What Happened to the Prodco?
What Happened to the Prodco?
lis.rights--
I took the liberty of addressing your question (anonymously) on my blog as well as here because this is an issue I covered in my book. There are a lot of people who are in the same situation as you describe and who can benefit from this information as well.
First off, congrats on getting that far. Having a prodco request to read your script is a success that should be celebrated.
Secondly, welcome to the movie biz. It's about now that you start to figure out some things you don't often learn until you experience them yourself. Here's the blog.
http://www.trlocke.com/2009/09/what-happened-to-the-prodco/
If you don't feel like clicking over to the blog, a copy of what I wrote there is below, but I did find a great photo to express the thought behind it that I can't post here. Either way, I hope it helps:
What happened to the prodco?
Been there many, many times. What happened to the Prodco? What’s worse is when they call you back, have you in for a meeting with the President of Production and talk about how much money they want to pay you… then disappear—never to be heard from again.
In my book, I talk about this being a “gap event”. I describe gap events as times when you’re flying high following some great news and then suddenly experience major disappointment. See, if you’re walking down the street and you fall, that’s one thing. But if you’re flying through the air and you crash, that’s much worse. At least it feels much worse emotionally.
So to answer your question, this happens all the time. No, they won’t necessarily take the time to respond with a nice email. Why not? Well, the reasons are too many to name, but they range anywhere from they don’t like your script to the president of the company married Eddie Murphy and divorced him a few days later and is now no longer emotionally stable enough to oversee production, so everything has been put on hold. Really? Really. I wish I was joking. But that last event cancelled many deals in Hollywood—including one of my own.
Production companies are some of the flakiest companies around. They start up anytime someone decides they want to get into movies and they last as long as there’s money to keep the phones on. Anyone can call themselves a producer in Hollywood. There is no licensing, no rules, no oversight, no accountability. Even legitimate companies have many problems with seeing projects through. If your project does not become the pet project of one person whose going to champion it through the process, it will get lost. And yes, that’s even true if they loved it.
So what do you do? You recognize this is the way the game is played and you buckle down for the long run. What? You send your script out to other production companies, agents, managers, etc. You keep sending it and you keep calling and you don’t put your hopes all in any one basket—even if they have you in to their posh Hollywood office, serve you a cold glass bottle of Voss and tell you you’re a genius. Until the contract is signed and the check is cashed keep selling your stuff.
And one other thing: don’t let this reality discourage you. It is what it is. Sometimes a better story comes along, or an important actor shows up with a different project. Anything can distract a producer—even a drug habit or his own money problems. I wish I was in your shoes. I wish I knew this before I moved to Hollywood.
Good Luck,
TRL
