Thursday, July 15, 1999

Reborn on the 4th...



I am sending out letters to everyone who has a copy of my script instead of phoning them this month, hoping to whet their appetites with a little taste of wholesome comic goodness. Here is the basic text:


"Dear So and So,
I have been here in Hollywood for over six months now, yet I am just as wide-eyed and innocent as the day I arrived. The sinful lure of obscene wealth has not tainted my rigorous devotion to my craft. Neither has the naked siren's call of unbridled erotic fulfillment swayed my focus from the task at hand. (So to speak.) The Good Lord willing this insufferable situation will soon change before I miss out on all the fun. Hope you are enjoying your summer. Sincerely, etc.

p.s. Enjoy my screenplay RED HERRINGS with your favorite beverage."

Meanwhile I have stumbled onto a few new contacts, one at work through one of the receptionists who knows a certain executive producer. Another is a guy I met recently at cousin Blake's birthday party. I spent most of the party talking with three lovely sheilas from New Zealand (kiwi birds), but fortunately little Clay dragged me away from them long enough to introduce me to an old family friend who is going to try his hand at producing, having worked for several years in post production (like Blake) and having developed a long list of industry contacts. He's going to call his company New Hollywood Productions. Has a nice ring, I think.

A couple of weeks ago I went out to Orange County to visit the Kostalnicks, close family friends from way back in the early Louisville days. They moved out here about thirty years ago, but my Mom has kept in touch with them. It's a little strange seeing a kid who was your best friend when you were eight years old who is now thirty eight. How'd he get so old? But for the most part it was a lot like it was thirty years ago, so much has changed but the basic feelings are still there.

I woke up from a dream the other night in which a group of people were being used as surrogate "imaginers" for those who had lost the ability to use thier own imaginations. It took place in the future where there was a technology that enabled their thoughts to be harvested and transferred into the others. In this (future) society, no one has need for original thought since everything is pre-selected and programmed to function without any confusing choices or risky decisions. Obviously, it is a Utopia very different from our present day chaos. I'm planning to turn it into a screenplay, if I can figure out a way to present the idea in an easily mareketable and commerically viable form that will be immediately grasped as something familiar but with a twist, that tells a universal story particularly suited to 15 - 35 year old test audiences.

I went to Venice beach the other day and was formally baptised in the Pacific Ocean. I guess I am officially a Californian now. Awesome!




I miss you all.

Love, Hollywood D