meet DeLuca at Dreamworks, and pitch Fright Night to Mark Sourian. Interesting meeting. Mark tells us exactly what he likes and doesn’t like. Not sure that’s good or bad…just commenting that it rarely happens.
On May 28th we finish our first pass on ISWYD. We have yet to be paid for commencement. We send the script to our network of readers. Close. Trusted.
Later that day we hear that Fright Night is between us and Kring from Heroes. Apparently Kring and Spielberg spoke about it. No clue what that means but we are all waiting on Kring to deliver his pitch and then DW will make a decision.
On May 29th Patrick and I have a general meeting with Avi and Ari Arad, DeLuca, Zach and Norm Golightly via conference call to discuss Ghost Rider 2. It’s a great meeting. The gist: Avi wants the horror movie version of a superhero movie. We just happen to know exactly how to do that. We sort of have the pitch in our heads while there, but we will retreat to our bat caves and solidify it.
Later that day we get a call that Weinstein biz affairs has called to make a writer’s deal with us. When we asked, “For which project? (over the past month we’d actually pitched four different stories.) We were told biz affairs wasn’t sure.
And thus brings us to the end of May.

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.

I know. Forgive me for the absence. As you’ll see…very soon we’ll pretend that I’ve been here all along.
So continues the story of March.

And we continue to write.

On March 11th Jake, my manger, sends over the graphic novel, Damn Nation. Vampire outbreak in America, survivors move to Canada and the UK. Interesting read.
On March 13th Patrick and I have a call with Toby at Original films to discuss rewriting the script for a remake. We tried to read the script they sent us. The two chuckleheads who wrote it are likely the worst successful writers in town. Welcome to Hollywood my friends. Where even the talentless can see their dreams come true. We pitch a page one rewrite and we blow Toby away if I’m allowed to toot my own horn. He got it. They don’t always get it. Especially genre. He did. Next step…set a time to pitch Moritz.
Then I leap in the car and make a mad six hour dash to LA to celebrate Tom’s birthday. I forget where it was. Some outside bar in Hollywood. It was the usual crowd. Bernie and Liz, Daly, Patricia, Cortney and David. Harben and Walters were in from Texas. Bob and Robert were there from Paradise. Hensleigh was there and had some wonderfully nice things to say about Valentine. I drank too much and smoked a smooth Cuban provided by Dr. Harben.

Later I lost my wallet outside a Denny’s. This very likely ruined the evening…or morning as it was.

On March 16, Patrick and I finish our rough draft of DRIVE ANGRY. Have I mentioned DA? Maybe that we’d started a spec. Here’s the quick story. Back when we assumed we would sort of automatically do a MBV sequel, we’d discussed writing a road movie that we could shoot fast and cheap. Old Man and Hot Blond on the run 70s movie. We’d shoot it while in post on MBV 2. Then LGF shattered our dreams. So, we decided to write it anyway. We had a blast writing it. We had a first act in our heads and just never stopped. We let the characters steer the ship. It was amazingly fun. We shoot it to close friends and agents to read.

Then me and Izzie go on a walk which starts in the woods…

…and ends at the ocean.

Between slamming out assorted pitches and outlines…the ocean keeps me sane.
On March 26 I SAW WHAT YOU DID closes. Did I mention that in the previous post? Can’t recall. It was Patrick’s gig. It was his take. He brought me in. ISWYD is an old William Castle movie. Two girls make crank calls saying, “I saw what you did!” It’s all fun and games until they cal a guy who just killed his wife. Hilarity ensues. The original which is nearly impossible to find, isn’t very good. And due to modern technology, doesn’t hold up. The project has been in development at Dark Castle since 2001 if I heard correctly. Several drafts had a couple girls calling a serial killer…hilarity ensues. Patrick’s take was brilliant. THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR in high school. The girls call Max von Sydow, a professional killer. We developed a take and pitched it twice. COLLATERAL meets BREAKFAST CLUB. Andrew Rona said, go write it! We cut our deals and got to work.
On March 29th We finished our distribution draft of DRIVE ANGRY. Friends and agents previously read it and loved it. The notes were minimal. We basically did a pass for type os. So we shoot it the agents and they begin prepping a list of producers.
Why producers? Why not just blitz the town? Good question but I have a good answer. A good producer can actually go a long way. A working producer. Not just a name that builds confidence and helps make the sell. But someone who can get the job done. Someone who can protect the director. We wanted…nay…needed Patrick to direct. DRIVE ANGRY in the wrong hands quickly becomes a disaster. I watched Patrick on MBV. I know where it started. Where we took it. And I know where it started to go, how dismal, how substandard. And I watched Patrick stop this from happening. I watched him bring it back to life, back to where it was before. Therefore, I trust him without question. We needed a producer who would protect Patrick. Fight his battles. And that would be the deal. We attach you, and you protect us. Seems an arrogant statement but we could afford some arrogance because the script is pretty good.

So, the girls and I went to the Ocean.

On March 30 Tom asks if he can give myself and Steve Niles a Special Thanks on Dark Country. We both say yes, thank you.
Over the course of the month I had a couple calls with Dark Horse to discuss Damn Nation. My take was Black Hawk Down with Vampires. They wanted something different and I’m still not sure what that was. Patrick had met with a Paramount exec and Damn Nation came up. Paramount was intrigued by the Black Hawk Down take. So it was a head-scratcher. If those who are making the film aren’t on the same page then best stay out of the way until they are. And that’s what we did.

Proof that Izzie’s smarter than she lets on.