An Industry Mystery...

Remember I churned out that 90-page screenplay draft for the Croatian action producer?  Well, I met with him about it the other day, at the same Sunset Plaza coffee shop, and he told me that (to his surprise!) he liked it!

The script needs a new ending, he said (and I agree -- the current ending is really lifted off the short, and doesn't quite fit the way it should).  But otherwise, he thinks it's worth pursuing!

I know it's important not to get too excited, so I'm trying to stay level-headed about it all.  There's still a lot that needs to happen before anything close to a "green light".

A friend of his, an actor with a long career, joined us for some of the meeting.  At one point, the producer had gotten up to use the facilities, and his friend turned to me and said, "you know, he doesn't usually like scripts."  Now I'm really fighting off giddy excitement.

That's the substance of the meeting.  This is the mystery.

The Croatian producer mentioned that he shared the script with a friend of his, an old-timer by Hollywood standards, someone who was affiliated in some way with Steve McQueen in his early years, a former literary agent with one of the big agencies named Sandy Glazer.  Mr. Glazer liked the script too, I'm told, which is very exciting.  But for the life of me, I can't find any mention of him online, anywhere.  You see, he must have had his career before the internet, and he doesn't seem to have movie credits (or he'd be on IMDB) (it's somewhat unusual for literary agents to have movie credits anyway).

For a while, I thought I might have mis-remembered his name.

I was at a networking event with a few folks who have been in the industry for a while (including John Charnay, who had been a bigshot at The Hollywood Reporter in the '70s) and asked the room if anyone knew this guy.  Just about anyone who had been in the industry since before the internet said the name sounded familiar, but nobody could tell me more than that.  Mr. Charnay suggeested I inquire at the AMPAS library, which I might do.  But really, I think I'll re-write my screenplay's ending, and ask the Croatian producer about it when I meet with him next.  That might be easier.

I'm giving myself two weeks to get this new ending figured out.  Hold me to it!

-Arnon