May 11, 1987
Sat in a big room with leather couches with Virginia, two of the partners (Jim Berkus and Gary Cosay), and another agent, Anne Dollard.
(“They’re just guys,” Tomi coached me before I flew down. “Pretend you’re going into a meeting with Doug and Gene Portwood.”)
They all listened in attentive silence while I pitched my high-school-narc script idea. Finally Jim Berkus broke in, gently. “That’s a good idea,” he said. “But…”
Whereupon they all informed me that there are about three feature films involving undercover cops in high school already in development. Plus a TV series called 21 Jump Street, which I would have known if I ever watched TV, or looked at a TV Guide. I felt like an idiot. Awkward moment. The meeting broke up soon after.
They still want to take me on as a client, though.
“Try to think of some other movie ideas,” Virginia suggested. She gave me about nine scripts to take home, Xerox and send back to her. Screenplays of films actually in production. She also let me pore through her “red book” for a couple of hours while she went to lunch with a guy from UA. It was terrifically exciting.
The “red book” contained a capsule description of every feature film currently in development anywhere, with notations like “Status: Needs Director” or “Needs Major Star” or “Needs Script.” The descriptions were “Like Alien underwater” or “Remake of The Hit only funnier.” Bizarre.
May 22, 1987
Virginia called me at work to say that Curtis Hanson (writer/director of The Bedroom Window) had read the script and wants to talk to me about it. I called him at home.
“I’ve been reading a lot of thrillers lately,” he said, “obviously, because of Bedroom Window. Most of them are boring and bad. Yours was interesting and unusual. I had some ideas on how you might improve it.” We talked for an hour.
**
Don Daglow, who just came over from Electronic Arts, wants Broderbund to do Karateka II. We sat in his office and chatted while Ed Badasov sat there, eyes darting nervously back and forth between us. Don offered a 3% royalty. They both wanted me to say yes. I didn’t.
June 10, 1987
I told Virginia my Anasazi and secret-society movie ideas. I think she was sort of bemused that they were so incomplete. She said a 14-year-old lead is a hard sell, and anything to do with Indians is a hard sell.
“I have faith that you’ll work these into something good,” she said. “But it would be good if you could do that within the next week or so.”
June 22, 1987
I finished the rewrite and sent it to Virginia and Curtis Hanson this morning.
Virginia says she showed the first draft to a lot of people and everybody is all excited. “The word ‘genius’ has been thrown around,” she said. (In what context, I wonder: “Who’s the GENIUS who made me waste my time reading this #$@#! crap?!?”)
But the big news is that Larry Turman, big-name producer (The Graduate; more recently, Short Circuit) wants to make Birthstone. We talked for about an hour Saturday about the changes he’d like to see. He’s going to Europe for three weeks. I told him I’d do another rewrite while he’s away, then we can talk when he gets back.
Virginia apologized for not getting me any money to do the rewrites.
I told her not to worry, I don’t feel like I’m being exploited. “The way I see it, I’m getting the benefit of these guys’ talent and experience for free. And even if nothing happens, I end up with a better script for my trouble.”
There was a long pause, then she said: “I think you’re going to do very well here.”
July 1, 1987
Curtis Hanson called back. He liked the rewrite and wants to “attach himself” to the project.
July 8, 1987
I told Virginia I’m no good at “pitching” and would rather write the secret-society idea as a “spec” screenplay. She said that in that case, it might be a good idea for me to go into these meetings and talk about kinds of movies I like, “so you don’t appear tongue-tied.”
Oliver North is testifying on TV as a sort of running background to everything.
(Game? What game?)
