Wendago

Just got an email from Lori at Tiger Hill. They’d like to start pitching Demonik as a feature. It’s gonna be a tough feature pitch. I guess we got passed on all the game developer pitches which will make setting it up as a feature even tougher. Feature execs are gonna want to know why we didn’t go to developers first and we’re gonna have to tell them we got passed on.
I’m sort of swamped right now. By choice, of course, because I’m having a blast with the Last Vampire but I’ll find some time to work out a feature pitch. It’s gonna be a tough sell. First the lead is a bad guy. Second he spends his time possessing others — which means he’ll be played by mulitple actors. If the game were set up that’d be one thing….oh well.

Well, that was uncomfortable. I went in to meet Mike’s boss and suddenly he gave me the ol’, “Give me the pitch and treat me like I’m Sci-Fi.” Ugh. Let go of my ears, I know what I’m doing.
So I started my pitch and he stopped me every twelve seconds to give me a pointer or tell me what didn’t work for him. It became clear that he didn’t understand the story and he admitted that numerous times. Toward the end my feathers smoothed out and I realized that he really was just trying to help. He wanted me to be able to tell the story so that even someone who didn’t like these types of movies could understand.
I must admit my confidence was shaken as I left. If that was a pep talk meant to give me magical powers…it failed. I left there thinking this guy clearly has no faith in me whatsoever.
I’ve been thinking about it since I left and Thursday I think I’ll just go in and do my thing.

Had my call with Whitley today and…heck it went great. We were bouncing ideas back and forth and I didn’t feel any ill will. He was great. And I honestly think we came up with some great additions. If I can win Sci-Fi over then this might actually be alot of fun.
Not only that, but this story has TV series written all over it. Granted it wouldn’t be a big Network show but I could run this show. And working at Sci-Fi would be a great way to get my feet wet and learn the bidness. Dean’s been working TV for several years now and I’m very drawn to both his income and his security. I’m gonna shoot for series if this thing moves forward.
Anyway the Sci-Fi meeting is Thursday but I gotta go in tomorrow to meet Mike’s boss. I take it he wants to hear what I’ve got and give me some pitching pointers.

I sent a dozen or so pages over to Mike yesterday morning…I nearly pulled an all-nighter. I think I figured out a nice way to streamline the plot as well as add a couple of twists and turns. I’m basically taking a six hour mini and turning it into a four hour. Night one is a piece of cake. It’s gonna write itself. I can already tell. Night two might need some work.
Mike is setting a conference call between us and Whitley next week, Monday I think. I’m sort of dreading it. I’ve never had a good experience when it comes to my walking in and pee peeing all over an author’s work. I guess we’ll see.
Then we go in to Sci-Fi next week and I’ll give them my pitch.
Also met with Navid again today. I gave he and another exec a pitch based on a story they’d told to me. They liked it but they were looking for something a little more simple and old school. Basically they want a Texas Chainsaw or Friday the 13th or Halloween. They don’t want complexity it seems. sobeit. I’ll dumb it down.

The big computer finally showed up. And man is it sweet. Of course, it took 60 days to get the silly thing and now that I’ve gotten it I don’t have bragging rights because it’s already outdated. Mel ordered the 3.2 and now the 3.4s are available. That’s a bummer.
Mike Goldstein called to see if I’d be interested in adapting a couple of horror novels. I did a couple of adaptations back when I was with Sean and they weren’t much fun. Especially when the original authors got involved.
But the two, Goldstein is suggesting, were written by Whitley Strieber. “Wolfen” was the first book I read cover to cover and I’ve yet to read a book that screwed me up more than “Communion”.
The books in question are “The Last Vampire” and “Lilith’s Dream”, they are the follow up books to “The Hunger”. Mike sent over the Bible that he and Whitley have been working on for some time. I read through it and I love it. Not only do I love it but I think I see how I could add some nice set pieces to it.
Haven’t been able to get it out of my mind. Think I’ll work on my take now.