"Carjacked" - Sold, Produced, Completed

Congrats (sort of,) to an old friend...

In the Summer of 2006, I met Sherry Compton when she worked for me on the AFI/Directing Workshop for Women film that I produced, "Dance to the Offbeat."

Sherry did an amazing job of going from Supermarket to Supermarket collecting free grocery gift cards so that our no-budget production could feed our crew.

Sherry wanted me to help her get Denzel Washington or Ashton Kutcher for her screenplay, "Carjacked."

"Carjacked" is about a man who terrorizes a woman and her young son in their car. Period.

I told her I didn't know Denzel, but I did have a few inroads to Ashton and a few other big names. I also told her that I was pretty sure he wouldn't be interested in doing a film that was basically a Lifetime "Woman in Peril" movie-of-the-week.

So instead, I offered her a compromise:

Since she said that she had access to production funding I would go to my friends who knew the A-Listers, and the exchange would be this:

Sherry brings the money, but loses the script we do, my friend(s) bring the Star Power and they do their script, but lose a powerful title/credit/control.

It was a fair compromise that skyrockets all our careers. Neither Sherry nor my 3 friends would do it.

They didn't want to compromise, mainly because they didn't think they would need to since they thought their Big Break was right around the corner.

So instead of each having a Producer and Director credits on a legitimate Hollywood movie with a legit A-List Hollywood star that could've brought them/us BIG money, in the 2 years since I tried to broker the deal:

One of them has an unfinished short film. One has an unfinished feature starring themselves. One has nothing.

Sherry has a writing credit on a film starring D LIST actors that may or may not find distribution, and that may or may not pay her a piece of the action if it does sell.

I have 2 features in festivals, one with distribution, 3 shorts in festivals, a music video in festivals, a feature-script with 2 wins, 3 shorts with multiple wins...and I'M the failure?!

What's up with that?

Truth is, I was run out of the business because no matter how many indies I produced/directed, I failed to ever get beyond a PA position in the "Real World."

So here I am, I'm writing this to myself (since nobody reads this thing) from my room in my Mom's house in Massachusetts.

I am trying very hard to accept that it is entirely possible that I am ahead of my time, or maybe I just don't get it. Either way, I am out of step with those in Hollywood that I have access to.

I am trying to let go of the Hollywood Dream, but something or someone always sucks me back in...