From the 'Never-a-Dull-Moment' Department
Last October, I was contacted by the senior vice president of sales and marketing at NBC Television, who has been a fan of my work. She is a believer, and has wished for years that there was more TV entertainment with a strong moral base. Instead, it seems to her as though things continue to shift in the opposite direction. She said that if I could put together a project that has serious potential, she would support it through the system.
Inside the major television groups, there is a serious divide between the sales/marketing and the production divisions. Basically the producers consider themselves to be the only people who can determine the worthiness of a project. So for a sales director, no matter how senior, to come forward with a project simply would not fly.
This meant I needed to set up a project in the standard TV fashion, jump through the standard hoops, and the sales vp would do what she could to back this from the sidelines. And that is how all this began.
Scene-by-scene
That same month, I was named Lecturer of Fiction in Oxford's new creative writing program. The head of the screenwriting division is a friend, and we had already been working on a film concept together. Nicholas is the former chief writer on England's longest-running TV crime drama, called 'The Bill'. We discussed various concepts, and decided the Book of Dreams idea could work as a television series.
Together we put together what is known as a scene-by-scene. This is basically an entire screenplay, but without the dialogue. In the television format, the Book of Dreams resembles an Inception-style story that could be done on a television budget.
Something this complex can't be properly summarized in the standard Hollywood two-page format, which is called a leave-behind, because after a verbal pitch you leave the document behind with the producer for them to pass around. Also a scene-by-scene gives the producer a chance to cost out the project. It is one thing for the writer to say, "You can do this on a TV budget." It is another thing entirely to show this on the page. The scene-by-scene ran to twenty-six pages, and was completed in December.
Producers
At this point, friends within the believing community in Hollywood introduced us to two very successful producers. Dave and Gary Johnson have had four long-running TV shows, two of which were aired on NBC. They really liked the concept, and signed on.
Because of their enthusiasm, I got up the nerve to contact the film producer in England I most admire. His name is Norman Stone, and he is considered by many to be the leader of the European believers working in film and television. His most famous work was Shadowlands, but he has done dozens of films. This has included two films starring Peter O'Toole for NBC, which means he is on the group's 'Green List'. This is the list of directors and producers who are considered at such a level of performance that they can bring any project directly to the network's top decision makers. Norman really liked the concept, and signed on to direct.
At this point, everything was put on hold. NBC was acquired by Comcast in late January, and virtually every top decision maker on the content side was replaced. This upheaval continued through the end of April. Which was an extremely good thing, as far as we were concerned, for two reasons.
First, it gave me a chance to focus upon the Unlimited screenplay and then begin writing the sequel to Book of Dreams. And second, it gave Norman Stone the chance to take the project to the BBC.
The British Broadcasting Corporation has been going through a similar upheaval to NBC. And the result has been that they prefer not to cover the full cost of new drama alone. They want international partners. So after weeks of preliminary discussions, the BBC in late June decided they wanted to partner with NBC on Book of Dreams.
At this point, everything becomes a little surreal. I really can't begin to describe just how wild this has been.
It's sort of like saying, "I drove through Manhattan at rush hour at fifty miles an hour."
Those words don't include the flying bags and purses, the faces jammed against the windscreen, the laughter, the screams, the horns, the mayhem, and so forth.
Star Struck
The BBC has offered to cover one-quarter of the total cost of a series, so long as two things happen.
First, they want one major star to be British, and another to be European.
Second, they want to have the right to pre-sell the series to European partners.
So at this point, we suddenly have begun talking about who we would most like to play the various roles. Our first two choices for the lead role, Dr. Elena Burroughs, are Gwynneth Paltrow and Rosamund Pike. It is apparently important to have this sort of image in place before going to the Hollywood decision makers.
Our job at this point was to winnow down the scene-by-scene to four pages that could be agreed on by all the parties involved thus far–Norman Stone, the Johnson Brothers, the BBC, and us the writers.
Pilot Episodes
We then were asked by the BBC to do six pilot episodes that showed a full season arc. Just learning what this sentence meant has taken me the better part of a month. What they wanted was not six episodes back to back, but rather segments from throughout the season that would show an overarching concept, a background issue that would be resolved by the end of season one. And do this in a maximum of four paragraphs per episode. One important lesson every Hollywood writer will tell you is, producers don't read anything longer than a page.
Agent
The neatest part about this exercise – and there have been some really great things involved in this creative process – has been how it has drawn all of us together. By this point, one more person has also been brought into the mix. The Johnson brothers are represented in Hollywood by the former managing director of Creative Artists, the largest talent agency in the world, who has left the group and started his own smaller agency. He too has now signed on, and has taken it upon himself to begin setting up what are called the preliminary pitches. This is when the Johnson brothers go in and talk to the senior directors of content for the network.
To have an agent of this status make the calls is enormous. Or so I'm told. By this point I'm sort of the kid in the candy shop, my eyes glazed over, just not really believing I'm actually involved in all this. The agent has identified three networks as being the ones he wants to approach–NBC, Syfy, and Fox.
Three-dimensional study
Which brings us to this current trip to Los Angeles. In order to make the pitch to the stars, we needed to do a three-dimensional study of all the major roles. And we had to do this in less than three paragraphs per character. We also needed to reveal specific character arcs in the episodes. This work has taken two absolutely fabulous and exhausting eighteen hour days.
To celebrate arriving at the end of this, we were invited by the NBC vice president out for dinner. Before going for dinner, we got a private tour of the NBC Universal back lot. We took her golf cart and went through the stages for all these amazing shows, some film and some TV, with these mammoth posters up on the walls by the main entrances to the stages.
A 'stage' here is basically a warehouse, somewhere around fifty thousand square feet, built out of concrete to completely block all external noise. Two really cool things about that trip. Actually, three.
First, we weren't supposed to stop anywhere, but she parked us by the plane-wreck from War of the Worlds and took my picture.
Second, we had a private tour of their wardrobe warehouse with the division head. They have five million items of clothes in this place, there's a room for jewelry bigger than my house and a second room just for Roman leather uniforms.
Third, after the tour we went back up to the VP's office, and she showed me this massive closet beside the division receptionist that holds all the latest DVDs. She pulls out this drawer and says, Would you like anything? There is this problem I'm facing tonight as I fly back to England called, weight limit. I have filled the hotel room's three trash cans with dvd wrappers.
The pitch sessions are slated to begin in two weeks time. There was a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal at the beginning of the summer that has really helped keep all this in perspective. Somewhere around a thousand concepts arrive at the point where we are now. Of course, not many will have the backing of a network VP and an offer of co-production from the BBC. But still.
From these several hundred concepts, the three channels we are approaching will produce around thirty pilots. These odds should probably be daunting. But to tell the truth, I have had so much fun it has been possible to simply live in the day. That really has been an achievement in itself. But I feel so intensely blessed by the whole deal. So many wonderful lessons and friendships have been gained. So much laughter. Really. It has been a blast.
Your prayers would certainly be appreciated.
Warmly,
Davis
