Category: Journal

Riesner and I still haven’t come up with anything to write. I’m running out of ideas. I suggested a western with a twist. Couple of Texas Rangers are pursuing a bad guy and chase him through time to present day. Sort of a “Time After Time” with an old west twist. He didn’t get it. He gave me a script about an old dude who falls for a hot young con artist. It wasn’t that good. I think he’s had it sitting around for ages. Well, the characters and dialog were brilliant but there wasn’t much of a story. With today’s M-TV gen X – man, Simpson’s POV, every story has to have plenty of twists and turns. I don’t think Dean likes twists and turns.
Not sure what to do next. I’m out of ideas.

Riesner and I are talking about writing something together. I suggested “Dirty Harry 2002”. Basically do with the “Dirty Harry” franchise what Eastwood did with his Westerns in “Unforgiven”. I got the idea from Mark Haslett. Mark used to be Cunningham’s VP of production.
Don’t think Dean sparked to the idea though. Not sure what he wants to do. He seems a little confused lately. He wants to see his name in lights one last time. He says it all the time. I told him I don’t exactly add anything to this little venture. I’m still an unknown writer and when I am finally known with the release of Jason that my celebrity might be a negative thing. My gut says JasonX is going to bomb. Hollywood still frowns on horror. Even the Scream genre has lost its appeal to them.
I pitched Dean a number of ideas but he really didn’t spark to any of them. We’ll meet again later and I’ll come up with some more ideas.

Dean Lorey and I have added racquetball to our plethora of competitions. In the beginning I was wasting him but it’s pretty even now. He’s quicker than I am but I’ve got a longer reach. We’re a pretty good match in Quake II as well. We’ve all but stopped playing EQ. Doesn’t bother me at all.
We all took a break from the game and I made the mistake of letting one of the other online friends start using my cleric. Now he won’t give him back. Matter of fact, I don’t think that friend even plays the character any more. Someone else does. Yllo Clos du Bois. That’s the dwarf cleric’s name on the Bertoxx server. You ever run into him treat him like a stolen BMW.

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.