A few years ago I had a couple of passengers who told me that what I do in my car could be a television show or movie. One even said, "You could play yourself!" Denzel Washington was a Lyft driver in a movie, why couldn't I be an Uber driver on a show or movie? I am qualified after over 14,000 rides.
A couple weeks ago I blogged about some of the different scams or business propositions I have come across mostly since publishing my book a year ago. This movie proposal was the most interesting:
After interviewing me about my book the guy on the phone told me that they wanted to recommend my book to a successful movie producer for a movie adaptation. The producer, who I looked up online, has a long list of movies including many that I have seen or heard of. I was told that the producer would call me and he did, if it was him.
He's the first person I have talked to on the phone who sounded like he really understood what the book was about and he told me what he liked about it. He really sounded like someone who is very creative and has been active as a producer for decades. I was not my usual self on the phone, because he really sounded legit.
He told me that they were willing to pay me $4.59 million. Of that money, I was told by the other guy that the company who reached out to me would get 15% of that or somewhere over $500,000. They would need a screen play written and cinematic trailer completed over the next about 6-9 months.
I was very skeptical and I told the literary agent (a second person) who had called me that I wasn't convinced that the producer was legit. He had the production company send me an email that said exactly this:
"We have received all the requirements except the screenplay and the cinematic trailer. Once confirmation of the creation of screenplay and the cinematic trailer will be submitted by your agent, a copy of the contract will be sent to you immediately."
"A film budget of $153M is allocated for this project which is 3% of the budget amounting to $4.59M goes to you as the author of the book. We are looking to start filming towards the third quarter of next year 2025."
I spoke with my brother-in-law who used to be an actor and is familiar with the industry. He said there were several red flags: one being a movie producer calling me, secondly, the large movie budget for a screen play and thirdly, a trailer would be done before any filming.
My literary agent told me he would call me on Thursday and tell me how much the company would invest in my project and that the script and trailer would probably cost around $80,000. My next call was on Monday from the first guy who contacted me. He had no clue what had happened the week before and did not know I had gotten a call from the producer.
I was pretty rough on him because he was calling me and he sounded very confused. He finally apologized and said he would speak to the literary agent. The literary agent called the next day and had not spoken with the other guy. He told me that the company would invest $70,000 into the project and my investment would ONLY be $10,000. Five minutes later, those numbers were $60,000 and $20,000.
I made a counter offer and said, why don't you just invest the whole amount and I'll pay you another 5% of the $4.59 million I would receive. He laughed and said, "It doesn't work that way." I told him, "Of course it doesn't, because you wouldn't have any of my money until everything was completed." Our phone call ended with me telling him that this was the second confusing and unprofessional call in two days and if you ever figure out what they were doing, they could call me back.
One or both of them tried to reach me again, but I didn't answer the call. I have a great story and a movie offer I can put in a frame on my wall. Could my book really be a movie? I think so, maybe I'll get a better offer?
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