ARTICLE: New Regency Studios. Heaven or Hell?

The Devil? Is that Prada around her neck?

Let's take a little trip into the weeds of Hollywood, shall we? The real nitty gritty of it all. Where the rubber really meets the road.

Hollywood, at its core is a business driven first and foremost by people.  It is about relationships. When you need something, and everyone in HW needs something, who can you call to get it? Movies and television are at their core collaborative efforts.  Talent, ambition, drive, creativity ... all of this helps on an individual level, but when push comes to shove none of that is going to matter if you don't get along with people, if you don't have strong relationships. Because your talent and instinct and ambition may help get you off the ground, but in the end you as an individual in Hollywood are only as good as those who are around you. And that's true whether you're James Cameron starting out and making The Abyss or the PA (Hollywood's form of the grunt) trying to get your opus into the hands of the director - if you aren't someone who people want to work with, you best be related to somebody who people do.

And I mention Cameron, because he seemed to start off that way - personable. But now it seems according to rumors, he's not. But he has built such a legacy that people want to work with him still. HW wants to be in the James Cameron business. But most HW folks are not nor will they ever be James Cameron. So for most, these relationships will matter for their entire tour of duty.

So it is with that, I read about the move of Carla Hacken to New Regency, who was a former Executive Vice President at Fox 2000, with a certain degree of fascination.

There were essentially two paradigms:

1) The article itself. The article painted a very rosy picture of a studio looking to be a home for "filmmakers." On its face, great news for creatives!  Carla Hacken was responsible for finding and launching The Devil Wears Prada and Walk the Line, two extremely successful films (both based on existing material ... but we'll let that slide. For now). So for her to go to a place that wants to focus on making films first, sounds like a match made in heaven.

Then I read the comments.

2) The comments. Deadline is read by many HW insiders. So keep that in mind as you read this selection of comments by its readers:

"15 years in the biz and Carla’s one of the most miserable people I’ve ever worked with. Hooray for Hollywood. Carla Hacken has “made” films such as Walk the Line and Devil Wears Prada? Really? MADE? Wonder what the directors, writers, cast, and crew of those films think about that."

"I wanted to wait and see if anyone else would post the truth about what a miserable, psychotic person Carla is. Thanks for making my day! I know this for sure, having worked with her."

"Carla is disorganized panicky and very unhappy. She has taste but no ability to handle stress. Brad has made terrible move. He will find out soon enough."

"One of most miserable, meanest and rudest. Ugh."

"Uhhhhhh. So, the new regency offices will now house brad weston, Alexandra Milchan, and Carla hacken? Sounds like a blast. Gonna be some great karma going around that place. Wonder who comes out in the top of that heap"

My Favorite: "Today is the day the hope died at New Regency. God I hope Brad [CEO of New Regency] is looking over these comments and coming to understand the heinous error he has just made."

THE TAKEAWAY: Well, to be honest we'll have to wait and find out what exactly this means. We'll have to wait and se exactly how long Carla lasts at New Regency. We'll have to see if New Regency starts making more money, which will certainly help her position. Money still talks too of course. HW movies are a business remember. And talk of her taste was, even among the blog-posters, far from criticized and even lauded.

Carla Hacken. We'll be watching her career with a certain fascination now.

SCREENWRITING UPDATE: Another Manager Request

Eric Williams with Zero Gravity Management requested "Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington" last night. Just sent it off to him today.

Zero Gravity also has a production arm, that is probably most renowned for bringing to life "The Cooler" starring William H. Macy and Alec Baldwin (a great flick btw, you should check it out if you haven't seen it yet).

So another someone will be reading the old bird. Obviously takes time for these guys to read anything, especially since they need to attend to their clients who are already signed in what has been a great* year for spec sales.

*great meaning far better than the previous 4.

ARTICLE - No Brainer. Let Him Host.

He Brings The Heat Baby!

A simple equation to solve HFPA's little quandary.

Ricky Gervais + Host of the Golden Globes + Antics Similar to Last Year - The Stick Up HFPA'S @** = Highest Ratings for the Golden Globes Ever.

Feel free to discuss and disagree. But I'm right.

UPDATE: 11/17/11. He's in!!! I will be watching the Golden Globes for perhaps the first time ever!

And he's tweeting about his monologue material - Holocaust and pedophile jokes? In.

SCREENWRITING UPDATE: Won a Copy of Final Draft From PAGE Awards

It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine.

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to the folks at the PAGE Awards. I won a drawing for a copy of "Final Draft" today. It's a $300 screenwriting program. Very exciting. I've been using Word, and if you're at all familiar with what it takes to format a screenplay, using Word you have to re-create margins every time characters speak and action happens and a new scene occurs ... it is a very tedious and time consuming process. That, and the info Final Draft compiles as you write on number of locations you're using (plus it keeps track of the names you're using to describe them, which will help a lot), number of characters etc. is all invaulable information for a writer keeping an eye on budget. It's just a really great resource.

I don't mean this to sound like an advertisement for Final Draft, but I'm pretty dang excited darn it!!!

I've been meaning to pick up a copy for a while, but I didn't feel like blowing three hundred when I had a program that worked for my purposes. Kind of waiting until I sold something, it was going to my reward to myself. Now I'll just have to figure something else out ...

Thanks to Jen, Zoe and all the folks over at the PAGE Awards!!!  I've said it before, I'll say it again ... PAGE is the best show in town!!!

ARTICLE - A Perfect Storm: Selling A Screenplay for 7 Figures

I'll take any excuse to post a picture of Emma Stone. Boy howdy!

The word is out. This has been the best season in quite sometime for selling specs on the old boulevard of dreams.

For the non-writers among us. Spec = A screenplay written without being assigned to do so. I.E. A screenplay written by a writer because the writer wanted to write it, not because the writer agreed to do so for another party, per an upfront contractual reason. Antonym: Assignment.

We even had a veritable lotto winner this year. Lauryn Kahn, a 29 year old screenwriter, whose writing credits up until now include a lot of shorts, sold her first feature, He's Fuckin' Perfect, to Fox 2000 for $1 million up front, against $1.5 million. Pay! Day!

It's every screenwriters dream come true. But how did she do it? Through the standard way really, a lot of gumption and a lot of hard work of course. But let's break it down.

1) Concept. The concept of the screenplay was universally approachable for today's audience. Meaning, it was "commercial." Which is what sells for the big bucks in today's spec marketplace.


             "The [romantic] comedy focuses on a social media savvy girl who is pessimistic about love and vets her friends’ dates to find flaws. When that process leads her to uncover the perfect guy, she decides to use her internet research skills to turn herself into his perfect match."


Slightly generic perhaps, but this is just the concept remember. Execution is a whole other ball game. And while we can only surmise and guess at the execution, at least until there is a copy of the screenplay floating around the net to read, we can take an educated guess; based on a $1 mill dollar sale, it probably was well pretty well executed.


2) The Rare Bidding War. These don't happen much anymore. But it's a pretty simple concept. It's when a number of studios and/or interested parties become interested in the same property at the same time and start bidding against each other for the rights to that property. These used to be much more frequent, but studios have learned these aren't in their best interest and have become much more patient when looking to pick up properties. But million dollar sales can still result from one if they happen. Yay!


In this case, it was a bit of happenstance. The team helping Ms. Kahn, Gary Sanchez Productions (Will Ferrell's Prod. Co.) sent it to Emma Stone to get her on board. It ended up being sent out to the town from there. Fox 2000 was in the mix early, and when word got out about three other studios being interested, they made Ms. Kahn the $1mill/$1.5 mill offer with a ninety minute expiration. Bing, bang, boom ... Ms. Kahn accepted and sold the screenplay for seven figures. 


"KAAAAAHHHHHHNNNN!" (You knew it was coming. #startreknerd)


3) Talent Attachment. As previously mentioned, Will Ferrell's prod team at Gary Sanchez Productions helped Ms. Kahn develop the script and gave her notes as she wrote, to help her hone it. Not a bad way to write a script if you can get it. Also, Emma Stone is one of the hottest actresses out there right now, and I'd surmise that her even being remotely interested was enough to spark interest from the town. Names and talent attachments sell screenplays. It's how a studio knows they'll make their money back.

4) Relationships. Ms. Kahn worked as an assistant to Adam McKay for four years. Adam McKay is part of the Gary Sanchez Prod. Co. team. Coincidence? It's almost an unwritten rule, if not understood, that being an assistant to a top talent like Adam McKay is a great step in the right direction for any young professional looking to break into the biz. But it is incumbent upon you, the assistant, to build and nurture relationships on your own. And no doubt Ms. Kahn did just that, as she is repped by one of the biggest agencies in the game, WME. However, Adam McKay also went out of his way to help Ms. Kahn get it out to the right people, including Emma Stone. And in a town known for folks with the "How will this help me?" attitude, it shows a lot of class and gumption on Adam McKay's part. And Ms. Kahn is the, undoubtedly grateful, beneficiary.

No surprises there as far as the path. Lauryn Kahn put all the pieces into play in just the right way. So all in all, a very envious and hearty congrats to Lauryn Kahn. It's a film I very likely will see, especially  if Emma Stone is in it.

"KKKKKAAAAAHHHHHNNNNNN!!!" #startreknerd

UPDATE (11/7/11): Found a copy of He's Fuckin Perfect on the interwebs and gave it a quick once over. The execution is good. It's laugh out loud funny at parts and is definitely in the vein of what you would expect. The lead is strong (even if not terribly original), but it's no surprise Emma Stone is looking to come on board. Strong writing style and voice through out, very punchy. All in all I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10.

Should be fairly decent movie, even if it doesn't break any major ground in the raunchy rom-com genre. If it was pure execution based, I don't see this one scoring a seven figure pay day on its own, a sale for sure. Just not sure its worth what Fox 2000 paid. But Ms. Kahn went down the right path (as described above) and worked her butt off to do so. So no one can take that away from her, even if the film itself is destined to be a fun summer date flick you forget the next day. Kudos again to her.