Pitching a director/actor...

[magnoliastar]

I read awhile back that Kathy Bates has a production company. Does anyone have any info on it or recent contact info on Ms. Bates?

I believe she's interested in directing and I have a project I'd love to be able to send to her and thus am working on a query letter. My questions is: in a situation like this would it be best to query Ms. Bates via her agent or?

I realize that either way I've got a slim to none chance of my work getting into her hands but I thought what the heck, give it a shot.

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.

[KidCharlemagne108]

Brian Mann - International Creative Management
Manager - Susan Smith & Associates

Try the above. Couldn't find a prod. co.

[magnoliastar]

Thanks much!

[magnoliastar]

On that note, has anyone ever queried an agent or manager of an actor/director and actually been asked to submit their script?

I know it's such a long shot but I am curious if anyone has done this and had some sort of success with it (even a script request).

Cheers.

[KidCharlemagne108]

Yes I've done this quite a few times. Out to 3 actors at the moment. I'm pitching as a co-producer however not as a writer - we're not able to make an offer but give an explanation of how the finance will be structured. We're out to 2 of the 3 actors via their manager and the other one through his Big 3 agent.

Some agents are open to the vagaries of indie-finance/pre-sell mechanisms where you need the actor's interest first. Some agents push for studio deals only. I had a big star whose big 3 agent just said "fully financed studio movies only" but we managed to get to him through his local agent.

e.g A big UK star will most likely have a UK agent and a US agent like CAA and it can be (not neccessarily) easier to approach the smaller UK agent OR it can be easier to aproach the US manager.

Still often times you'll get the assistant on the phone who will say "come back when you have an offer" BUT if you have a director then your chances of submitting without being able to make an offer increase. It really varies from agent to agent. Also the actor may just get an overview of the project and he may decide to pass on the concept/genre.

I really don't know how many writers manage to get their script to talent via agents/managers on the strength of the script alone. No idea. Not many I suspect. The recommended route is through their prod. co's - a few years back I got my script to Oliver Stone via his prod. co. and to Kevin Costner's dev. exec. Nothing came of it.

KC