October 1, 1987
Gary loved the rewrite. Larry’s response was more mixed. Curtis said straight out he was disappointed.
October 5, 1987
Don Daglow said: “When are you going to leave F. Scott Fitzgerald emulation mode and finish Prince of Persia so we can publish it?” whereupon Gary [Carlston] said: “I take a more low-key approach, based on the possibility that F. Scott Fitzgerald mode might actually work out.”
Broderbund is really hurting for games. Last night Gary and Doug and Bill McDonagh were talking about third-quarter sales. Doug turned to me and asked “Can you have it ready by tomorrow?”
October 19, 1987
Larry Turman called. “You did really good work – I think it’s the absolute best yet.” He still has a few suggestions, but he wants to go ahead with this version. He asked one curious question: “Is Leading Artists your official agent – have you signed contracts with them?” I told him I had.
“Congratulations,” he said. “We’ll go out into the world!”
The stock market crashed. A 500-point drop in one day.
October 20, 1987
Larry called me to find out what’s going on. He hasn’t heard from my agents or anyone and is getting antsy. Is Curtis in or out? I didn’t know what to tell him.
October 30, 1987
Curtis is out. No hard feelings.
November 17, 1987
My long-postponed lunch with Ed Badasov. I levelled with him. I told him everything that’s been happening with the screenplay, and (Tomi’s suggestion) asked for his advice.
Ed thought about it gravely, admitted he could see my dilemma. We left it that I’ll try coming in a few days a week and see how much I can get done.
Basically, I’ve done no work on POP for six months.
