leading from
a) The Call
At 10 a.m. the following morning, Damon got an call from his agent and he said‘Whatever it is you did, they liked it. Can you go in to Scott Free and meet now?’
At 10 a.m. the following morning, Damon got an call from his agent and he said‘Whatever it is you did, they liked it. Can you go in to Scott Free and meet now?’
b) Entering Scott Free
Perhaps it was a Friday afternoon and on his way over there, he wrote in his head a sort of very formal speech on how much Ridley had influenced him and what a thrill it was to be considered for the job.
Damon arrived at
the offices in West Hollywood, it was near enough the Scott Free complex
He went in and there was a room which had a vault door, that served as a film viewing room.
c) The meeting
The vault door was opened up for him, he walked into the room.
There was Ridley Scott with his two producing partners Ellenberg and Costigan, along with Steve
Asbell who was an executive at Fox (although the story would later turn into there being six men sitting behind laptops and Arthur Max who was the production designer of Prometheus, )
He would then see and be amazed by all the concept art that had been done of the engineers, the space suits, the planets and the ship that was to be called Prometheus.
He starting wondering to himself "How did I get here?" and the next thought on the back of that was " I’m here, and I better act professionally, because Ridley Scott is not going to hire me if I just ask him questions about Blade Runner for the next half hour,"
He starting wondering to himself "How did I get here?" and the next thought on the back of that was " I’m here, and I better act professionally, because Ridley Scott is not going to hire me if I just ask him questions about Blade Runner for the next half hour,"
About six words into his speech but Ridley cut him off saying "Let's talk about your email"
So there they were sitting at a table talking about this science fiction movie that Ridley wanted to direct.
They were considering Lindelof to write it, and he kept imagining himself trying to leave his body and hover above the table and look down thinking "Oh my
god, this might actually happen for you!"
He got around to putting his feet firmly on the ground in the room as if he belonged there and so he explaining his proposals for the script "Look, embedded in this script are these amazing ideas, and if you want to hire me, I play up this stuff and play down this stuff, but I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water because obviously there’s a lot of great things in Jon’s script"
He got around to putting his feet firmly on the ground in the room as if he belonged there and so he explaining his proposals for the script "Look, embedded in this script are these amazing ideas, and if you want to hire me, I play up this stuff and play down this stuff, but I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water because obviously there’s a lot of great things in Jon’s script"
Soon they got into a great meeting where they were having a very creative discussion.
Damon verbally presented everything that he loved about the script
he was given, along with what he thought he could do to change it around
and he wanted to know what issues that they were having.
Ridley would then
tell him about the movie he wanted to make.
The meeting lasted 90
minutes and at the end Ridley responded warmly to his pitch saying to Damon“Are you
available to come in this weekend and talk some more?”
Damon replied "of
course."
At this point, he realised that they were probably going to hire him
d) The next step
The next step beyond that was for Damon to go down to Fox and pitch Tom Rothman about what he wanted to do with the script as well.
The next step beyond that was for Damon to go down to Fox and pitch Tom Rothman about what he wanted to do with the script as well.
They responded and and he was then told it was going to be a six week gig, but it would turn into a year of his life
- Interviewer: Who was at that meeting?
Damon Lindelof: Ridley, two producing partners, and the executive from Fox on it. On my way over there I wrote in my head this sort of very formal speech on how much Ridley’s influenced me and what a thrill it is to be considered for this job… and I got about six words into that speech and he cut me off. He goes, “Let’s talk about your email.” So there we were sitting at a table talking about this science fiction movie that he wanted to direct and that they were considering me to write and I kept trying to leave my body and hover above the table and look down thinking, Oh my god, this might actually happen for you! And we had this great meeting. I think it was on a Friday afternoon. And at the end, he said, “Are you available to come in this weekend and talk some more?” And I said, of course. And at that point I realized they were probably going to hire me. That’s the long-winded origin story.(http://insidemovies.ew.com/2012/05/11) - Damon Lindelof: ... and so the next morning I get the call, um “We like your take, can you come in to Scott Free?”
So, this is it. I'm going in . I walk into a room and there is Ridley
Scott, there's this guy, Steve Asbo who who is an executive at Fox, and
so we got very creative, and I verbally present, here is everything that
I love in the script as it exists now, and here's some of my, here’s
some of my thinking on it — what’s the lay of the land? What are the...
what are the issues that you guys are having? And we have a, you know a
great 90 minute meeting in which I do a lot of listening. Again, like I
said I don’t want to go in and say I wowed them, when what really
happened was I gave a really short presentation and then Ridley talked
about the movie he wanted to make.
Interviewer: Right
And then, they decided to hire me. And I... I had to go down to Fox and talk to Tom Rothman about what I wanted to do as well.
(Kevin Pollack chatshow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzRjHDAgRmk#t=9099) - GALLOWAY: I remember you talking about going into Ridley’s office
and it’s like a vault. He has offices in West Hollywood?
LINDELOF: He has offices in West Hollywood and it’s like the Scott Free complex, and Tony Scott, his brother, God rest his soul, the two of them also had a commercial production house, RSA, and so they’ve got these compounds down there; but Ridley’s office — I went in, and there is literally a room that has a vault door, like when you go and see movies, heist movies, and they open up the vaults. It’s that thing that you turn. And they open it up for me and I went in and there were nine guys sitting behind laptops and Arthur Max is the production designer of Prometheus, and there are all these amazing drawings that he had done of the engineers, and of the space suits and the planets and the ship, which was called the Prometheus. And it was another J.J. moment, where I’m basically like, standing there with Ridley, and this is just the way that you’re supposed to feel in these moments, which is like, “How did I get here?”
And then right on the heels of that, “I’m here, and I better act professionally, because Ridley Scott is not going to hire me if I just ask him questions about Blade Runner for the next half hour,” which is what I want to do. I have to act like I belong here and start explaining to him: “Look, embedded in this script are these amazing ideas, and if you want to hire me, I play up this stuff and play down this stuff, but I don’t want to throw out the baby with the bath water because obviously there’s a lot of great things in Jon’s script.” And that’s my pitch, and Ridley responded, and then we went to Fox, and pitched to them. And they responded and, in all great traditions, you’re told that this is going to be a six-week gig and it was a year of my life. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/damon-lindelof-struggling-depression-why-838257)
No comments:
Post a Comment