First feeler to produce Paw & Order!

Not me--I wish

I told you I tagged up with Inktip--a writer-oriented site I knew from decades ago. You list your logline (one or two sentence script description--as in a TV Guide movie description), synopsis (longer), and offer the whole script for upload by producers.

An indie production company wrote me a very promising offer to "option" my two scripts (sequel, too, though it's not finished).

It was a dollar-option--for a buck each, the company would have 18 months to two years to raise money for the films. If both scripts were purchased, the total would have been $200K.

I know--to the outsider--this seems ridiculous--a dollar? Yet, this is done in this business. I had a no-dollar option on the CBS project, which did eventually flush. This was 25 yrs ago.

The producer, a young woman, had done quite a few movies in the $1.2 million range. This would be low for animation, according to what I know.

I agonized for several days, but decided not to tie up my projects for this long a time. I asked for $5,000 instead of one dollar. This didn't fly and they decided they were not so nuts about my script after all, saying it was not action-filled enough for really little kids.

This was an exciting and useful exercise. At least I did not cry for days and quit the business like the first time. Am I more mature? Nah. Just more determined.