Mario Puzo - 1991 - The Fourth K by Mario Puzo

Author:Mario Puzo [Puzo, Mario]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

DAVID JATNEY SPENT a month reading scripts that seemed to him utterly worthless.

He wrote the less than half page of summary, then wrote his opinion on the same page.

His opinion was supposed to be only a few sentences but he usually finished using the rest of the space on the page.

At the end of the month the office supervisor came to his desk and said,

“David, we don’t have to know how witty you are. Just two sentences of opinion will be fine. And don’t be so contemptuous of these people, they didn’t piss on your desk, they just try to write movies.”

“But they are terrible,” Jatney said.

The supervisor said, “Sure, they are, do you think we’d let you read the good ones? We have more experienced people for that. And, besides, this stuff you call dreadful, every one of them has been submitted by an agent.

An agent hopes to make money from them. So they have passed a very stringent test. We don’t accept scripts over the transom because of lawsuits, we’re not like book publishers. So no matter how lousy they are, when agents submit, we have to read them. If we don’t read the agents’ bad scripts, they don’t send us the good ones.”

David said, “I could write better screenplays,”

The supervisor laughed. “So can we all.” He paused for a moment and then said, “When you’ve written one, let me read it.”

A month later David did just that. The supervisor read it in his private office. He was very kind. He said gently, “David, it doesn’t work. That doesn’t mean you can’t write. But you don’t really understand how movies work. It shows in your summaries and critiques but your screenplay shows it too. Listen, I’m trying to be helpful. Really. So starting next week you’ll be reading the novels that have been published and have been considered possible for movies.”

David thanked him politely but felt the familiar rage. Again it was the voice of the elder, the supposedly wiser, the ones who had the power.

It was just a few days later that Dean Hocken’s secretary called and asked if he was free for dinner that night with Mr. Hocken. He was so surprised it took him a moment to say yes. She told him it would be at Michael’s restaurant in Santa Monica at 8:00 P.M. She started to give him directions to the restaurant, but he told her he lived in Santa Monica and knew where it was, which was not strictly true.

But he had heard of Michael’s restaurant. David Jatney read all the newspapers and magazines and he listened to the gossip in the office.

Michael’s was the restaurant of choice for the movie and music people who lived in the Malibu colony. When he hung up the phone, he asked the manager if he knew exactly where Michael’s was located, mentioning casually that lie was having dinner there that night. He saw that the manager was impressed. He realized that he should have waited until after this dinner before submitting his screenplay.

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