Film Courage: Have you ever optioned or bought a screenplay?
Mark Heidelberger, producer: I have optioned and bought screenplays, yeah under Treasure
Entertainment.
Before I went freelance we used to all the time and a lot of them came from our clients
as well.
Film Courage: Can you take us through the process?
Mark: So in terms of when Treasure Entertainment when we would, part of what I liked about
managing clients is that you had an in-house stable of talent that you could draw from.
So if we had identified something in the market, an opportunity, for some reason we wanted
to do a certain type of picture, I had clients in-house I said “Hey, what about one of
these ideas?
Because this is something that we’re thinking about doing and we can develop this with you
and get it to a point where it’s strong, maybe we’ll option it from you guys?
We will buy it.”
So not to say that we didn’t shop around but it kind of allowed us to get exactly what
we wanted, working with the writer and then getting it to the…”Okay, this is what
we want, okay we’ll option it now.”
Instead of scouring the marketplace trying to find that exact kind of thing we wanted.
But once we identified a strong project, either something that we came across or something
that we had a client create with our help, the optioning process was pretty simple.
I mean a lot of time we would just do a one year option with a one year renewal period.
And whatever sort of modicum depending on the size of the film being optioned can be.
We can pay anything from a dollar if they’re a real development writer and they’re like
“Look I just want to get it out there.”
And it’s like “Let’s just see if we can get this thing out there.
We’re putting our sweat equity into it, so it might just be a one dollar…you have
to have something called consideration.
There has to be something from this side going to this side to make it legal (even if that’s
a dollar).
“Here’s a dollar, here is your script.”
And an option is just basically saying you can’t sell it to anyone else during this
period.
We have the exclusive right to shop it or set it up or buy it and if we exercise the
option here we’ll give you $10,000, $20,000 whatever the amount is and then the option
is exercised, so it gives us the option to buy it exclusively for that period.
Or we might option things up to $1,000 bucks or $2,000 bucks.
I mean it just depended on the size of the project.
If it was all indie stuff, I mean they weren’t getting $10,000 options but you know $500
or whatever it is and then that applies against the purchase price.
So if you option something for $500 and you’re going to buy the screenplay for $20,000, that
$500 is to be applied against the $20,000 so you pay the $19,500 is you decide to buy
it.
Although those deals can be structure however you want.
So that’s kind of how we approached it was “Hey in house talent, awesome!”
And because we were their managers and they saw all the sweat equity we were putting in
trying to get their career off the ground and the project, a lot of times we could option
the script for a lot less than if we had just found it and they didn’t know us “Well
I want 3,000 for this.”
We had already built this relationship and so it was a good system.
It worked for us.
Film Courage: What about life story rights?
Mark: Yeah, I’m working on a project right now called WALKING ON PALMETTOS with writer
Jim Christell and Ed Asner (like a screen legend), good ole’ Ed.
And the story is based on a real life person (Myles Richards) who is very actively involved
in the project as well (he’s an executive producer) and he had met Jim many years ago
through a mutual friend and Jim found this guy’s story so interesting.
He sat down and he interviewed him with a tape recorder for hours, I mean maybe a couple
of days worth but he was like “Wow, this guy’s story is so interesting.”
And decided that wow, this is the kind of story that would make…I think he first decided
on a TV show but then he decided to make it into a script (a feature script) and I got
involved when Jim came to me and asked me to do a budget.
And it’s a fairly large picture I would say, it’s almost maybe studio mid-level
kind of budget.
And I did the budget and Jim was very happy with the work and asked me if I would come
on as a producer and work with him on it and I came on board and I asked him “Do you
have Myles’ life rights?”
This guy Myles is extraordinary human being.
He was actually a smuggler and had started when he was like 21 or something.
He smuggled his first batch of from Jamaica.
He was working on the Playboy, his father ran the construction company that was building
the Playboy club and he went there for the summer to work on it and that’s where he
got involved in.
He started smuggling it and his first load when he was like 21 he made a quarter of a
million dollars, this is in the 60’s!
Film Courage: Oh wow.
Mark: Right, so the thing about Myles was he never did a load the same way twice.
He always, there was always some innovative way and the story goes into a couple of these
(so many different ways) but he sank a ship off of the coast of Florida on purpose loaded
with water-sealed bags of, filed for a permit to do a salvage operation, so
the Coast Guard got to know him and they are salvaging, bringing up parts of the boat with
Marijuana in it and the Coast Guard is right there and they had no idea.
I mean he came with these ingenious…so it took the gov 15 years to even know who he
was and another 5 years to catch him.
And it’s very much CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, GOODFELLAS (tonally) like the likable criminal
that you follow over…WOLF OF WALL STREET that you follow them over 20 years of their
life, that kind of arc and their comeuppance and the sort of trajectory.
Miles did go to prison, he was there for 11 years, he was in solitary confinement for
4 years.
He came out a very different person and started a legal business.
He started a construction business and became a millionaire legally.
But it was a really interesting story and I was like “Do you have Myles’ life rights
for this?”
And he didn’t and I said “Well, that’s the first thing we need to do.”
And so we went to Myles and at that point we had already worked with him long enough
that he knew us and trusted us.
I mean I had talked to him on the phone, I had never met him personally but I talked
to him on the phone.
Jim had been dealing with him for years and so I had a life rights option drafted up and
Myles signed off on it.
I mean we had certain agreements with him that while we can take creative license that
there we certain things we wouldn’t do.
Myles wanted to make sure that the bad actions were depicted realistically.
He was like “Look, just don’t have anyone running around with a suitcase full of a million
dollars that looks like this.”
He’s like “I know what a million dollars looks like in a suitcase of $50 dollar bills
and it’s not like in any of these movies where the suitcase stacked to the brim with
hundreds.
That’s not what a million dollars looks like.
Just like he wanted us to stay true to a lot of the aspects even if we took creative license
with say some of the guys that were chasing him.
His lawyers, in the script there is one main lawyer that deals with his case but he’s
an amalgamation of many lawyers.
In real life there were many lawyers, there wasn’t just this one guy.
Things like that were okay, but he wanted to make sure the smuggling was treated accurately
and so we agreed to the things that he wanted.
And so we agreed to the things that he wanted and he signed off on that life rights agreement
and he really gave us creative control of the project and the ability to take the story
within those bounds (within those parameters) where we wanted to.
Film Courage: And so just as an option expires, someone’s life rights expire as well and
then they are free to use them with another production company?
Mark: They could.
We have it so that, we have a certain term and then it automatically renews for extended
periods unless one of us cancels it so as long as Myles is happy it’s going to keep
renewing unless he gives us notice within 30 days of when the expiration is.
Film Courage: Fascinating and when does that comes out?
Mark: Well we are working with trying to get it off the ground for the top of 2019 in terms
of production so this is a project I mentioned that we were possibly looking at shooting
in Australia.
There are maybe some tax incentives we can take advantage of plus a lot of the picture
takes place in Southern California and the Caribbean, so Australia has locations that
can really play for both because the Caribbean looks very different than Southern California.
You know, the Caribbean is very flat, white sands, different type of palm trees, different
type of water, different type of look, the people (it’s very different).
But Australia I think has options for us that can play for both so that’s something we’re
looking at.