Write Place, Right Time

My schedule happened to open up enough to allow me to attend a pre-screening of The Weinstein Company's new picture BOBBY. The film was followed by a Q&A session with writer/director Emilio Estevez and several actors (including Christian Slater, Freddy Rodriguez, and Sharon Stone). All in all, the film was pretty good. It brought up a lot of issues that parallel today's political and social landscape in America. It also had far too many characters - including his own.

The best part of the evening was listening to Estevez and the actors discuss how the film came together and how they reacted to the content. Estevez, in particular, was captivating. I've never heard him speak for longer than a soundbite before. His discussion of the events of 1968 were well thought out and quite intelligent. It was refreshing to hear a smart H'wood voice at one of these things.

What stood out for me was Estevez's backstory on this project. Here's a story that deeply effected him from a young age and was burning to come out as a film. For years he had researched the project, characters, themes, and finally went to work on the screenplay. After writing just 30 pages, he was frozen for about a year with no direction.

Boy, did that sound familiar.

Then his brother Charlie read what he had written and intervened (yes, Charlie Sheen doing an intervention!) . "You have to finish this script. It could be the most important thing you do in your life. Get out of town and finish this!" He listened to Charlie's advice (something he rarely does) and packed all his research, writing, and computer into his truck and headed north.

After 150 miles or so, he pulled into a motel that advertised: Vacancy, No TV, No Telephone. The woman at the desk recognized him and asked what he was doing at the run down lodge. He told her about his BOBBY project. Turns out, she was there at the Ambassador Hotel the night Kennedy was shot. This serendipitous meeting unleashed the story within and allowed Estevez to complete the screenplay. (Her story became the basis of Lindsay Lohan's character.)

So now he has his script in hand to shop around. The initial funding fell through, so he continued to pitch it. Three years went by before he could raise enough funds and attach enough stars to make it happen.

THREE YEARS!

I don't know if I should be happy or depressed about this. On the one hand, here's a name star having the same problems as me trying to sell a project. I'm not the only one in this boat. On the other hand, with his H'wood lineage and a story about a Kennedy, you'd think this would have gotten funding in a NY minute. The fact that this kind of clout still took years to fund scares the daylights out of me.

Is Estevez's backstory one of hope or doom? Depends on which day it is.

One thing is certain, though, when it came to finishing the screenplay, he was in the 'write' place at the right time!