My Girlfriend, My Friend, and The Producer

Earlier this year my girlfriend told me that a producer she was working with was looking to branch out and start developing and shopping material on his own. This guy has done a lot of movies over the years, including one of my favorite comedies ever, in addition to most recently one of the bigger movies of the year so far. I told my girlfriend that my boy “Lance” had a screenplay and I hooked them up. She brought it in to the producer and he liked it, but had a few things he wanted to change.

Now that was in April or May I believe. Along the way the script has changed dramatically, but definitely for the better. The problem is that this process appears to be taking forever. You see the producer is never too quick to read, and in turn my boy has been taking forever to churn out drafts as well. He’s not getting paid for this, but my boy has no credits and this would be his big break. This particular script was optioned for like two or three grand by some company, and he passed up another option payment to work on it with said producer. Throughout this whole process I’ve pretty much stayed out of it because my girlfriend vents and tells me everything, but on the other hand it’s my boy she’s dealing with so I’m in a tough spot. I choose to not really discuss the project with him because I figure I should stay out of it since I know people on both sides of the table. It’s a really odd situation because while he’s not signed with my girlfriend, she’s given him advice on his career and he has introduced her to people as his manager. But she’s working with the producer, so it’s a bit of a conflict of interest to a certain extent although like I said, he isn’t signed.

Lance was hoping to have the script ready to go out for this past spec season, but the script was not ready. I think he was under the impression that it was, but I know he could do better and so did the producer and my girlfriend. If had been sent out, he would have shot himself in the foot with an AK-47. Since it didn’t go out, I think he soured on the situation a bit, and it appears to have affected his writing because it has taken him two months to do the latest draft. Personally I think he’s really fucking up, but I’m not really discussing the situation with him. I don’t want to get in the middle of it because that’s not my style and plus he’s a grown man and he’s doing his thing.

So now the script, if ready, will go out during the next spec season in a few months. Part of me fears that it won’t be ready and this whole thing is just going to fizzle out because of my boy’s slow writing and inability to effectively incorporate notes. This would be wack because not only will have Lance really dropped the ball on a huge opportunity, my girl will have also lost an opportunity to work with the producer, who may be weary of working with her in the future because of it. I mean this is Hollywood. A lot of times you only get one shot and if that first shot turns to shit your calls may unanswered the next time. I’m crossing my fingers and I hope this all straightens out. All I can do from this is learn what not to do when I’m in a similar situation in the future.