HOLLYWOOD CALLS – BILL PROCRASTINATES

Early in December my producer connection in Hollywood called and said that one of my scripts could be in play if I just updated it and we made sure our option agreement was current. That implied one of us knew where the option agreement was, and that I was in the mood to attack the script yet again.
One thing about Hollywood is that they’re always chasing what is hot. This particular script is R-rated and it was rejected at a time when family pictures like “Meet the Fockers” were doing very well, and R-rated pictures were not. Since then “Wedding Crashers” did good business, and the movie’s producers even accepted their People’s Choice award by saying how great it was that someone took a chance on an R-rated film again.
Translation: Hollywood now wants R-rated scripts. This reflex reaction was driven home after “8 Mile” was a hit when a script we had been kicking around for years suddenly needed a white rapper. And speaking of driven home, just wait till the cheap copies of “Brokeback Mountain” hit the theaters.
So it’s early December, and America was in the middle of a war on Christmas. I put off updating the script, which was already set in the future by the way. This was clearly a project for the New Year. Well, it’s January 24th as I write this, and the producer emailed me that he wants to talk next week. All I can say is thank God this is the weekend with no football games.
Next, I just have to convince myself all over again that the script has a chance. I can hear the call now: “We love the update but could you add a couple of gay cowboys?”