Hollywoodland, power-procrastination & the age of indecisiveness

After six years of living in the land of lala, it's amazing how nothing truly gets done out here. I remember one of our guests at the AFI, Mark Canton as he came in and discussed the process of making films and how ridiculous it truly is. My classmates yawned as he churned out a few stories and one in particular regarding Men in Black tickled me with amusement. He was telling us how the VP of development at Sony was high on the film and walked into his office one day blabbering about Men in Black and how it was on the fast track. It wasn't until Mark pulled out this black t-shirt with white stenciled letters on the front that said:

Men in Black
Summer 1994

If memory serves me, the film amassed popularity circa summer of 1997. A 150million dollar followed up in the summer of 2002 that ran an insanely short 88 minutes. I dare you to do the math to figure that one out. Your ass in the seat is precious time and a great cost to the studio.

So, what gives in this day and age of crap filmmaking? Laziness. No one wants to drop a penny and they seem to want the world. The days of the mail room assistant moving up the ranks and securing a production development gig are over. Geffen's story is the most notable when it comes to successes like that. I admire his trials and tribulations. One of the pioneers of the industry has come under fire recently and feel for Mr. Ed Limato and his dealings with ICM. Ed is an old school duck that prides himself with his accomplishments and grooms his assistants for agency positions. Kudos to you Ed for taking the time. You have good karma.

I feel for the system right now. Everyone seems to have the answer, but does one truly exist?

As far as the old adage, keep writing, directing, etc...your talent will prove itself. Not anymore. It seems to be the way of the gun now. Blood spatter cover production company hallways and agency bathroom stalls. There's a tremendous amount of talent out there with shitty representation that don't do anything for their people yet studios keep going to the same incestuous pool of talent that keeps regurgitating the same crap. Crap that brings in the dollars. Sorry to say, but your stories are beginning to tire audiences...

Last summer, I was dealing with a mid-size agency. The agent I had been in touch with was genuine and after countless emails in the middle of the night, I unkowingly Jerry MaGuired my thoughts into one helluva cohesive love letter to the industry. After a great response, I was on their watch list. Then it came down to the firm not wanting to develop new talent but they wanted me to come back after I sold something. Huh! What am I six years old? Do I need to be developed? Yikes. I guess getting into the most cut-throat film school in the world and learning from the best just doesn't complement a solid piece of material enough. It's their loss.

Going back to the Mark Canton story...I remember another about his ex-wife. Ms. Wendy Finerman. She had a gem of a project that circled a couple studios for a long time. People seemed to like it but were scared at the same time. Finally after nearly ten years, the film was greenlit and saw the light of day. Has anyone heard of Forrest Gump? I do believe that film won multiple academy awards and grossed over 300 million domestically.

Remember that old Sprite commercial, one helluva gem...it was a corporate meeting talking about a film, the tagline, product placement, etc...and at the end one of the suits asked:

"What about the script?"

The head suit shakes his head-

"We don't have anything yet but something will be banged out by next week."

Sprite surely summed up this town with that commercial. The controversy of horror films waning out and the ups and downs of audience attendance can be attributed to one word; Quality.

Quality and passionate material has a difficult time surfacing in this town. The struggle to get a film made has dissipated and now the difficulty is getting distribution. This is even an obstacle for executives with a notable track record. It just doesn't make any sense.

Where does Hollywood go from here? The answer is coming soon to a theatre near you.