The local NPR affiliate recently broadcast a Story about our work on the new H&R Block Center. My interview is brief, but that with the artists long. Well, that’s good. Story might go national out of the DC office next week.
Photo above of some of those same artists upon dedication day. We’re in front of the interior waterfall. Note smiles. L-R: David Spear, Allan Chow, Leslie Reuther, Some Blasted Art Dealer, Michelle Dreher, Richard Raney, and good old William Lobdell.
Since I had an in at one of the big NY/LA agencies, and since this very nice fellow liked the synopsis for the Screenplay, I submitted to them first. He’s in TV, and has no control over the motion picture dept, who rejected today after 6 weeks of batting the script around, apparently concluding that it wouldn’t be a Tom Cruise-type blockbuster. Well, I hope to hell not. I wrote a script with emotional power and timeless storyline, yet relevant to one of the hottest controversies in the world today. I don’t want it treated like Mission Impossible; I want it treated like Crash.
Upshot? I’ve been offered an introduction to a director who recently took an Academy Award. People close to him love the script, and are sending it on with their endorsement. Some other folks in LA and NY are reading it as well. I didn’t exactly sleep while waiting to hear from the big agency, suspecting they wouldn’t take it anyway, being too preoccupied with discovering the next Paris Hilton. However they did ask me to get back to them if a major star signed on. Excuse me, but isn’t that their job?
Look, this has happened so many times to good scripts that it’s laughable. But history determines who has the sane voice, and who real courage.
Why do I bring all this up? Because I go through the same thing you artists do every time I finish what I, and my critics, consider strong work. But as we all know, strong work is passed over every day in favor of the shallow and highly profitable. Life in the arts.
Does this dampen my resolve? Not one bloody whit.