One chapter of Morrell's writing book is on his experiences in Hollywood. He mentions a certain producer (not by name) who invited him to sit in on his office day to see what it was like. It consisted mostly of not taking people's calls, then calling someone else to see if they knew what the caller may have wanted.
Apparently in Hollywood, the studio executives almost never actually read a book. They read the "coverage," which is a 1 to 2 page summary of the book done by someone other than the writer. Morrell told of a studio exec who put his arm around Pat Conroy one time and told him what a great writer he was. "The coverage on your book moved me to tears," the Exec said.
Morrell's primary advice? Be careful as a newbie writer dealing with Hollywood or they will eat you alive.
7 comments:
"The coverage on your book moved me to tears." This cracked me up. Larry McMurtry seems to be one of the few writers who can work with the system and not get eaten alive. It helps him to have a stable woman friend as co-author, I suppose.
Haha. The holy wood with its vasy influence on people's consciousness needs to have people like you there Charles.
It sounds mad. Need some sanity injected there...
(vast influence)
Brian Bendis did a pretty nifty crime comic called AKA Goldfish. Nice things were said in SPIN magazine.
Hollywood came calling.
A year later, he wrote one of the funniest, saddest and most honest accounts of the sheer insanity involved.
I think Andrew Vachss has the right idea. For many, many years now, he's sold options on the Burke books with some sort of script approval built in. The options keep expiring, the rights get re-sold, and his work doesn't show up as a karate epic or something with aliens in...
fark thats horrible....hiih...I would have cheeked that director dude right there....my word.....when I get to Holywood....hihihih...I will remember this post;)
Very funny line, certainly! I had never heard the term coverage until I started watching "Entourage." It's all about reducing everything to almost nothing -- hate that about any system!
Hell, let me be honest, I'd love to have coverage, I'd love to have my material reduced to nothing, especially if it meant get paid.
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