The Changeling

[phazedout]

fir pla y( to quote somoene with a similair surname to mine but, thanks the gods, no relation.
I'm delighted being a JMSophile wo'll buy practically anything with his name on it (MSW being the one exception).
Phaze
on the "happy for JMS" ID

[Sigma]

JMS posted this in newsgroup:

I am living in such strange times right now. So I figured I'd share
them.

Prior to the announcement of "Changeling," my film agent tried to get
me to understand what would happen in the aftermath of that
announcement, even though he said "you really won't get it until you're
in it."

I had no idea.

See, there's a real class structure to this industry. A list directors
only buy scripts from A list writers. That's kind of the rule, with
very few exceptions. I've been working in the TV business for over
twenty years, but in features I'm kind of an unknown equation. Always
have been, mainly because I really haven't sought it out much; I figure
films are like going to Vegas, you can invest years in one shot at the
dice. So I stick to TV. I thus have not been in that class of A list
writer. Nowhere near.

When Imagine and Ron Howard bought that script, the effect was
electric. Suddenly everybody in town wanted to know who the hell was
this guy they'd never heard of who just sold a script to Howard and, in
essence, jumped the line from "who?" to A-list without much in-between.
Twenty years in TV, now suddenly an overnight success.

Within hours of the announcement, every studio in town was calling my
agent to get a copy of the script. As it got read, they started
calling to set up meetings. Not us calling them. Them calling us.

And then the offers started. Rewrite offers. Original film offers.
Adaptations. I've had no less than one and in many cases two or three
studio meetings every day for the last several weeks, and my calendar
is one big mass of black type for the next four weeks. A big-budget
feature that Sony wants me to rewrite because it has to go into
production fast, one that Universal wants developed, on and on and
on...all I have to do is say yes to whichever ones I want and they're
mine. Everything I've ever written is suddenly being pored over and
optioned.

I have never seen anything like it. I've read about this sort of
thing, but to experience it personally is...strange, so strange. The
stuff I've had out there before, the novels and short stories and the
like, are all exactly what they were before this...the words didn't
change on the page, the stories didn't alter, but suddenly the
*context* in which they are being seen has changed radically.

I'm being very, very careful and very selective in what I say yes to,
because I want to make sure whatever I take on adds to rather than
subtracts from the momentum we've now achieved.

The really odd thing is that I'm not running around, jumping up and
down, celebrating or hooting or hollaring or any of that. It's moved
me in the other direction, I've gotten really, really quiet, and
careful. It's like all of my antennae are up. Everybody around me is
thrilled, and can't figure out why I'm being so reserved. I'm not
really sure myself, to be honest. Just a strange sort of wariness,
like when I'd move to a new neighborhood as a kid and I'd go quiet
while I sussed out the area.

Odd. Nothing bad, it's all to the good, lord knows. Just odd. Very
odd.

jms

[AmyG]

Maybe not in your mind. M. Night Shyamalan became an overnight success with "The Sixth Sense," and as has been mentioned here before, Akiva Goldsman is another who went from being virtually unknown to A-lister overnight. It does happen; still, it'll help if the film actually gets made.

[Karachi Vyce]

It's one script. Once he's sold like 3 or 4 scripts to A-list directors, MAYBE I'll consider him A-list.

As it is, I remain highly skeptical. One script does not an A-lister make.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

Ha.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves with the pats to our own backs, JMS. You ain't A-list yet.

From what I know of Hollywood (which, granted, isn't that much), it strikes me that being A-list in the eyes of the industry is often significantly different to being A-list in the eyes of the fans.

A perfect example being the aforementioned Akiva Goldsman. I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to see any movie with his name on the screenplay, but he seems to carry quite a bit of weight as a writer.

[Jan]

Too soon to suggest a separate Changeling forum?

Yeah, I think so. Maybe once it's in production? We'll see.

Jan

[frulad]

Too soon to suggest a separate Changeling forum?

[frulad]

Ha.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves with the pats to our own backs, JMS. You ain't A-list yet.

Personally, given that Goldman write the two craptacular Schumacker Batman movies as well as the VASTLY overrated A Beautiful Mind, that's not a parallel I would draw for myself.

[Jan]

There is, however, no doubt that the simple fact of the sale raises JMS's status in the business considerably. Remember, this is an industry where writers can be considered highly successful even if what they've written never gets produced.

BTW, JMS mentioned in Charlotte that there's the possibility that 'The Changeling' might go into production as early as January.

Jan

[Karachi Vyce]

and it moves me
from being marginally known in the film business right into the
catetory of a-list writer overnight, which parallels what happened with
Akiva Goldman.

Ha.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves with the pats to our own backs, JMS. You ain't A-list yet.

[grumbler]

"The story, billed as based on actual events, is about a mother who prays for the return of her kidnapped son. When her prayers are answered, however, she begins to suspect the boy who comes back is not her child."

If we get to the theater and discover that the son's name is Alfred Bester, then we know that The Fix is In.

[AaronB]

Well, you ARE living in Philly...

Hey! Respect the Bingo Hall!

[Dr Maturin]

I've seen some strange things in my life -- some unexplainably strange things

Well, you ARE living in Philly...

[AmyG]

I mean, come on, that CAN'T be something that actually happened.

That tag, "based on actual events," can mean many things. It could be that it's based on a story of a woman whose child was abducted and who seemed different when he was returned. End of actual events, beginning of writerly extrapolation on why that might be so, folding in the folkloric aspect of the changeling child.

Alternatively, maybe the whole thing is based on actual events. I've seen some strange things in my life -- some unexplainably strange things -- and I'm certainly not the only one. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (from Hamlet, Act I, scene 5)

[Dr Maturin]

BWP? Blair Witch Project?

You can't seriously imagine JMS would make a movie like that?

(I know it's an unpopular opinion, but I found it a mediocre movie at best, and not very scary at all.)

The movie was complete and utter garbage, to be more precise.

I probably should have worded it differently, because I meant that the film will be portrayed as being based on a true story while having no actual basis in fact.

"The story, billed as based on actual events, is about a mother who prays for the return of her kidnapped son. When her prayers are answered, however, she begins to suspect the boy who comes back is not her child."

The bolded line would seem to suggest so. I mean, come on, that CAN'T be something that actually happened.