Playwright | Joshua James

I am happy to announce that, a couple months ago, I was hired to adapt Peter Biskind’s book Down and Dirty Pictures into a screenplay.

I haven’t said anything previously because I’m superstitious as hell and wanted to wait until work was complete.

Now that it’s finished and I’m told the producers are very pleased with the script, it’s a pleasure to share the good news with all y’all.

Said good news being: I’ve popped my imdb cherry and I can reasonably call myself a professional screenwriter.

The company that hired me is guild-signatory, which means I’m eligible to join the Writers Guild of America (just got my application) and I was paid accordingly.

Now folks, it’s impolite to discuss money matters in detail, so please don’t ask . . . suffice to say that union rates pay much better than royalties for plays, heh-heh . . . it’s definitely a step up.

But I’m still a working writer just beginning his career, I’m not any of these guys, at least not yet.

More important, I love the project . . . it’s a great book, Down and Dirty Pictures is a non-fiction book that charts the rise of independent film in the nineties, focusing specifically on Sundance, Miramax and October Films, among others.

There are fantastic stories in the book (and unfortunately, we couldn’t include all of them for a two-hour movie) some of which are unbelievably hilarious and touching . . . really, it’s quite a tale.

And so vast, charactered with real larger-than-life people like the Weinsteins, Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Bingham Ray, Michael Eisner, (for Christ’s sake, Michael freakin’ Eisner!) Steven Soderbergh, Alison Anders, I mean . . . the list goes on and on . . . and due to the very things I loved about it, it was a BEAR to adapt.

It was harder than anything else I’ve ever done, it was not definitely easy, and I LOVED every minute of it.

So how did it happen, you ask?

Good question!

I don’t even have a damn agent . . . I’m agent-less, I’m sans-agent, when I got this job I was walking the valley of no-representation, I lone-wolfed . . . I’ve digressed.

I got the opportunity through a great director who has another screenplay of mine (one I’m not ready to talk about) and is a fan of my writing.

He told me about the project, I’m a fan of the book and I got a chance to pitch for it. A number of times . . . it didn’t happen overnight.

I got the job because I found a unique way of telling the story, a really cool hook, and that’s what landed it.

It helped that I’ve read the book at least fifty times (Peter Biskind has also authored Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, a book I’ve read at least a couple hundred times) and knew it well, of course.

It helped that I’ve written a couple other screenplays that people really like and champion. Referrals make a difference.

It helped that there are a ton of pro’s online with valuable advice.

It also helped that I worked hand in hand on the project with a really great director, from whom I learned a lot. We kicked ass.

It helped that the timing was right on a number of levels.

Make no mistake, though, I put many, many man hours into this thing, I shit you not, there were many days I sat at my desk 12 hours straight . . . I busted my ass, sweated bullets and blood and it paid off with a great script that I’m very proud of.

If I can tell anyone anything about writing, it would be this . . . it’s WORK, baby . . . lots of work.

Okay, so that’s my announcement, I’m happy I’m finally on imbd, but onward toward the future . . . I’ve got a few things on the fryer and even more in the fire, I’ve got these really great ideas for movies and then there’s this novel . . .

I’ll stop myself there, heehee!

By the way, does anyone know of any super cool agents they like and can recommend?

LOL!

I’m kidding . . .

Heh. Kind of . . .

But seriously . . .

I’m already house-broken . . .

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Written Works by JJ, Screeenwriting Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.