Taking my ideas seriously...

I've finally gotten an answer regarding my story. This morning I talked to the film producer for what seemed like 2 hours. They love the story and think it would make a great film.

They even listened to my casting suggestions and said they'd consider them when doing the story boards.

This is all so surreal, because until this morning I didn't even know for certain they would say 'yes'.

dpaterso said:

Yay you!

(Remember, if they ask for money, dive headlong through the nearest window.)

But yay you! Fingers still crossed for a fortuitous result.

-Derek

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Thanks Derek. I made sure they're legit.

NikeeGoddess said:

fantastic!!!
in those 2 hours - did they ask you to adapt it into screenplay format? or do they have a writer for that?
keep us informed.

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Thanks for your interest. I talked settings, actors, but at this point I think that I was kind of floating emotionally, and not really thinking straight. I just knew I was going to get a yes or a no, and was bracing myself.

This is going to take several conversations, because we're talking about simultaneous deals that overlap. There's a book deal and a film deal. The hopeful release of the book one will be this next summer.

But since everything is related, I was asked to change one of the major character's names. They want to make some minor changes in dialogue to keep the time frame consistent. "They wouldn't have said this like that"

So it sounds like the book will see two edits, the movie producers suggestions and then a professional for mostly gramatical edits.

They really wanted to know where I was into the next novel edits, because they said "the story is great...I can't wait to see what happens next". I asked if they wanted the 300 pgs I edited so far, or to wait until the novel was complete. They opted to wait.

Really a good deal of the conversations were laying groundwork, like what am I calling this entire series, website promotions, illustrations.

In a previous conversation they said they wanted me involved in the script writing, but that didn't come up this time. You have to understand that I was very nervous, and didn't know if this was a "Dear John...try again next year." or "We want your story."

You don't know how many times I was tempted to throw this all in a burn pile, wondering if I'd ever get it right. So there's still a surreal quality to this, where I want to pinch myself and say, "Is this really it?"

MitchJ said:

Did the producer actually option the script? If so, awesome!

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We still have to work out contract things. They flat out said they want to do the movies and it sounds like they're being quite flexible in terms of negotiations.

I told them who I want to play certain characters, and they said they'd keep that in mind when they did the story boards. They know Viggo Mortenson and think they could get him. But the character he'd be perfect for doesn't appear until booktwo/movie two, unless the screenplay differs from the book- which I'm open to. It wouldn't be hard to do.

The main character is going to likely be an unknown. But I want Clive Owen to play one of the key roles, and he would appear in the first movie. I just think he would be fantastic. Sadly, I don't have clues which females I would want cast???

They know I'm friends with an illustrator, and made suggestions in terms of a contract to "keep unrestricted rights to use the images" and they have their own illustrator and may compare the two's works and keep the best. We also talked slightly about the amount of CG involved because it is a fantasy on the scale of LOTR in terms of creatures.

DevelopmentExec said:

Hey Nate -

I'm a little confused about something here - you're talking book edit with potential movie producer where is the the book publisher in all this? Are you saying that the same company will publish the book and produce the film?

You should probably have your represenative (agent and or attorney) participating in these conversations from here on in. It's easy to get swept away with grandiose possiblitilites and find yourself agreeing to things that aren't necessarily in your best interest.

This is a very different business from the publishing industry. If you sign a publishing contract your book is usually published. That's not the case in the film industry. Most projects that go into development never make it to production. No matter how enthusiastic your producer may be, the reality is that he may not be able to raise the money. Even producers with studio deals don't get the majority of their projects greenlit.

You need to protect yourself and your other rights and get the best deal possible regarding the film rights. If the first film tanks and the book series doesn't generate a rabid following - then there probably won't be any sequels. So make sure your contract compensates fairly on the front end for the first film.

Enjoy the ride, but get your representative involved sooner rather than later.

Best of luck,

Dev

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Hi Dev. I appreciate your advice and concern. You give wise council, and I'm on the same page.

arodriguez said:

the movie guys weren't concerned that the book wasn't published first?
also, what genre is it?

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Hi A Rodriguez.

I'm saving the story for how this all happened for Oprah-lol.

Everything happened backwards. That's the best I can explain it. I'd gotten off the query train to make major changes to my story, and became pretty discouraged. Health problems, my mother's recurrent cancer, and I wasn't going to start querying for an agent until this fall.

I honestly didn't feel that I had the reserve to deal with all that.

In a way, it's kind of like Tolkien's backwards way of getting the Hobbit published, because it didn't happen by conventional means.

Again, I'll wait until later to explain how the executive movie producer came to know about the story, and how the publishing offer came after the producer fell in love with the story and started talking about a movie deal. (series if all goes well)

Genre: Epic Fantasy in the LOTR mold, with a hopeful YA appeal.

arodriguez said:

well good luck with it.
i hope its not a eragon-type movie-----God, i hate dragons.

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It's not an Eragon type story. When I had lost my confidence in my writing and finishing off this project, something happened that kept me going. A few people read the initial draft of book one. One read the whole story draft. One said, "This is better than Eragon, you have to publish" The other said, "This is better than Eldest...you have to stick with this."

I don't know what that means as I'd never read either book, but I took that as a compliment that they compared me to a published author, and as a sign I should stick with it.

There are no dragons, no elves, no dwarves. No werewolves, no vampires, no toaster ovens. Oh, I meant, no orcs. There is one debate in the story as to whether dragons ever existed, but they were too ignorant to know that in my stroy dragons never existed. I hope that doesn't count?

xhouseboy said:

Good luck with this.

Do the producers have a serious track record, a body of work that you could perhaps refer to and think, well, they've made this and that, so I'm pretty confident that my work's in reliable hands.

I'm not asking for specifics, merely suggesting that you consider this for your own benefit.

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Hi Houseboy. Good questions. They're connected to all the people I want to be connected to, which is really exciting for me.

Simple Living said:

Well done, you!

As long as you know they're legit, roll around in the moment and savor every bit of it. You earned it! Moments like this are rare.

Pray for wisdom and act on it. Great job!

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Thanks. I'm constantly praying for wisdom. I'm not very good at savoring yet, though I'm working on it.

For me, not worrying is major progress. And even the night I got asked to contact the producer (the second time we talked by phone) I literally felt horrible. I had to re-read the email to try to talk myself out of a funk. It said to the effect, "I'd love to talk to you about your book...call today...leave a message when I can reach you..." And I was thinking they were going to tell me "no deal" ???

My poor wife is giving me, "What's the worst that can happen? How many people do you know that got an executive movie producer to read two of their books...even if they say "no," speech...lol. Well, I didn't want to get this close, and say, "Well, it was a wonderful experience..."

This has been so long in the works that I'd come to that point of realization that I just needed to know this was meant to be; and I literally wondered whether I should just chuck the whole thing, because this was just consuming so much energy that I felt I couldn't afford, and time I couldn't spare. And every time I came to those points, something would happen, like what I shared above about two people in the space of a week telling me they liked my story more than the Eragon series, completely unsolicited.