CineStory Success Stories

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A CONTEST CAN MAKE by Jeff Forester, Retreat 2004

Being a semifinalist in the CineStory writing competition changed everything. I now have an agent, have sold one script and optioned another, am a WGA member. All of this is a direct result of attending the CineStory Retreat.

On the other hand, being a semifinalist in CineStory changed nothing—writing screenplays is still as hard as it ever was. Every screenplay is a risk, a risk of time and money and effort, a risk of laying myself open to criticism and disappointment. Nothing happens without a good script and writing a good script is hard.

A few months before the CineStory Retreat I published a book—Forest for the Trees: How Humans Shaped the Northwoods. In this non-fiction was the seed of an idea for a tent pole action adventure film about a massive forest fire, a fire that researchers say is coming due to over logging and inappropriate fire suppression efforts. My writing partner, Jim Berg and I wrote up a one pager, but we had no idea how to proceed, nobody to pitch to, no agent, nobody to help us refine it—a lump of clay, good China clay, but still wet and lumpy.

On the second day at CineStory I was eating lunch with mentors Meg LeFauve and Joe Forte. When Joe and Meg said casually that it would be nice to have a place in Idyllwild I went into my description of the fuel load problem, pointed out the massive fuel loads on the mountainsides around us and led into the film idea. Meg got shivers. Joe's eyes went wide. Here was that rare commodity—an idea, not a movie, not yet—but an idea with legs.

Others at CineStory offered to help, warning that this was a BIG idea, big budget, big players, and big stakes. They predicted that a studio would buy the idea, but would hire a more established writer to do the script. Both manager David Baird and exec Navid McIlhargey gave me the same advice—pair up with an established writer, go in and make the pitch, try to get a shot at writing the script, learn all you could in the process. Joe and I had developed a good rapport over the weekend and, as an established writer coming off the movie FIREWALL, Joe offered the guidance and protection we needed. I called my writing partner Jim, who could not get the time off work to go to CineStory, and told him what was going on. He nearly dropped the phone, and then said "go with your gut," so Joe, Jim and I teamed up—something Joe told me he had never done.

Joe went home and I went back to England where I was on a Jerome Fellowship for a novel I was writing. Jim continued his Fed-Ex route in Appleton, Wisconsin. We worked out rough story ideas via email.

When we had most of the pieces in place, Joe came to Minneapolis and in a good garage band riff with Joe leading the jam we wrote our outline in four days. Joe flew back to Los Angeles, and refined the pitch, with drafts going back and forth via email.

Joe's agent, Jordan Bayer at Original Artists, set up five pitches in two days with folks like Jerry Bruckheimer and Wolfgang Peterson. It was surreal.

The day before we left, Jim delivered packages, finished his shift, drove from Appleton to Minneapolis and we flew to Los Angeles. I had never been in LA before. We performed the pitch for Meg. She had great comments, and prepared us for all the questions we might be asked. Together we worked out our answers.

Our first pitch was at Paramount with Lorenzo DiBoniventura (TRANSFORMERS). The big time. Lorenzo's office was a storefront on the little Paramount town square. We showed Lorenzo my book, described the science behind our idea, told him that it was not a matter of if, but when such a fire would strike, and before we ever got to the story, Lorenzo said "Stop, I want this movie."

 

Lorenzo said, "Stop, I want this movie." My stomach did flip-flops. Joe and Meg's cool was blown. Jim went catatonic; a huge grin scribed across his face.

When we finished the pitch, (Joe was amazing) Brian Witten (Vice-President) and other executives asked the questions Meg had told us they would ask, in the same order, and in many cases using the exact language. Brilliant.

We drifted from the office while Brian and Lorenzo talked. I lay on that lovely lawn where W.C. Fields had once tossed a football to Cary Grant. Meg, who was pregnant at the time, popped a Tums—Jim continued his Sphinx impersonation and Joe tried to get Jordan on the phone, but Jordan put him on hold. Lorenzo was lighting up his other line…

We got to Paramount at 4:30 and the deal was done by 10:00 that night. We never pitched to anyone else.

The final deal was just shy of a million dollars, and included buying the rights to my book, a budget to do research for the film, and two drafts. Jim and I became WGA members. Jordan Bayer is our agent.

Joe, Jim and I wrote and submitted our drafts of the movie FLASH POINT, and our producers and studio executives were elated with the results. FLASH POINT was budgeted, and, as of this writing, is on hold due to the strike. Joe, Jim and I are still the writers of record.

All of it began at CineStory. The strategy of the CineStory mentors had come true perfectly. Joe and Meg led us into the heart of Hollywood, guided us, protected us, taught us—the CineStory philosophy brought into the industry—and delivered us safely on the far shore. I was, and still am, just so incredibly grateful.

Last year Joe pitched Jim and I a new idea for a new film he wanted to direct. We decided to work together again, to see if we could capture lightening in a bottle twice. Again, the process was magic - we had something special from the moment we typed "Fade In." Gina Kwon (ME, YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW; THE GOOD GIRL) has come on as Producer, and our glistening new script, A LIFETIME IN HEAT, is moving toward production.