HOLLYWOODSCRIPT.COM
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Craig Kellem
Jan 7, 2014, 2:35:18 PM1/7/14
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* STAR
Inside or outside of “Hollywood,” going from script to film is always
a colossal feat. It’s not a phony performance when some tearful, but
ever-so-grateful soul comes on stage at the Academy Awards and
sincerely tells the audience what an epic, and fluke-filled journey it
was to actually get there. I remember several years ago, when a film,
I think it was Juno, won Best Picture, and a passionate comment was
made about all it took to arrive at this point, including folks having
to put up their houses in order to come up with the rest of the needed
cash to complete the movie.
After serving my tenure as a development executive at Universal, I
spent one year on the lot as a producer. There was a writer in the
same building I inhabited who had been at the writing game for about
twenty years, without any of his scripts actually being produced. But
one fine day a hot TV star, now ready for the big screen, found a
script that he liked, completely by chance. It had been written ten
years prior by my building mate and now - at long last - was going
into production. I remember my friend the writer telling me that he
could finally go back home to the Midwest and see a movie he had
written accompanied by his parents. This would finally convince them
that he was who he claimed to be, since it had always been beyond them
how anyone could be a writer without ever having product to show.
Of course the battle still wasn’t over. Turned out that his big screen
debut was eclipsed by a Spielberg blockbuster that had opened at the
same time. You can guess which line most people were standing in.
Still, he had finally made it into theatres, which is no small task!
As script consultants, Judy and I want the best for those who come to
us with stars in their eyes. We do our utmost to recognize and enhance
the sparks of magic that so often exist in their material. Our job is
to help writers make their scripts as stellar as they can be, and then
point them in the right direction as they enter the mercurial arena of
marketing their labors of love.
And we try to communicate to all writers that selling a script is a
quirky, unpredictable and challenging process.
But writers do have a chance in this haphazard process, because the
fact is that the industry needs a constant stream of viable material.
The writer’s key offense in this uncertain game is being armed with
polished pages and the stamina to weather that very long marketing
road, which awaits most of them.
Jim Janosky was a writer who possessed these key qualities for going
the distance. He came to us several years ago with a project about a
guy who was deeply depressed, down on his luck, and had decided to
drive from the East Coast to San Francisco so he could jump off the
Golden Gate Bridge.
I loved the concept and it didn’t hurt that I also happen to really
enjoy road shows. So we started our developmental and consulting trek
and did we ever have a grand time doing it! As we moved along, his
hero got to experience some off-the-chart types of adventures,
visiting super cool places, getting himself into scrapes, and forging
a profound friendship with a mangy, one-of-a-kind dog, who was in
about the same shape as our protagonist. He also made “final” visits
to folks he had once known, all rendered with hilarity, drama and
depth, including the girl he had wanted so badly at one time, who
might now be available after all—how sad this encounter with her would
turn out to be. What a terrific odyssey it all became.
It took real time to get this script, which he called Star to where it
needed to be, but it was worth the labor because it was really, really
good.
The moment finally arrived when Jim’s script was ready for the next
step. In this regard it was jettisoned by firstly winning our contest,
which can certainly help a writer get started on what’s most often a
long and lonely marketing road. He got some feelers but as they say,
no cigar, and Jim quickly began to realize how much effort he would
need to put into this aspect of things. Indeed, the heavyweight bout
had only just commenced.
Jim was not a glamorous, twenty or thirty-something N.Y.C./L.A.
hipster, all ready to fit nicely into the Hollywood niche. He was a
steady, married with children type, living in Tennessee where he
taught science. But he was tenacious and he was in possession of
something powerful—A BLOODY GOOD SCRIPT!!
Jim decided to go beyond the call of duty and check out what was going
on in L.A. He made the trip out there and used every possible means to
get himself noticed. He had his first “power meeting” with my brother,
a Hollywood literary agent, who liked the script a lot. Other meetings
and readings and the like ensued, but he still didn’t have anything
tangible to show for it except his airplane bill, and the joy of
temporarily living the life of a working writer, pounding on doors,
script in hand.
He kept going back and forth between Tennessee and L.A., meticulously
expanding his horizons, making what contacts he could. One thing was a
constant: people liked his script! Although that fact and 50 cents
won’t get you a seat on the New York subway, this was SIGNIFICANT.
Jim contacted me from time to time reporting which celebrity he’d seen
at the Polo Lounge, and what juicy, la-la-land –type situations he had
encountered. And then he finally had a sliver of good news when a
couple of producers read his script and wanted to “run with the
project.”
But nothing that would pay the rent or bring him some glory developed
from this event.
At some point down the line, he actually managed to make what’s called
the Hollywood “Blacklist,” which is a list of scripts that people in
the theatrical community feel should be made, even though none have
been so thus far. It took Jim real time to reach this plateau, but it
still wouldn’t pay for a bag of peanuts.
Nevertheless, it was another sign of life, AND SIGNS OF LIFE ARE
SIGNIFICANT. They must be realized on this broad highway!!
Jim and I worked on several other projects over the years; and then,
he stopped calling.
Last week, his wife Annette contacted me and told me that Jim had
passed away unexpectedly. He was way too young. I was very sad to hear
this. I was very fond of him.
She also wanted me to know that Star, now called Dark Around the
Stars, has actually been made and is now in editing. The movie has an
impressive cast and was directed by Derrick Borte (The Joneses, Code
Duello and London Town). She sent me a trailer for the film (attached
here), which reflects Jim’s creative vision in spades.
Thank God Jim knew of this huge success before he died!
I know that there’s an ironic sadness to this, but it also proves that
getting a film made can be done. It’s always a rocky, mercurial tale
of close calls, false starts, near misses, years of hard work and
patience. But it can happen.
When you’re out there, feeling alone with your script, this task can
seem impossible. The love of creating something and of expressing
oneself must be the fuel for all those long hours at the desk, as well
as the wait for interest from the marketplace. But finally being
read, recognized, and all that comes with it, is definitely a very
nice cherry on top.
And so, if it seems like nobody outside of the Hollywood “insider”
universe ever gets those ultimate rewards, remember the Jim Janoskys
of the world. He wasn’t an isolated anomaly.
Over the past years of working as consultants, many of our clients
have found the recognition they so deserve – whether it’s via finding
an agent, getting optioned, being vigorously submitted, winning a
contest, winding up with a fine script that someone buys or that they
can find a way to make themselves. But, as said, success is often via
a fluke-ish set of circumstances, which, in this business, is the norm
for everyone involved – writers and consultants alike!
When we first started Hollywoodscript.com I got to work with a writer
by the name of Brad Kayya on the script for the movie O. How easy it
seemed when it finally popped up on the screen and gave us something
early in the game to brag about. In time I began to realize how
fluke-ish it was to have gotten so lucky at just the right time.
We were recently involved with a producer who came to us with a
project that wasn’t working. He was already hooked up with folks who
were prepared to make a film, subject to finding the right material.
The script he brought to us was workable, but needed a lot of
revision. The client worried it would take too much time to make all
the changes, so I asked him if he’d be interested in looking at other
projects we’d worked on that were already ripe and ready. He said OK.
We sent him a few pieces of coverage from past clients and eureka, one
of our favorite young writers, Tom Shipley, sold his script to this
producer and his backers! Tom’s film will be made next winter.
Last Will (2011, starring TATUM O'NEAL, TOM BERENGER, JAMES BROLIN and
ARMAND ASSANTE) was a project on which Judy and I worked very hard
creatively, but in the long run, it ended up getting made more as a
result of our having helped to introduce the right players to each
other, than on anything else.
Sometimes a client is able to live the dream of writing a script and
seeing it soar quickly. Our client Joanne Wannan worked tirelessly
with us on her script Obituary, then sold it within a year to the
Lifetime network. It was broadcast all over the world – a true
fairytale type experience for all concerned.
Two Minute Heist, Crazy Like a Fox, The Amati Girls and several others
we’ve watched go from page to screen all share in this unpredictable
road to recognition. But no matter what the details are in how these
writers broke through industry gatekeepers, there are always multiple
forces at work including tenacity, patience and wildly good luck, all
underwritten by strong material!
We’re very proud of Jim Janosky and all the others we’ve seen go this
intensely challenging distance from having an idea to seeing it play
out in a tangible and profitable way. Keep believing that it’s
possible, keep working hard to get your material as good as it can be;
but always know that getting your script made is almost always a very
capricious process.
Indeed, screenwriting, like life, is a true game of human will and the
tides of fate ever converging.
http://www.nwzplay.de/videos/853-dark-around-the-stars-der-trailer
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2088907/fullcredits
Inside or outside of “Hollywood,” going from script to film is always
a colossal feat. It’s not a phony performance when some tearful, but
ever-so-grateful soul comes on stage at the Academy Awards and
sincerely tells the audience what an epic, and fluke-filled journey it
was to actually get there. I remember several years ago, when a film,
I think it was Juno, won Best Picture, and a passionate comment was
made about all it took to arrive at this point, including folks having
to put up their houses in order to come up with the rest of the needed
cash to complete the movie.
After serving my tenure as a development executive at Universal, I
spent one year on the lot as a producer. There was a writer in the
same building I inhabited who had been at the writing game for about
twenty years, without any of his scripts actually being produced. But
one fine day a hot TV star, now ready for the big screen, found a
script that he liked, completely by chance. It had been written ten
years prior by my building mate and now - at long last - was going
into production. I remember my friend the writer telling me that he
could finally go back home to the Midwest and see a movie he had
written accompanied by his parents. This would finally convince them
that he was who he claimed to be, since it had always been beyond them
how anyone could be a writer without ever having product to show.
Of course the battle still wasn’t over. Turned out that his big screen
debut was eclipsed by a Spielberg blockbuster that had opened at the
same time. You can guess which line most people were standing in.
Still, he had finally made it into theatres, which is no small task!
As script consultants, Judy and I want the best for those who come to
us with stars in their eyes. We do our utmost to recognize and enhance
the sparks of magic that so often exist in their material. Our job is
to help writers make their scripts as stellar as they can be, and then
point them in the right direction as they enter the mercurial arena of
marketing their labors of love.
And we try to communicate to all writers that selling a script is a
quirky, unpredictable and challenging process.
But writers do have a chance in this haphazard process, because the
fact is that the industry needs a constant stream of viable material.
The writer’s key offense in this uncertain game is being armed with
polished pages and the stamina to weather that very long marketing
road, which awaits most of them.
Jim Janosky was a writer who possessed these key qualities for going
the distance. He came to us several years ago with a project about a
guy who was deeply depressed, down on his luck, and had decided to
drive from the East Coast to San Francisco so he could jump off the
Golden Gate Bridge.
I loved the concept and it didn’t hurt that I also happen to really
enjoy road shows. So we started our developmental and consulting trek
and did we ever have a grand time doing it! As we moved along, his
hero got to experience some off-the-chart types of adventures,
visiting super cool places, getting himself into scrapes, and forging
a profound friendship with a mangy, one-of-a-kind dog, who was in
about the same shape as our protagonist. He also made “final” visits
to folks he had once known, all rendered with hilarity, drama and
depth, including the girl he had wanted so badly at one time, who
might now be available after all—how sad this encounter with her would
turn out to be. What a terrific odyssey it all became.
It took real time to get this script, which he called Star to where it
needed to be, but it was worth the labor because it was really, really
good.
The moment finally arrived when Jim’s script was ready for the next
step. In this regard it was jettisoned by firstly winning our contest,
which can certainly help a writer get started on what’s most often a
long and lonely marketing road. He got some feelers but as they say,
no cigar, and Jim quickly began to realize how much effort he would
need to put into this aspect of things. Indeed, the heavyweight bout
had only just commenced.
Jim was not a glamorous, twenty or thirty-something N.Y.C./L.A.
hipster, all ready to fit nicely into the Hollywood niche. He was a
steady, married with children type, living in Tennessee where he
taught science. But he was tenacious and he was in possession of
something powerful—A BLOODY GOOD SCRIPT!!
Jim decided to go beyond the call of duty and check out what was going
on in L.A. He made the trip out there and used every possible means to
get himself noticed. He had his first “power meeting” with my brother,
a Hollywood literary agent, who liked the script a lot. Other meetings
and readings and the like ensued, but he still didn’t have anything
tangible to show for it except his airplane bill, and the joy of
temporarily living the life of a working writer, pounding on doors,
script in hand.
He kept going back and forth between Tennessee and L.A., meticulously
expanding his horizons, making what contacts he could. One thing was a
constant: people liked his script! Although that fact and 50 cents
won’t get you a seat on the New York subway, this was SIGNIFICANT.
Jim contacted me from time to time reporting which celebrity he’d seen
at the Polo Lounge, and what juicy, la-la-land –type situations he had
encountered. And then he finally had a sliver of good news when a
couple of producers read his script and wanted to “run with the
project.”
But nothing that would pay the rent or bring him some glory developed
from this event.
At some point down the line, he actually managed to make what’s called
the Hollywood “Blacklist,” which is a list of scripts that people in
the theatrical community feel should be made, even though none have
been so thus far. It took Jim real time to reach this plateau, but it
still wouldn’t pay for a bag of peanuts.
Nevertheless, it was another sign of life, AND SIGNS OF LIFE ARE
SIGNIFICANT. They must be realized on this broad highway!!
Jim and I worked on several other projects over the years; and then,
he stopped calling.
Last week, his wife Annette contacted me and told me that Jim had
passed away unexpectedly. He was way too young. I was very sad to hear
this. I was very fond of him.
She also wanted me to know that Star, now called Dark Around the
Stars, has actually been made and is now in editing. The movie has an
impressive cast and was directed by Derrick Borte (The Joneses, Code
Duello and London Town). She sent me a trailer for the film (attached
here), which reflects Jim’s creative vision in spades.
Thank God Jim knew of this huge success before he died!
I know that there’s an ironic sadness to this, but it also proves that
getting a film made can be done. It’s always a rocky, mercurial tale
of close calls, false starts, near misses, years of hard work and
patience. But it can happen.
When you’re out there, feeling alone with your script, this task can
seem impossible. The love of creating something and of expressing
oneself must be the fuel for all those long hours at the desk, as well
as the wait for interest from the marketplace. But finally being
read, recognized, and all that comes with it, is definitely a very
nice cherry on top.
And so, if it seems like nobody outside of the Hollywood “insider”
universe ever gets those ultimate rewards, remember the Jim Janoskys
of the world. He wasn’t an isolated anomaly.
Over the past years of working as consultants, many of our clients
have found the recognition they so deserve – whether it’s via finding
an agent, getting optioned, being vigorously submitted, winning a
contest, winding up with a fine script that someone buys or that they
can find a way to make themselves. But, as said, success is often via
a fluke-ish set of circumstances, which, in this business, is the norm
for everyone involved – writers and consultants alike!
When we first started Hollywoodscript.com I got to work with a writer
by the name of Brad Kayya on the script for the movie O. How easy it
seemed when it finally popped up on the screen and gave us something
early in the game to brag about. In time I began to realize how
fluke-ish it was to have gotten so lucky at just the right time.
We were recently involved with a producer who came to us with a
project that wasn’t working. He was already hooked up with folks who
were prepared to make a film, subject to finding the right material.
The script he brought to us was workable, but needed a lot of
revision. The client worried it would take too much time to make all
the changes, so I asked him if he’d be interested in looking at other
projects we’d worked on that were already ripe and ready. He said OK.
We sent him a few pieces of coverage from past clients and eureka, one
of our favorite young writers, Tom Shipley, sold his script to this
producer and his backers! Tom’s film will be made next winter.
Last Will (2011, starring TATUM O'NEAL, TOM BERENGER, JAMES BROLIN and
ARMAND ASSANTE) was a project on which Judy and I worked very hard
creatively, but in the long run, it ended up getting made more as a
result of our having helped to introduce the right players to each
other, than on anything else.
Sometimes a client is able to live the dream of writing a script and
seeing it soar quickly. Our client Joanne Wannan worked tirelessly
with us on her script Obituary, then sold it within a year to the
Lifetime network. It was broadcast all over the world – a true
fairytale type experience for all concerned.
Two Minute Heist, Crazy Like a Fox, The Amati Girls and several others
we’ve watched go from page to screen all share in this unpredictable
road to recognition. But no matter what the details are in how these
writers broke through industry gatekeepers, there are always multiple
forces at work including tenacity, patience and wildly good luck, all
underwritten by strong material!
We’re very proud of Jim Janosky and all the others we’ve seen go this
intensely challenging distance from having an idea to seeing it play
out in a tangible and profitable way. Keep believing that it’s
possible, keep working hard to get your material as good as it can be;
but always know that getting your script made is almost always a very
capricious process.
Indeed, screenwriting, like life, is a true game of human will and the
tides of fate ever converging.
http://www.nwzplay.de/videos/853-dark-around-the-stars-der-trailer
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2088907/fullcredits
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