Thursday, September 20, 2007

Some Exciting Stuff Going On

I took a meeting with a Hollywood power-broker the other day. In Hollywood, people take meetings. They don't go to meetings and they don't attend them... they take them, capiche? (BTW, they also don't "eat" lunch. They "do" lunch.)

So what's an old pretty girl shooter like me doing sipping lattes with a Hollywood deal-maker? Well, between latte sips and nibbles on my biscotti, I was pitching a show. A TV show. A TV show that (wouldn't ya just know it?) has a bit to do, in its theme, with photography. And guess what? He loves it! He's all over it! He's on my ass to finish the written treatment all over it! And he wants to quickly set up pitch meetings with the suits at places like Fox TV and elsewhere.

So how did I end up at a trendy coffee joint with a latte in one hand and a biscotti in the other while trying to explain my TV show idea in some sort of articulate way?

Background:

Once upon a time I dedicated most of my waking moments to a Hollywood career as a writer and, even more hopefully, to being a director. Back then, I had an agent. And this guy I just met with was that agent. We had some successes back then. Heck, I co-created a sit-com that NBC produced and aired but, sadly, it didn't make it onto the season schedule. If it had, I'd probably be living in Malibu still collecting residuals. Back then, I made ends meet shooting head shots and commercial portfolios for aspiring actors. I had converted my garage into a small studio and had my own darkroom. (B&W only.) Anyway, my (then) wife (who was an actress) became pregnant and I decided I had to be more responsible and so I pushed my Hollywood dreams aside to become a responsible father with a regular income and health insurance and all that stuff. This was like 25 or 30 years ago.

Fast forward to now: I came up with this idea for a TV show and I thought I'd try to locate my former agent and see what became of him. Turns out he's done very well for himself with an uber-impressive Hollywood resume. I managed to locate a phone number and, not knowing if he'd even take my call, decided to give it a shot. Well, he was more than willing to meet and we did and now we're gonna see if we can make this idea fly.

There's no guarantees, of course. I know this well having been down the road before. But the first step was always selling the guy who had to sell it to others. If you couldn't get past that first step, there were no more steps. So, with the first step successfully completed, all I can ask is please do me a favor and keep your freakin' fingers crossed!

The gratuitious eye-candy at the top is Angel from a few months ago.

4 comments:

Lin said...

Ooh! Major congratulations are in order!
Look forward to hearing more about this as the story unfolds!

Anonymous said...

Good luck JD! Hope it works out.
Ron

WillT said...

It was the lunch, JimmyD, the lunch! Well, OK, all of your hard work was, maybe, 99%. ;-) Congratulations!

joshua said...

That is excellent Jimmy. I was excited for you when I read this. Can't wait to read the update when things are taking off. (just being optimistic)

-joshua