If It Doesn’t Purr, Try Another Stroke!

It’s been a long month, or is it now two since our last update? One loses track of time.  Summer has nearly gone and folks in the biz are back at their desks. We’re still following up at intervals and so far have received a couple of “sorry haven’t gotten to it yet” replies. Meanwhile, we must all be patient. Gaaak!

We have a request: If you’re a screenwriter who is submitting to producers, would you please STOP THAT and give them a chance to catch up and read ours? Just kidding!!  It would be nice if people had enough time to read every script though, wouldn’t it? Maybe in a perfect world…

Is ANYTHING ever perfect? Is any SCRIPT ever perfect? For that matter, is any MOVIE? Is our script a diamond, so highly polished it blinds you? We’d like to think so. We’ve adhered to the original material enough to please the devoted fans. We’ve woven the story into a tight narrative with subtext, mythology and symbolism. We’ve stroked our theme until it… Can you hear it purring where you are? Well, then maybe we’re not stroking the right way yet.

So, Marla and I are going to plunge into another rewrite. Not because we’re convinced that our script is imperfect, but rather we feel it might still be enhanced, purr-wise. We felt it was time to get some further consulting and a coach.

We’ll probably improve many aspects as we go through the process again.

In the end, it may not be the quality of our writing that stands in the way of a sale. Just between us, my friend, I can admit we’ve got a lot of experience behind us.  The stumbling block may be the premise, the root of the story—the novel. The way the movie business works, we have to find a chain of champions who each individually believe in reincarnation and will promote a story based on that belief. The majority of people on our planet do. So you’d think our chances should be good. Fingers crossed? What, are you superstitious? You betcha!

Battling the current—till next time~~

Speeding Right Along -- No Cruise Control Yet!

We thought we would share with our readers some of the comments our adaptation script of GREEN DARKNESS has gathered along the road to being optioned. We're still driving in the fast lane of that highway of dreams -- 12 producers are reading the screenplay --             
hopefully at this very moment --



PRODUCERS:

“Given the red-hot status of the book, I’m sure you will find a great home for this project.”

“well-written; liked premise”

“script well-crafted & strongly written”


FANS:

C.B. Green Darkness is an eternal novel, repeatedly a Best Seller, your wonderful script is destined to become a Wonderful and Successful Movie, mmm, Poducers should be bright ... & fast enough to seize this golden opportunity!

D.E. I can't tell you how thrilled I am to see this wonderful work of fiction brought a bit closer to the big screen. I've read the book at least 40 times in the past 39 years since it was first published.  I am so psyched for this movie to be made!

C.B. I cannot express with words how exciting it's following your work

D.J. I've read the book twice over this holiday break, loved the story and can't wait to see it on the big screen!

K.S. Just found your blog and I’m so excited you’ve taken on this adaptation!

C.S. I am so excited that you are going to bring my all-time favorite book to the big screen! …I think as long as you make sure people know that it was originally Green Darkness, you’ll fill those theaters!

PRESS RELEASE

The novel GREEN DARKNESS by Anya Seton is a #2 Bestseller on Amazon.com!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D23&field-keywords=reincarnation&x=14&y=17#/ref=sr_st?keywords=reincarnation&qid=1306777436&rh=n%3A283155%2Cn%3A!1000%2Cn%3A23%2Ck%3Areincarnation&sort=salesrank 

This is great news for the screenwriters  (A Falkowska and MJ Hayes) who have optioned the book and written an adaptation, PREORDAINED, that is now being read by producers and managers!

The Brass Ring's Romantic Workout

When we set sail on this journey to get our adaptation written and  produced, we knew full well that it was going to take time. Are we not dealing with swamped professionals who get tens of thousands of queries every year? I know I wouldn’t want to be in their boat. But our dinghy is pitching as well (pardon the pun).

The creative urge doesn’t stop when you’re in 'waiting-mode', it just sloshes around in your brain every waking hour and makes you irritable and not fun to be around. It’s not as if anything else even comes close in interest, except family, maybe. And it’s enough to make you give you a migraine from the keel up!

I can now fully understand why our mentor, Hal Croasmun, always said, “Forget the small talk. There’s nothing more interesting than the biz.” On the other hand, he also said we should try to find some shared interest with people in the biz. Sigh. Another conundrum to contemplate as I’m swatting the sheep popping over the fence—aka falling asleep.

What we realized, but chose not to think so much about, was how much luck would have to do with it. If we had, we’d never have begun and would not then be more than halfway to our goal! One of our query letters was refused because the manager had another client with a very similar project and he felt taking ours on would create a conflict of interest. Now that’s hopeful. The idea of past lives is certainly out there in the mainstream by now, and someone is capitalizing on it. Bravo!

Our goal is to find a producer (at least one) who likes our query enough to request the script and then has a reader with the same sensibilities (one would hope that’s the case anyhow) who loves our script enough to champion it. And that this producer will also then read and love our script and champion it to his bosses and financiers, who will in turn also adore the concept enough to invest their money. A lot of things have to fall in place just to make the deal.

Fingers crossed for the next wave, we sail onward toward the brass ring!! Even if, at times, we have to blow in our own sails to move an inch!

And so it goes~~

Til next time
Angela

Going For The Passion!

It’s been a long week of waiting and moving on. Our GREEN DARKNESS adaptation is in the hands of many producers at this point. Help us visualize multiple positive responses.

We've had one response so far, a positive-negative, from a producer who said, "All in all, this was a well crafted and strongly written project." He just didn’t feel “passionate” enough about the material.

We’re not disheartened. After all, not everyone liked GREEN DARKNESS the novel—only those who read and re-read it! It’s all a matter of taste…and we need someone who feels the same way as we do about this story.

Meanwhile, we’re both looking for a new project that we can be just as passionate about!

Life is all about the passion. You get out of it what you put into it, she typed passionately.

Feel it, live it! Til next time~~

Angela 

Mother Hen and The Roosterlady Are Not Chicken!

Brooding mothers unite! We are so well matched, Marla and I, like sisters who were separated at birth. But I’m taller than she is and she’s younger than I am.

People call Marla “Mother Marla” and just for the record, I have been dubbed a mother hen on many an occasion, but I am far better known as the “Roosterlady”, because of all the rooster paintings I did before I discovered screenwriting.

Through our combined valiant querying efforts, Marla and I have pushed 10 eggs (our script, 10 times, ouch!) out into the world to be incubated by 10 companies, mostly producers but a couple of managers too. We hope they will help hatch out many viable chicks by their “yes” responses to our script.

There are too many fowl puns we could use to describe the torturous process of sending out queries to companies. Those stomach butterflies pale in comparison to querying our preferred actors’ managers, however! Let’s just say we’re not chicken….  

I admit it, yes, we’ve cracked (each other) up! 

My apologies to those who aren't up to a blog of puns, blame it on the stress if you must.

Later~~

Angela