Last week I was caught in what felt like a Dante-esque circle of hell. I’ve been working on a fantastic new series, with a great script by an A-list writer – one that could clearly be awards’ bait for the right acting talent. But the talent agents I was talking to were refusing to present the project to clients without confirmation that it was fully financed and greenlit.
And the financiers and platform I was in negotiations with wanted confirmation of talent attachments before thinking about writing a cheque. It’s the Catch-22 that keeps on giving and giving… I’ve said it before. In fact, it’s fast becoming my most-used four-letter word… RISK. Nobody in Hollywood seems prepared to take a risk anymore. Cord Jefferson, writer and director of the superb American Fiction, called this out beautifully in his Oscar acceptance speech after the trouble he had getting the film off the ground. He asked Hollywood to take a chance on first-time filmmakers like him and maybe consider greenlighting ten $20m movies rather than one that costs $200m.