Member-only story
The Business of Screenwriter: Get a damn good lawyer!
The most expensive lesson I ever learned in Hollywood.
It’s September, 1999. My wife and I are at a party in Pacific Palisades to welcome families who are new to Wildwood School, where our then only son goes to grade school. A typical beautiful southern California night, schmoozing with a bunch of Type A parents dressed in Type B clothes.
A friend elbows me and nods at a guy across the way, telling me I should talk to him. “He’s a screenwriter,” my friend says. I head over to introduce myself.
“Hey, I hear you’re a screenwriter.”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“Me, too. I’m Scott.”
“Gary.”
[shake hands]
“So what’ve you written.”
“Nothing you’ve heard of. I was a playwright in New York, sold a feature, been at it since 1987.”
“Really? I sold my first script in 1987.”
“What was it?”
“K-9.”
“You wrote K-9?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Seriously.”
“Yes, what?”
[beat]
“I’m writing your sequel.”
