Comments on: It’s Okay To Say No

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:22:04 +0000

In reply to Matches Malone. That is awesome.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 23:20:12 +0000

I’m familiar with the pain of walking away. Healthiest thing I’ve zone as a writer. I wanted to adapt a book. It was to be my dream project. The rights were available. I was elated and began to make overtures to the publisher. My manager went behind my back, scooped up the rights and announced he was the producer. A year of rewrites and frustration followed as this excellent story was transformed into a vulgar farce thanks to the manager’s constant barrage of bad notes. His producing partner left the project, tired of the hilarious bad notes and power-tripping. I finally had enough, called my manager and told him I was done and he was fired. My co-writer wasn’t pleased. Two years later, the script is still being rewritten and it’s even worse. Last week my old co-writer calls and begs me to come back. I’m not a glutton for punishment.

By: Phil Seneker

Phil Seneker — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:28:27 +0000

Great post Merrill! Great notes not to get caught up in someone elses bs and make sure you are true to yourself.

By: Matches Malone

Matches Malone — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:05:17 +0000

No doesn’t work with a pathological Exec Producer. The good news is, he reneged on his fiduciary responsibilities, so I was able to give him a different credit and marginalize his input, however, I believe the final product may have suffered as a result.