Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 40

"Writing must have an element of magic to it. When that m...

"Writing must have an element of magic to it. When that magic takes over, the writer himself loses track of time during the writing—and the reader will lose track of time during the reading. If you’re happy at work and think of it as your own private briar patch—a place of escape from the world in which time is your time—the clock of life becomes your clock, and even the thorns in that briar patch are of your own choosing.”


― Kenneth Atchity, Write Time: Guide to the Creative Process, from Vision through Revision-and Beyond

Available on Amazon

Check Out The Latest Friday Times Article Featuring Story Merchant CEO Dr. Kenneth Atchity Speak About Dealing With Your Type C Minds!

Sylvia Plath questioned and wrote the most beautiful poetry, writer Iffat Navaid wrote her biography marveling on her husband’s body-mind – a whole functioning human being reduced to the whims of wits – and wrote such a poignant yet powerful autobiography. This article reviews Pakistan fiction writer Iffat Navaid’s biography.

Arguably, the book can be a testament to what Dr. Kenneth Atchity calls “Dealing with Type C Minds” – C for Creative and C for Crazy. Dr. Kenneth Atchity writes about psychology of creativity: he divides creative productive people into two domains, happy and unhappy. Happy are the ones that know the curve ball a creative process throws: that after completion of one project, the doer is destined to fall into depression like a mother who goes into postpartum depression after that being is out of her womb. In fact, heavily productive people know that this digression into depression will happen, so they keep a steady supply of projects. They happily finish one to get into another and avoid the blues. Unhappy productive people are baffled by the psychology of creativity. This is the reason why you see writers like Ernest Hemingway, Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf finding themselves there in the end.
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Deborah Kobylt LIVE: James Pierre and Ken Atchity

 

Growing up in NJ, stories about the mob often led the news. It was terrifying, but peaked one’s curiosity at the same time. And being of Italian decent, it was the topic of many conversations.

Little Italy Podcast and Deborah Kobylt LIVE, speaks with James Pierre, author, “GAMBINO: The Rise,” and Ken Atchity, film producer and literary manager who’s turned many best sellers into successful films.

Pierre got the idea for the book when he witnessed something as a child - a mob hit - and told no one until he decided to write about it as an adult. He talks about growing up in NY, and calls himself “a student of all things mafia,” and his knowledge past and present is astounding, as is his story. 

Ken has been behind some of the Hollywood’s most successful films, and says this story has “Godfather” potential with its rich history and cultural perspective. James and Ken both join us for our interview.

 Available on Amazon. 

How to Turn a Book Into a Movie with Ken Atchity

Kenneth Atchity began writing stories as a child under his mother’s supervision. By the age of 16 he was a book reviewer for the Kansas City Star (no one at the newspaper realized how old he was when they hired him over the phone).
Ken started in the film industry after working as a professor for 17 years because he wanted to work on the creative side of story rather than the critical side. He came up with an idea that turned into 16 films and never looked back. His company has developed over 30 films and published over 150 novels. Ken has a reverence for stories and the art of storytelling that shines through in this interview.

Listen to interview


The way to sell a story to its largest audience is to write a book and make a movie out of it. You can also do it the other way, and write a book based on a movie.The power of having a story that is both a movie or TV show and a book is that you have two separate audiences that discover the story and each of them will seek out the story in the other medium.People who read the book first will watch the movie or TV show, and people who watch the TV show first will buy the book.To make your story into a movie or television show, it has to be highly dramatic and have a universal message that a large audience can connect with.A good treatment can sell them with the idea of your novel even if your novel is missing some basic elements of a good Hollywood screenplay.A treatment is a brief written pitch that shows the movie that exists in the story. Ken’s book on treatments can be found in the Links and Resources section below.After you’ve written your treatment you should reach out to a contact in Hollywood.If you don’t know anyone directly to you don’t have any friends who might be able to connect with someone one place to look is writers conferences. You can go to writers conferences and sign up for a lecture from somebody who is connected in Hollywood and that will give you a point of contact.When you meet your point of contact simply ask them for their advice. Don’t ask them to buy your story idea. Give them the elevator pitch of your story. If they’re excited by that give them a copy of your treatment and they’ll look at it seriously. Often if they aren’t interested for some reason they may be able to point you in the direction of somebody who might be.Don’t offer to buy them lunch. Just ask for five minutes of their time.You should be able to tell people what your story is about one or two sentences. If it takes longer something is wrong with your story.The pitch for under siege starring Stephen Seagal was Die Hard on a boat.the pitch for Splash starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah was: It’s a fish out of water story only she’s a mermaid. The secret to a good pitch is to make it short. Make it something that leads the person you’re talking to to ask questions.If you’re in a producer’s office in Hollywood and they ask you five questions about your story, they virtually invested in your story already.The most important character in every story is the audience. Always pay attention to the audience. Always be thinking about where the audience’s attention is at.Structure your story for your audience.How to engage your audience when they aren’t responding to the story you’re telling.After you’ve sold your story stop talking.Never bring notes to a pitch meeting.Stories are about humanity.Storytelling is about capturing the audience in a relationship with you that leaves the rest of the world out.The audience lives inside your story. That’s why it’s so important to not have anything in the story that takes them out of the story.The most important thing when selling your story is to keep the audience on the edge of their seat all the way through the pitch. If you can do that chances are very good story will sell.Ideas themselves don’t make movies. Good storytelling makes movies. Writing a good story shows that you’re a good storyteller.There are no new stories. It’s how you tell the story that makes the difference.An idea can’t be protected. Only written documents can be protected. If you have a good story idea at least write a treatment of it so it can be protected.The human race runs on stories.Storytelling is a sacred vocation.Before the written word storytelling was how civilization got passed down from generation to generation.Storytellers were a protected class of citizen in ancient times.Storytelling is our primary way of holding reality together.The myth of the starving artist is just another destructive story we tell ourselves. It’s a story rooted in victimhood, and no good protagonist is ever a victim for long. Western culture prefers stories of heroes who overcome their obstacles.Salvador Dali once said: The difference between a madman and myself is I am not mad. The only difference between an artist who is seen as crazy and an artist who is seen as a genius in success.The only way to combat the naysayers in your life is simply keep writing.As a writer always remember that your calling is writing. Keep a sense of perspective when people try to tear you down.Start writing more it will get rid of all these moods you’re having.— Ray BradburyYou have to have the story you’re telling nailed down, but you also have to have your personal story nailed down as well.Writers write. That’s what they do.The only way to be sure they will succeed as a storyteller is to keep telling stories until you succeed. You have to persist as long as it takes.The only way to fail is to give up. If you don’t give up you will eventually succeed, or die trying.As a writer you’re living a dream life. Millions of people dream of having the courage to do what you’re doing. If you die without any external success, you still died in the middle of living a dream life. Is there anything better than that?The sure fire cure for writers block: never sit down to write until you know what you’re going to write about.The good thing about writing is that it’s a democratic art form. Anyone can write. It’s not limited to a specific social class or morality.
Basic Elements of a Hollywood StoryA protagonist we root for and identify with.An antagonist for the protagonist to struggle against.A visible goal that the protagonist wants to achieve.Obstacles for the protagonist to overcome.Follow the three act structure. Make sure your story has a beginning, middle and end.Make sure that your story has a big climax. Hollywood movies need big climaxes.Make sure your story has a satisfying ending. If the ending to your room a satisfying the moviegoer won’t care how much it costs. If the ending is satisfying to be saying to themselves, That was a waste of $12! 

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My Obit: Daddy Holding Me by Kenneth Atchity

 On Amazon 

My Obit: Daddy Holding Me a page-turner filled with poignant family experiences, explosive sibling rivalry, literary adventures, ethnic cooking, wide-ranging storytelling, the workings of the brain itself--and what can be learned about life from playing tennis for decades. 

"I’ve lived a lifetime of literary adventures by refusing to be relegated to a niche. In My Obit: Daddy Holding Me, my storytelling passion and family and professional anecdotes provide humor and insight into my hugely self-determined life."
~ Ken Atchity

Advanced Praise for My Obit: Daddy Holding Me:

“Powerful. Honest. Heartwarming. A courageous examination of the secret nooks in the soul that expose to the self who we truly are… and why. Atchity’s memoir is riveting, reflective, and revealing. A MUST read!” – Tracy Price-Thompson, bestselling novelist

 “My Obit: Daddy Holding Me by Kenneth Atchity is a compelling autobiography worthy of the analogy of Sisyphus discovering the burdens and pleasures of each push of the rock up the hill of his extraordinary life.” – Norman Stephens, producer, former head of Warner Brothers television.

The extinct superpredator megalodon was big enough to eat orcas

 

This illustration depicts a 52-foot Otodus megalodon shark predating on a 26-foot Balaenoptera whale in the Pliocene epoch, between 5.4 to 2.4 million years ago.

Faster than any shark alive today and big enough to eat an orca in just five bites: A new study suggests the extinct shark known as a megalodon was an even more impressive superpredator than scientists realized before.

The Otodus megalodon, the inspiration behind the 2018 film “The Meg,” lived more than 23 million years ago. Fossils of the extinct giant are hard to come by: While there are plenty of fossilized shark teeth, their bodies mainly consist of cartilage rather than bones, and are rarely preserved.

A research team led by Jack Cooper, a paleobiologist at Swansea University, set out to use 3D modeling from a rare and exceptionally well-preserved megalodon spinal column to extrapolate information about the shark’s movement and behavior. Their research was published in Science Advances.

“We estimate that an adult O. megalodon could cruise at faster absolute speeds than any shark species today and fully consume prey the size of modern apex predators,” wrote the researchers.

Most of what we know about megalodons come 65 feet through a comparison with great white sharks, thought of as their “best available ecological analog,” since they both occupy the top rung in the food chain, according to the article.

The researchers used a megalodon vertebral column from Belgium, a tooth from the United States, and the chondrocranium – the cartilaginous equivalent of a skull – from a great white shark to build their 3D skeleton. Then they used a full-body scan of a great white shark to estimate how flesh would sit on the megalodon’s skeleton.

With a complete 3D rendering, they came up with estimates for the volume and body mass of the shark’s whole body. By comparing the figures to the size of modern sharks, they estimated the shark’s swimming speed, stomach value, calorie needs, and prey encounter rates.

The megalodon they modeled would have been almost 16 meters, or 52 feet, long. It weighed around 61,560 kilograms, or 135,717 pounds, according to their estimates.

They estimated the megalodon would have been able to devour prey the size of orca whales – which can be up to 26 feet long and weigh over 8,000 pounds – in just five bites.

Prey the size of a modern humpback whale would have been too big for a megalodon to eat in full, according to the researchers. Eating large prey may have given the megalodon a competitive edge over other predators. Eating large amounts at a time would have also allowed them to travel great distances without eating again, much like modern great white sharks.

An adult megalodon would have needed to eat a whopping 98,175 calories per day, 20 times higher than an adult great white shark. They could have met their energetic needs by eating around 31.9 kilograms of shark muscle, according to the researchers’ estimates.

The megalodon was also faster than any shark alive, with a theoretical average cruising speed of around 3.1 mph. This speed would have allowed it to encounter more prey, helping it meet its massive caloric demands.

Overall, the data extrapolated from the 3D model paints the portrait of a “transoceanic superpredator,” say the researchers.

Luckily, today’s orcas don’t have to worry about running into the massive shark. The megalodon went extinct around 3.6 million years ago, according to the United Kingdom’s Natural History Museum, for reasons scientists are still trying to understand.

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How to Write Your Screenplay in 24 Hours - Advice From Kenneth Atchity

Norman Mailer once said that “writer’s block is a failure of the ego.”
I’d rather say it’s a failure of motivation, preparation, and discipline—a failure, in other words, of time-management.

The method I describe here, based on nearly thirty years’ experience in film and television, is all about motivation, preparation, and discipline.
If you follow this system, you will be able to write a professional screenplay in 24 hours.



Sitting in front of your computer agonizing over the next word is always counterproductive.

Start by taking a solemn oath that you’ll never again sit at your computer without knowing what you’re going to write before you sit down.

By simply preparing your thoughts and ideas ahead of time, you can ensure that when you do sit down to write, you’ll have something dramatic to say. This simple change in your writing habits can help you write more and stress less.
But first, let’s analyze what you’re trying to construct when you write a screenplay. It’s not a nebulous, monumental, or overwhelming task.
It’s just producing 115 written pages—with not that much writing on each page, at that.

Outlining Your Screenplay
Let’s start by mapping that simple and unintimidating reality out on a single page, starting with your screenplay’s page 1 (an opening that hooks the audience) and ending with its page 115 (that satisfies their expectations of good storytelling):

Page 1
Act 1: Compelling beginning (Hook), dragging your audience into the midst of action.

Page 5
End of introduction of the protagonist.

Note: Make him relatable to the audience. A protagonist is convincing when all of the following four dimensions of his or her makeup are clearly focused:
His motivationHis mission in the storyThe obstacles he faces in pursuing his missionThe change he undergoes from the beginning the story to the end.Introduction of your story’s theme (emotional mood and viewpoint of the film).

Page 20
End of introduction of antagonist.

Note: Make the antagonist worthy of your protagonist. The stronger the antagonist, the stronger your protagonist will look.

Major event launches your character into action, (inciting incident also called the inciting event) into Act 2.

Act 2: Rising and falling action (not just action, dramatic action), plot twists and turns, obstacles to his mission—constantly keeping the audience in suspense, and surprising them.

It helps to break up your dramatic action into three acts within Act 2.

Page 35
First meaningful encounter between protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist succeeds or fails to advance his or her cause.

Page 50
Turning point:  New information, or the triumph over a major obstacle, turns everything 180 degrees.

Page 70
Twist & turn: Build to a climax. Darkest moment for hero. At the crossroads. Will he win or lose?

Page 85
Act 3: Protagonist at lowest point. Begin resolution as character breaks through with a final decision.

Page 95
The story draws to a dramatic close, underlying its theme or moral impact.

Page 115
Mission accomplished, Change occurs. Conclusive ending that satisfies the audience and sharpens their mood as they leave the movie. Answering the question, what was this story about?

Using Final Draft to Write Your Screenplay
It helps to have an idea of how many pages you type an hour in Final Draft. That way you can budget time accordingly.

For example, if you can type five pages an hour and can allocate two hours a day on weekdays (take weekends off to recharge your batteries and let the story build up pressure in your mind), that means you’ll be able to produce 10 pages per day or 50 pages per week. At that rate, it will take you exactly 12 work days (allowing 2 days for those last 15 pages). A total of 24 hours of actual writing.
My advice is to schedule the same time to write each morning or evening, and stick to it religiously, not stopping until you’ve spent the time you’ve allocated—let’s say two hours on the stopwatch.

7 Steps to Prepare Your Story for Writing
Before you sit down to “fill in the blanks,” prepare yourself by making sure you’re ready with the following items:
You’ll need to start with a story that’s well-worked out in your mind already, so I’m assuming you’re writing a screenplay based on your own book or unpublished story.Read five of your favorite screenplays based on movies that did well at the box office. Consult www.boxofficemojo.com to make sure the ones you choose did well; and consult www.script-o-rama.com to download the screenplays free. Studying screenplays from successful movies can help you see what to do, and what not to do, when you write your screenplay.You’ll need to create your screenplay in Final Draft, the professional standard of the Hollywood entertainment marketplace. So don’t set your start-clock until you’ve mastered the program; which shouldn’t take more than a few hours.Unlike a novel or nonfiction book, a screenplay is nearly all action,and action consists of either physical action (she slams the door behind her; when she turns around he’s holding a gun) or active dialogue. The missing “nearly” part is narrative, simple and direct transitions from one action to another, setting the stage and clarifying the movement of the actors who are doing the action.This means all you need for your screenplay is action, and you start by asking yourself what are the obligatory actions of your story, the actions without which the story makes no sense. Those are the ones you use to fill in the blanks, above, estimating where they should come in the story.If you need help deciding what goes where in the story, reduce all the most important actions, whether they’re physical or verbal, to a single 3×5 card for each.  Make all the cards you’ll need for your screenplay, and I can tell you from experience that you’ll rarely need more than 100. When you’ve finished the cards, sort them in terms of where in the story they should go. Then re-sort them with the power of hindsight (gained from doing the first sorting). Now you should be ready to list the obligatory actions in the page outline, above.Spend as much time as you need to fill in the page spread until it has a clearly visible through-line. That’s another way of saying “the story flows.” Here’s a tip from one of my books that helps you assess the intensity-level of the various moments in your story so you can rearrange them to make sure you’ve built a rollercoaster of rising and falling action:

This chart is easily constructed:
Summarize action in a few words.With a single hyphen for each degree of intensity, rate each action, ending with an arrow after each action’s line.Draw a line from one arrowhead to another. That gives you a graph of rising and falling action.Turn the graph on its side to see whether the rollercoaster is dramatically effective enough. In this example, the story could use more dramatic variation between Act 1 and Act 2, and especially in Act 3 where falling action needs to be enhanced to make the rising action more compelling to the audience.Now’s your chance to vary the scenes to make for a more satisfactory rollercoaster ride.Once you’ve done all that, you should be ready to finish filling out the page spread, if you haven’t done it already.

When You Sit Down to Write, Everything Should be Prepared
Once your page spread is filled out, you’re ready to start your clock on the actual “writing.” But note that you now already know what you’re going to write, so it’s time to sit down and just do it.

At this point you should have such a clear idea of where your story is going it should be a lot easier to write your screenplay than if you were simply sitting down and writing a brand new story from a blank page.

One more practical tip: get a ream of paper ready for use. Five hundred blank pages are way more than enough to write a screenplay with plenty of waste allowed along the way. But at least you know as you stare at your ream that it’s not an insuperable, monumental, mountainous task. It’s just filling out as much of that ream as your story needs.

Time to sit down at the computer and type, following your page spread outline and aided by the cards on which you’ve recorded the details of each action required to tell the story.

Don’t worry about transitions between one action and another, and definitely don’t worry about “CUT TO,” “FADE OUT,” etc. Directors reading your script will only be annoyed by your attempt to dictate to them how to use the camera.
Just tell your story without telling us about it—just showing it.

No stopping to worry about research, spelling, or even grammar—that can all be checked automatically by Final Draft when you’ve gotten the draft down. You do that checking on Work Day #12.

Now all you have to do is revise (including checking your research). Give yourself at least as much time for that as you did for your first draft. Then send it out for a “friendly read,” and revise accordingly.

Good luck.

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Meet Donald Ian Bull | TV Editor and Producer, and Thriller Novelist on Shout Out!

 

We had the good fortune of connecting with Donald Ian Bull and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Donald Ian, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?

I pursued a creative career because I love stories. We humans are storytelling animals; it’s how we make sense of the world. I’ve been a TV editor, director, producer, and novelist, and with each of those jobs, I get so involved that time itself seems to disappear. I discovered that pleasure at a young age, and it has never left me. I have what my grandmother would call “a touch of the poet.” That means a touch of talent, while also being a little touched in the head because you need to be a little crazy to choose a creative career. At the same time, there is nothing crazy about my approach to work. Because creative jobs come and go, I must be very disciplined and organized with my business and my finances. That’s true for all successful creatives.
 

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My path has been varied. I started in San Francisco, where I won a local Emmy at age 26 for documentary filmmaking, I was an editor on the early seasons of The Real World, I directed The Osbournes, and then I created and produced TV shows, like Dr. 90210, along with several short films and documentaries. None of it was easy, but I was lucky to have great mentors, like Jon Murray and Mary-Ellis Bunim, and friends and colleagues (Lisa Berger, Greg Johnston) who believed in me. Connections. Mentors. Friends. I can’t emphasize how crucial they are, and I wish I’d relied on them more.

I think what sets me apart is my enthusiasm and optimism. I believe I can work with anyone. I also love helping other people realize their vision. When someone says “That’s exactly how I imagined it,” I feel I’ve achieved some kind of Vulcan mind-meld.

My advice is to always ask for help. Collaborate and show other people your work. There is no direct route to success to the job you want, but good work leads to more good jobs, and you ping pong your way up the ladder. I have stalled more than once, however, and I wish I’d taken my own advice more often.

Eight years ago I started writing thrillers. like Robert Ludlum and Ken Follett. Using the pen name Ian Bull, I’ve written a trilogy called The Quintana Adventures, featuring Steven Quintana, a former Army Ranger photographer with physical and psychological wounds, and Julia Travers, the smart, beautiful, and famous actress who wants to help Steven find peace  – if only he’d let her. In each book, I put Steven and Julia in dangerous situations that seem impossible to escape. I’ve also written a book about two thieves who fall in love, called Liars in Love, and Facing Reality, which explores the dark side of TV production. As Donald Ian Bull, I’ve written several books of nonfiction, including a how-to book on TV production.

I aspire to write books you can’t put down. That’s my brand. If I can create a real page-turner, then I know I’m succeeding as a storyteller. If I can become a successful genre writer, I will die happy. If someone adapted my books into movies, that would be nice, too.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Welcome to Los Angeles! Here’s our itinerary for the week. Starting in the San Fernando Valley on a Thursday night, we’ll start at Pit Fire Pizza in North Hollywood, where we’ll get whatever seasonal pizza is on the menu, and then dine and drink wine next to their outdoor fire. We’ll then cross the street and take in all the statues and busts of TV legends surrounding the TV Academy Building, and snap a selfie next to the giant Emmy statue. We’d then enjoy the latest independent movie at the Laemmle Theaters next door.

Friday morning we’ll get sandwiches at Art’s Deli on Ventura Blvd, then drive North on 101 and cross over the Santa Monica Mountains at Las Virgenes Canyon. It’s best in a convertible. We’ll zip north on PCH and make a right turn on Corral Canyon and take the road five miles up to the very top, where we’ll park and then hike a long stretch of the Backbone trail. From up there, we will see the entire Los Angeles Basin, Catalina Island, and the other Channel Islands further north. We may find cougar tracks, and even spot one if we’re lucky.

After a long day of hiking, we’ll head back to the valley to Bob’s Big Boy, which has a parade of classic cars every Friday night. It’s a wonderful mix of old surfers with their Bel Airs, bearded bikers with their Harleys, and young Latinx with their kit cars and low-riders.

Saturday morning we’ll head downtown and stop at Disney Hall and run around the outside taking photographs. There are a dozen staircases and passageways, and the light dancing off the brushed titanium is amazing. We’ll head to Little Tokyo next, and visit the Japanese American National Museum. The exhibits keep changing and there’s always arts and crafts to try. They have a barracks from a Japanese-American internment camp from World War II, and it honors the 110,000 Japanese-Americans who we forced from their homes and into American concentration camps. It’s a stunning piece of American history we can never forget.

We can then go to Rakkan, a great raman restaurant, eat lunch, then power past the Arts District to LA Boulders, where we will rent shoes, chalk up our fingers and climb some indoor boulders for the rest of the afternoon. Saturday evening we will stroll through the Arts District, wandering between galleries and eating at Pie Hole, and drinking beer at Angel City Brewery.

Sunday morning we’ll stay downtown and go to church at the Los Angeles Cathedral or the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels. The art inside is stunning, especially the bronze doors created by Los Angeles artist Robert Graham. We’ll then have lunch at Philippe’s, where we can get French dip sandwiches. Monday, if it’s raining, we’ll go to Disneyland. It’s one of the best ways and days to see the Magic Kingdom.

On Tuesday, we’ll drive north to the town of Ventura, and take surf lessons at C Street. The waves there are small and consistent and easy to ride, and it’s one of the best places to learn how to surf.

By then we will both be exhausted, and we will take Wednesday off!

 

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My wife Robin deserves my never-ending praise and gratitude. I get on my knees every day and thank her for letting me into her life, and she laughs and says, “You’re welcome.” She draws out the best version of me, and when I stumble (which I do often), she forgives me and keeps us moving forward. She has been a puppeteer, a TV executive, a writer, while also being an amazing mother and wife. We love each other’s company, we still hold hands, and we disgust our teenage daughter Lily with our public displays of affection.

Website: www.quintanaadventures.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/californianoirbooks/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldbull/

Twitter: @ianbull3

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ianbullauthor, https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaNoirBooks

Other: My other author website is www.californianoir.net My blog is californiabull.com My other Instagram is https://www.instagram.com/californiabull My Ian Bull Amazon author page is: https://www.amazon.com/Ian-Bull/e/B00CWE796U/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1 My Donald Ian Bull Amazon author page is: https://www.amazon.com/Donald-Ian-Bull/e/B07D68W3X4%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

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‘Meg’ Author Steve Alten Sets Original Football Feature ‘Mr. Irrelevant’

 Steve Alten, author of Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror and Meg: The Trench, has optioned an original football movie,  Mr. Irrelevant , to producer David Rubenstein (1917), and his partners Ken Atchity and Scott Becher of Win-Win Partnerships (formerly producer/director NFL Films).

Billed as an inspiring tale of perseverance and unexpected second chances, Mr. Irrelevant follows the story of a 21-year-old college quarterback after the loss of his father leads him to bomb the tryouts on Pro Scout Day. But when an NFL head coach accidentally sees his potential, the young man gets the opportunity of a lifetime to make his late father proud and go from Mr. Irrelevant to starting quarterback.

“I set out to write an original underdog story with characters audiences could relate to while tapping into my own personal experiences,” said Alten. “Whether writing fictional thrillers like The Meg, or an original script like Mr. Irrelevant, I always endeavor to get the smallest of details correct.”

Among other investors, the production team has announced that Howard Schuster’s Major Studio Partners Film Fund has confirmed its intention to finance the film. MSP had financed over 300 feature films, including Ford v Ferrari, The Devil Wears Prada, Wall Street, Bohemian Rhapsody, X-Men, Walk the Line, and Die Hard.

Atchity’s current slate also includes Gambino: The Rise, in development in Italy with producer Jules Nasso, Alan Gibson’s The Seeding with Rubenstein as executive producer, and Amanda Lear’s My Life with Dali with Tommy Dorfman attached and Chi-Li Wong, Anna Synenko and Anonymous Content also producing. Meg 2: The Trench is also set for an August 2023 release.

Via Deadline

Dr. Kennet Atchity's Film Courage Interviews

In these Film Courage videos, Dr. Ken Atchity (Author, Publisher, Producer), shares how his own pursuit of living his dreams and what blocks most people's road to success.

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