Writing spec screenplays in Hollywood is a challenge. First off, you must be a reasonably talented writer; second of all, you have to have an agent; and third of all, you must be good at pitching your story. There's a joke in LA that producers don't read, and there's some truth to that. If they show interest in your script, they invariably want you to come in and "pitch" them the story. That means you sit in a room in front of the producer (and generally several other people) and you tell them the story, hitting the main beats, etc.

Fortunately for me, long before I started writing spec screenplays people had been paying me to write teleplays for TV. Then I directed a movie for Miramax that starred Lou Diamond Phillips and we became great friends; and one of the first things we did together was write a spec screenplay. Lou had just starred in LA BAMBA, so everyone was after him, and we were able to shop our script all over town. We got very close to getting it made several times, but in the end, nothing panned out. I also wrote several spec scripts on my own, and my agent shopped them around. One of those scripts was called FIREFLIES, and everyone loved it, and several people optioned it, including Jerry Molen, who had won the Academy Award for producing SCHINDLER'S LIST. Jerry was never able to get it made (for a lot of frustrating reasons), then a friend of mine suggested I turn it into a novel. I'd always wanted to write a novel, so I did, and that was how THE UGLY TEAPOT was born.

In an interesting twist of fate, my manager in LA told me the other day that since the book had been so well received, she'd like to shop the screenplay again. Who knows, maybe this time it will get made!

Until next time, I'll be moving on...