A Filmmaker’s Journal
25 years ago today, my first feature film premiered on Showtime. I was doing a producing internship in a glass skyscraper a few floors below former president Ronald Reagan’s office. Interestingly, it was also the building (or rather a miniature version of it) they blew up in Die Hard.
I was anxious to establish myself as a producer, but lacked the money to acquire the rights to the latest New York Times bestseller. So, on my lunch breaks, I started combing the classics section of the nearby Beverly Hills Library. In Hollywood, “classics” = free, stealable stories (i.e. no longer under copyright protection).
There, I stumbled across Rip Van Winkle, an iconic American fairy tale that had–amazingly–never been made into a feature length film. Probably because it was only a fifteen page wisp of a story. So I expanded it into a full-length treatment (Hollywood language for a sort of blueprint for a movie). In it, I imagined all that might have happened to Rip’s family and community during his twenty-year nap. What would he have to do–and undo? The problem: his abandoned wife and child, and even the town he loved, were now under the sway of his wife’s unscrupulous fiancé.
I pitched the story to a development executive at Columbia Pictures, and he said, “Well, Showtime is looking for fairy tales. But they want modern versions.”
“What a coincidence!” I lied, “Because this just happens to be a modern version!” The second I got off the phone, I started modernizing my treatment. And two weeks later, Showtime bought the rights to it!
And so it was that I received my first on-screen producer credit when Out of Time premiered on May 17, 2000. (I wouldn’t actually write and direct my own feature film, Healing River, until some years later). To be honest…
As a freshman producer I didn’t have a lot of control over the production (like none). So, when major changes were made I wasn’t even consulted. Following the premiere screening, my wife turned to me, and said, “Well, the good news is you can sell it again–since they changed everything you wrote!” Still, it came out pretty decent.
I hope you enjoy this brief clip from Out of Time, my first feature film!
I have to track that down. Looks very fascinating!
Here’s a link to a site that streams it (for free, I think): https://www.crackle.com/details/7c5f8292-23b2-413e-9c40-624962edd7e6/out-of-time-(2000)
Thank you but unfortunately not supported in Canada but I will look around.
Ah, sorry to hear that, Randy. It’s a 25-year-old made-for-television movie, so no surprise it’s hard to find.
Awesome story
Thansk, L.G.
As a sometime (and still obscure) screenwriter, I can attest to how even the friendliest producers/collaborators will change a screenplay to match their needs/different visions. The one film of “mine” that I know you like (“Ronnie and the Pursuit of the Elusive Bliss”) has a lot of DNA from my draft of the screenplay (I’d say they kept 60% of my version), but the director and executive producer both altered the script for both creative and financial reasons.
To be fair, they did want me up in NYC to do the rewrites and consult on the changes in person, but their apartment IS tiny, and there’s no guest room, so I would have had to fly up to Manhattan and stay in a hotel, and that was too expensive. So I told them to go ahead and make the changes they needed.
Reality bites, doesn’t it, Alex.
It could have been worse, though!
60% of the original script is still there.
(There is a gag from my draft that has the setup in the film but doesn’t have the punchline because my NYC peeps forgot to shoot the relevant scene. When I asked Juan – the lead actor/director/editor – why they had bothered to do most of the joke but not the payoff, he admitted that they forgot, even though Juan thought my idea was funny and was looking forward to shooting it.)
I hate it when that happens!
I put a lot of time and effort into that gag, too. “Ronnie” is my first-ever comedy script, and while most of the humor was really a commentary about a politically divided family (a la “All in the Family”) in 2020, I also wanted a bit of old-fashioned physical comedy, too. My idea was to introduce a package of Apple Muffins almost as an aside, show them again in another scene, and then have Ronnie (Adria K. Hernandez) stuff a muffin into her “Archie Bunker”-like hubby’s mouth to prevent him from saying something rude to their son. That scene would have ended with a close-up of Juan eating the muffin.
Well, if you watch the movie again, you’ll see that Juan and Adria got two-thirds of the gag done but forgot to add the punchline.
What an amazing history you have Mitch!!
Thank you, my Anonymous friend.
Go for it. I watch endless replays of football and baseball all day long.
Playwrights go through this too. It’s a die-cast rule that the director gets to do anything at all with your script they have a mind to, and still present it as yours. I’ve had whole scenes taken out, male characters changed to female ~ even had one turned into a sock puppet. There’s a reason the writer is generally barred from rehearsals…😱
:>(
Wow, I’ll have to look this up.
Here’s a link to a site that streams it (free, I think): https://www.crackle.com/details/7c5f8292-23b2-413e-9c40-624962edd7e6/out-of-time-(2000)
Wowza Mitch thats pretty awesome 😁😁
Thank you.
What a great story, I’d love to try to do something like this someday.
What a fantastic anecdote, Mitch. Thank you for sharing.
My pleasure, David.
That’s cool! And then they wrote it again…castaway! Even if they changed it, it was still yours!
I did something similar when Rapunzel was chosen for the annual musical, with a cast of over 40 kids.
The spent most of the story trying to get over the wall around the garden.
;>)
You’ve lived such an interesting life Mitch, and continue to
Thank you, Kate (I think ;>).
How wonderful! I watched the clip.
Congratulations! I had no idea!
Thanks, Ed!
You’ve been blessed with so much artistic talent, Mitch.
Aw, thank you, Terry.
can we pray for cora
Happy filmaversary.
Thank you, Steven!
Looks pretty good!
How did I miss this? Thank you, Mitch! 🥰
My pleasure, Vicki!
That is awesome, I’ll check out the link you shared. I hope you have a great new week.
You too, Rasma!
Great! Was it a good little earner?
It was on Showtime, Geoff, so there weren’t any ticket sales, but it had good viewing numbers, I believe.
Bravo!
Thanks, Rob!
I like your wife’s attitude 😁
;>)
Wow! Amazing! Now I can say I know a real, live Hollywood producer. Looks like a fun movie. But I suspect you make the process of traveling from idea to finished product sound much simpler than it really was.
Oh, yes, getting from idea to finish film is a long process with a lot of moving parts.
You memorised this so well. Had me imagining 25 years ago lol
Wow, amazing look at how God worked in those early days of your career!