Make a deal with the devil?

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  • RandomBloke
    replied
    Years ago, I met some supposedly rich kid online whose daddy had all these contacts in the music industry. He loved the concept of one of my script's and read the first 20 I'd posted as a teaser, then he was like, "If I put my name to this, I can make it happen."
    Naturally, I assumed he meant as a producer and he replied, "I write too."
    So I bailed! I pulled down the logline and sample pages in a panic and basically told him to **** himself!

    Funnily enough, my "career" went nowhere... so times like now when I think about things like that, I wonder if I did the right thing (spoiler: I did!!!).

    I ended up getting a manager in Hollywood a few years later... which went absolutely nowhere too! Not a cent earned!

    It's a long, hard road to success but, if you believe in yourself and you have a plan (or learn from mistakes like the rest of us), you might just get there eventually.

    You can take what you will from the above story, but really, it all comes down to: at what price will you sell your good name?

    Leave a comment:


  • irwinpfletcher
    replied
    figment - Tell me what you really think. 😂

    Darthclaw13 - Thanks for sharing your story. I love this industry, but holy cow does it make you appreciate your real friends.

    lostfootage - Thank you for the kind words… and reminder to stop messaging Amber Heard on Tinder. Guess I’m a sucker for blondes!

    You folks are the BEST.

    -Irwin P.

    Leave a comment:


  • lostfootage
    replied
    Run! This is like listening to a guy considering whether or not to date Amber Heard after the trial. Nothing good can come from this situation. Please don't sell yourself short. If this guy sees a spark in your writing, then it's likely someone legit will, too.

    Leave a comment:


  • Darthclaw13
    replied
    Just my two cents, but I would not do this deal. I went thru something similar years back and learned my lesson.

    My experience was with a producer who wished he was a screenwriter. He had never written anything before but thought he had a great story.

    I was approached by him to write a script based on an idea he had about a couple adopting a "demon" kid, very un-original story, but I thought I would give it a go and hopefully see something I wrote be made.

    Well, this guy gave me basically nothing to work with just the idea, oh and he wanted the mom character (who was supposed to be a sympathetic character) to be a huge breasted "whore" type married woman who was full of plastic surgery. I explained to him that an audience would not feel any sympathy for that type of character and "mom" characters should not be so overly sexualized. I asked him if he would want his own mom written that way. He relented on that at least.

    Long story short, I wrote the full script, met with him and his co-producers several times, and thought things were going well. Then he said I had to add his name at the top above mine as the lead writer. Well, I did it because I thought it was the only way to get it made. Then the financing did not come thru so I said I was going to change it up some and try to submit it myself. Well he told me that I could not do anything with it and that he "OWNED" it (even though he never paid me for it) and that he was the lead writer and it was his story. He also said if I tried to do anything with it, even though it had all my original ideas throughout it, that he had "big lawyers" to sue me. He also said if I changed it any and sold it he would get half the pay and all the credit as the writer.

    So I just had to let that one go and of course it never went anywhere. Kinda sad as I feel I made a pretty good original story from an un-original idea. But I did not want to deal with his large ego and besides, I have better stories written and even more written in my head just waiting to come alive on the page.

    So take what you will from my experience. You never know what is going to happen after the fact. You could go thru with your situation and end up with being shoved out or you could hit the "lottery" so to speak. You never know.....

    Leave a comment:


  • figment
    replied
    Originally posted by Bono View Post

    Whatever this is, this sounds worse and worse the more you tell us.
    I agree. This is literally horrendous.

    The answer is no.

    **** no.

    No to this ******* piece of **** trying to use your hard work to further his own name and line his pockets while being a lying piece of **** *******, corrupt mother******.

    Have some self respect. The answer is no. And this guy can go **** himself.

    Leave a comment:


  • Bono
    replied
    Originally posted by irwinpfletcher View Post
    You guys/gals are great! Fortunately, @Figment, I wouldn't put him up there w/Fukunga, but this comment in the Reddit thread def rang true:


    @Bono
    - If you say no is the spec dead? / My question doesn't pertain to a specific script, rather a blanket offer related to anything I write (ya know, assuming it good).
    - Is he that much higher that his name would make a diff? / He’s def higher than me, but no Apatow. In fact, far as I can tell, there isn't exactly a trail of recently discovered writers in his wake.

    Oh, so it's just a blanket offer? I was misunderstanding the question I guess as I assumed you two were working together, with him as producer and then he said, let me put my name on as writer to help sell it even though I didn't do any of the work.

    Whatever this is, this sounds worse and worse the more you tell us.

    Leave a comment:


  • JeffLowell
    replied
    Irwin, this is all just my opinion, but since that's what you're asking for: even though this guy might know a few players, it doesn't mean that they're going to buy a spec just because his name is on it. This guy is an opportunist. Run.

    Feel free to DM me his name if you want - I'll keep it private, obviously, and I'll tell you what his name really means in the business,

    Leave a comment:


  • irwinpfletcher
    replied
    You guys/gals are great! Fortunately, @Figment, I wouldn't put him up there w/Fukunga, but this comment in the Reddit thread def rang true:

    Untitled.jpg

    In terms of the other comments/questions, I wish I could do everyone justice. Here are a few that stuck out / and my response:

    @JeffLowell
    - Is there a chance he’s selling you a bill of goods about his success? / IMO, he's overselling his stature but not his connections. He knows everyone (kind of gets off on it in a weird way) -- seen it first-hand.

    @Bono
    - If you say no is the spec dead? / My question doesn't pertain to a specific script, rather a blanket offer related to anything I write (ya know, assuming it good).
    - Is he that much higher that his name would make a diff? / He’s def higher than me, but no Apatow. In fact, far as I can tell, there isn't exactly a trail of recently discovered writers in his wake.

    @Rantanplan
    - Sounds like a lot of people trying to attach himself in case it takes off. / Definitely THIS. It's my best guess as to his true motivation.
    - Aren't there some pretty strict rules as to who gets credited as a writer on a script? / From what I can tell, the WGA doesn't like shared credits where writers share mixed membership. The producer would either have to do me a solid and pay me guild min to get my card, or make some tough decisions (none of which, it seems, bode well for me).

    @FinalAct14
    - I would never lend my… unless they co-wrote it. / Amen.

    @Southern_land
    - All good and relevant questions. They seem to boil down to: Are you desperate? / Never desperate. Always impatient.
    - How would you feel seeing someone's name on your work? / Kind of comes with the territory, I think. As for final judgement, it would depend on the result!

    Leave a comment:


  • Southern_land
    replied
    So my thoughts...
    Where are you in your career/life? -Is time getting critical for you that you need to see some movement forwards?
    Can you (as in you, not people in general) get leverage out of this? -Can you as an individual use a moderate success here to generate more heat?
    What else do you have? -If you can get traction do you have plenty in reserve or in "sharing" this have you lost your one big chance?
    Do you need a success? -Even a "shared" success might be enough to revitalize your writing - it is at its core affirmation!
    Emotionally what will this do to you? Even with possible success there's going to be a cost to seeing someone else's name on your work. Can YOU handle that?

    Leave a comment:


  • Bono
    replied
    https://www.indiewire.com/2022/05/ca...or-1234722624/

    Fukunaga’s former writing partner Nick Cuse voiced support for Vinberg and the Loesch twins. He wrote in his own Instagram Story that Fukunaga is the “worst human being I have ever met in my life,” saying that the way Fukunaga treats non-celebrities “is horrible.”

    Cuse, who worked as a consultant on “No Time to Die” and was a co-producer and writer for “Maniac,” continued, “He didn’t groom me to **** me, but he did use a lot of the same tactics to get me to write his scripts for him, which he would then put his name on. One time, after me spending three weeks on a script for him, he told me to open up the cover page and type his name under ‘Written By.’ I had to literally type in the stolen credit with my own fingers.”

    Leave a comment:


  • finalact4
    replied
    Is that real? @nickcuse is a suspended twitter account.

    To the OP, I would never lend my work to another writer unless they legit co-wrote it.

    Leave a comment:


  • figment
    replied
    Originally posted by lostfootage View Post

    Yikes!
    I was thinking of a different phrase, but, yes, Yikes too!

    Leave a comment:


  • figment
    replied
    Originally posted by Bono View Post

    The craziest part of the whole thing from m POV was Nick Cuse is the son of the Carlton Cuse who is huge TV guy including LOST, so I understand how this happened even less!
    Right? Just imagine if you were a writer w/o a name or famous, wealthy father. Who does this?

    Leave a comment:


  • lostfootage
    replied
    Yikes!

    Leave a comment:


  • Bono
    replied
    The craziest part of the whole thing from m POV was Nick Cuse is the son of the Carlton Cuse who is huge TV guy including LOST, so I understand how this happened even less!

    Leave a comment:

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