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This is my favorite Hollywood story:
A budding filmmaker wins a prominent film festival, and, predictably, gets deluged by phone calls from all the studios. One studio in particular pours it on super thick, and after several messages, the filmmaker finally calls the persistent executive back.
"Thanks for calling, young filmmaker. Guess what? We want you to work for us."
"I do work for you."
The executive was stymied. It couldn't be this simple.
"Did you already talk to someone in my office?"
"No - I've been trying for years, but nobody would return my calls."
"Huh?"
"I work in the building next door. Been here for six years. I've called your department and written you letters... sent you e-mails. I wanted you to fund my movie. I guess you weren't interested - didn't think my idea was any good. I'm glad you liked my movie, though. So... what did you want to talk to me about?"
This isn't an urban legend that I heard from a guy who knew someone whose neighbor's son roomed with this filmmaker's stepbrother. I actually read this in the L.A. Times, and I was working at the studio it happened at, when it happened.
It must be industry-bashing time!
It's not.
No one can predict the future. You can plug the same ingredients into the same formula a hundred times and get a hundred different movies. You can deliver the much-adored "something completely original" and watch it slowly morph into "the same old crap". You can make a sequel from a great movie and get a dud (Babe: Pig in the City), or you can make a sequel from a dud and get a blockbuster (T2). Stallone didn't hit paydirt with every action-adventure; Adam Sandler didn't strike gold with every comedy; Hugh Grant goes hit-or-miss with his quirky mismatched romances.
Here's what I'm getting at: blah blah blah New Year; blah blah blah keep trying; blah blah blah blah blah blah you can do it; blaaahhh blaaahhh blaaahhh you just never know.
You came out here to change the world, didn't you? Well, what are you waiting for? Next year? It is next year. It's always been next year. Get moving.
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