All Roads Lead to ....LA

I’ve been looking at so many different opportunities these days with respect to producing. Its made something occur to me, which is, that success in this business, even as a producer, has an awful lot to do with momentum.

For example, I am in the process of negotiating a deal with another company to do movies for a limited price. I won’t say what limited is, but its actually quite a decent budget, bigger than most of the movies I’ve produced to date.

Thing is, having this deal introduced me at the same time a new biz partner, a very large home entertainment player that is going to distribute most of the movies I make under this first situation. They are looking for product generally (product means content) and need to build their company. They have interesting tie-ins, as they have a huge music catalog and have interest in exploiting that too.

At the same time, I have been working on this project, with Jon D., one that has some hot young singers involved. Guys who every 14 year old girl follow on the internet. One of them, quite frankly, is like the next Usher. And its not that far away.

With this project, there are a couple of studios sniffing, more and more intently, with the package that has come together. But even without one of them on board (and one of them is supposed to give us an answer within the next few days), this other home entertainment company very well might want to fund the project themselves.

And still further, at the same time, I’ve been working on the Brooks deals with JG. We have an investment bank excited to be on board and the biz plan is almost done and they seem raring to take it out. We plan to do movies primarily oriented towards home entertainment. And where could we place these movies we make under the Brooks deal for home vid.

Which takes me to the next step, which is to go sit down with New Line and talk to them about doing co-productions on some of their old movies titles, as remakes, sequels, etc. We provide funding, they provide favorable distribution terms, we all make out. And then it occurs to me, that this project, the one with Jon D., could be a perfect fit for New Line (could also fit as Columbia, or Lionsgate, or a number of other places as well). But having the reason to sit down at New Line, and the credibility afforded by having all these things to offer, is a catalyst.

My job is to mix and match to get the projects going. And the thing I think I’m maybe best at is mixing and matching (maybe negotiating too, cuz Im kinda stone faced and that plays well).

At the same time, to me, it seems that this project I’ve been working on for two years, one of the first bigger movies I got involved in trying to produce, is going to die on the vine. There just doesn’t seem to be a whole lot left to try. It’s a good script, but its just not desirable commercially at this time, and though it’s a beautiful story (feature on Oprah not once but twice) and should be told, we’ve been unable to package it in a manner that gets anyone excited. And the person who’d been keeping it moving along, to the extent that is has been moving along, quite frankly has run out of ideas. I don’t blame him, he’s tried everything, orthodox and otherwise, and we’re down to what he senses is a last ditch financing option, and what I sense is a crock of nonsense. We shall see, if he’s right, maybe the movie gets made. If not, well, its basically done.

It’s a tough part of this business. There is a whole lot of stuff out there to choose from, and timing plays a huge role in getting things moving.

Sort of like relationships sometimes.

The Fearless Grumpy (hehe).