Notes from Movieland: Steal This

By Anne Norda
URL: http://www.moviemaker.com/blog/item/notes_from_movieland_anne_norda_steal_this_20090113/
Last week I attended a party at my friend Nim’s post-production facility. I found myself in the kitchen, chatting with a handful of independent moviemakers (as if I know any other kind…). They were sharing war stories of pitches gone awry. And of theft—Hollywood-style. One producer detailed a pitch meeting he’d had with an actor’s manager. The actor passed on the high concept project, and lo and behold, one year later, he was staring at an almost exact replica of the script. Needless to say the producer’s name was nowhere in sight and nary a credit or percentage was on the horizon.