In my last blog I left you with the following: my Sideways novel had been turned down by the publishing industry through my indefatigable Curtis Brown, LTD agent, on a second round of submissions -- even, shockingly, after Alexander Payne had optioned it and it was major entertainment daily news that Artisan Ent. had greenlit it as a $10 million film. Shortly thereafter, Payne called to tell me in March of 2000 to sadly inform me that he was going to do another film (About Schmidt) before Sideways, leaving me jackknifed over in total dismay after a decade of a life of destitution and suicidal despair.Fast-forward to early 2003. In the interim I wrote a spec script (Repairman) that I was able to option that helped me stay afloat; Payne continued to re-up the option on the film rights every year, rekindling my hopes that the bloom wouldn't be off the rose on his 2000 vow to make Sideways when he had finished About Schmidt; About Schmidt is released in the fall of '03 to critical acclaim. Good news and nervous news: that meant Payne had even more power to get a film greenlit. Because he had more power, however, he now had more options, making me even more uneasy about him doing a novel he had read in the fall of '99 and ostensibly fallen in love with.
In early '03, after winning a raft of awards for eventual box-office success About Schmidt, Payne and his writing partner, Jim Taylor, began the adaptation of Sideways. Three years from the date when he phoned to tell me that he'd decided to put it on hold and do another film before it, his interest and full attention had been drawn back to my orphaned, still unpublished, Sideways. The elation of hope -- which is tantamount to Hell in Hollywood -- suffused me once again. At about the same time I got a strange call from my former Endeavor book-to-film agent, Brian Lipson (I had moved on to Marti Blumenthal at Writers & Artists, and usually agents who have been left don't call you again, ever). Dan Strone of Trident Media Group had phoned him. He'd read a lengthy interview with Payne in New York Times Magazine where the latter, when queried about his future plans, said his next movie was going to be "from an unpublished novel" called Sideways. In disbelief, and smelling blood, he went into action.
I've had a lot of agents in my career. Some dumped me, some I left, one had a nervous breakdown, and one died of AIDS. I hated to change agents, but Lipson disparaged Curtis Brown in no uncertain terms and, after a few phone calls, I had left the wonderful Mitchell Waters and signed with Dan Strone and Trident Media, a powerful, eclectic, not particularly literary, publishing agency.
I have written at length about the process of the screenplay adaptation by Payne and Taylor, but I want to keep this HuffPost Books blog relevant to the book. Strone submitted Sideways to 20 top tier publishers -- which now put the count at over 100 -- armed with the Payne interview, certain that there'd be a bidding war. Artisan Ent., mired in financial troubles, was beginning to look more and more like they weren't going to be the funding entity. But, I wasn't worried: if Payne wanted to do it, he'd get the funding. But, given that there was no firm film deal, I could see where the publishing world might be circumspect. In truth, I started to believe I had written a dreadful book, that Payne had lost his mind, and that Sideways was unpublishable. It didn't help to remind myself that the publishing industry was pumping out vampire books and Y/A crap and chick lit, not to mention mass market stalwarts, some of whom didn't even write their own books anymore.
Full piece at Huff Post
In early '03, after winning a raft of awards for eventual box-office success About Schmidt, Payne and his writing partner, Jim Taylor, began the adaptation of Sideways. Three years from the date when he phoned to tell me that he'd decided to put it on hold and do another film before it, his interest and full attention had been drawn back to my orphaned, still unpublished, Sideways. The elation of hope -- which is tantamount to Hell in Hollywood -- suffused me once again. At about the same time I got a strange call from my former Endeavor book-to-film agent, Brian Lipson (I had moved on to Marti Blumenthal at Writers & Artists, and usually agents who have been left don't call you again, ever). Dan Strone of Trident Media Group had phoned him. He'd read a lengthy interview with Payne in New York Times Magazine where the latter, when queried about his future plans, said his next movie was going to be "from an unpublished novel" called Sideways. In disbelief, and smelling blood, he went into action.
I've had a lot of agents in my career. Some dumped me, some I left, one had a nervous breakdown, and one died of AIDS. I hated to change agents, but Lipson disparaged Curtis Brown in no uncertain terms and, after a few phone calls, I had left the wonderful Mitchell Waters and signed with Dan Strone and Trident Media, a powerful, eclectic, not particularly literary, publishing agency.
I have written at length about the process of the screenplay adaptation by Payne and Taylor, but I want to keep this HuffPost Books blog relevant to the book. Strone submitted Sideways to 20 top tier publishers -- which now put the count at over 100 -- armed with the Payne interview, certain that there'd be a bidding war. Artisan Ent., mired in financial troubles, was beginning to look more and more like they weren't going to be the funding entity. But, I wasn't worried: if Payne wanted to do it, he'd get the funding. But, given that there was no firm film deal, I could see where the publishing world might be circumspect. In truth, I started to believe I had written a dreadful book, that Payne had lost his mind, and that Sideways was unpublishable. It didn't help to remind myself that the publishing industry was pumping out vampire books and Y/A crap and chick lit, not to mention mass market stalwarts, some of whom didn't even write their own books anymore.
Full piece at Huff Post
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