Wendago

Mel and I had lunch with Dean Riesner. He’s so freaking funny, he still can’t keep his hands off of Mel. He was hugging on her and wouldn’t let go and I was like, “Dude, I’m standing right here. Get a room or something.”

No news on “Riddle Me This”. Nicole tells me we still aren’t dead but she’s having to push a rock up hill with both Warners and Constantine. Just the ego boost I was needing right now.
My meeting with David Engel went good. Met with Bic Tran at Lakeshore. Cool little lady. She wants something with an Everyman. Brad Luff at Original Film was a short meeting. Friday was Heather Courtney at Bel-Air. Good atmosphere. Pretty girl. But then, all female execs are pretty. It’s a rule.
Next week is busy too. Five meetings. Two on Monday. Then one is set the following week and Miramax is still to be set. If nothing else, Riddle has certainly introduced me to the “No People”. Those are the execs who don’t have the power to say yes but they do have the power to say no. A tough crowd to get passed. Must improve my butt kissing skills I suppose.
Here’s the deal about general meetings. We both want something. They want me to leak to them this amazing story which we can then develop together. They’d rather me come to them first with all my ideas so that they can pick and choose rather than have to bid on something they like later and end up paying more. That’s what they want. I want a job. I want them to hire me to rewrite something they’ve had sitting in house. I want them to think I’m the perfect writer for something they have yet to be able to crack. I’m in it for the money. In the end we both lose. I don’t give them stories for free and they don’t offer me jobs. In the end a general meeting is just that. General. Introductions are made.
And through all of these meetings, everyone loves Riddle. They go on and on about how brilliant it was. Then why didn’t you buy it? I never ask the question though. I’m still learning. Fooling them. Pretending I know what I’m doing until maybe one day I will.
Clay Chapman (an old college buddy) sent me an email saying he was thinking about coming to town. Clay’s high school sweetheart introduced me to Dean Lorey which brought me to LA. Told Clay if he did come out he was welcome to stay here.
Barry Fortner (buddy from both High School and College) is flying into town on Monday. We may try to hook up.
Randy Newcomb, an old high school buddy got in touch with me through my dad. We chatted a bit. Told me he’d run into Johnny Brodski, who’s name I used in Jason X. He talked like Brodski was overjoyed. It was a fluke more than anything else. I needed a name so I thumbed through an old annual and his name jumped out as unique. Course I won’t tell Brodski that. Or maybe I will.

Riesner was about as grumpy as I’ve ever seen him. I guess Sean and new girlfriend are helping Dean remodle his house or something. Replacing the carpet, painting…that sort of thing. He said he felt like they were getting the place ready to take over once he kicked the bucket. That’s probably just Dean being Dean but he seemed certainly more depressed than usual. Mel told him to leave all his freaking money to Charity and screw them all.

Getting ready for my meeting at Mace-Neufeld on the Sony lot. Meeting with David Engel at 11:00. My strategy is to be arrogant.

Met with Kevin Lake. Real nice guy. We discussed “Lock Box” and the fact that the fix would be a big undertaking. I thought the meeting went well, but not sure if anything could come from it.
Nicole talked with Susan from Silver Pictures. While meeting with them I had made the joke that I was stunned “Riddle” didn’t sell for a million. I was joking but evidently they found me arrogant and ambiguous. Hrm, I’m guessing I didn’t get the “Blue Nowhere” job.