In October 2012, I bought a ticket for the London Screenwriters’ Festival with one express purpose: attending the Pitchfest script pitch event, in order to pitch a ‘spec’ script to one of the attending production companies, Bryan Singer’s Bad Hat Harry.
Jason Taylor, President of Production, would be sitting at a table, and I’d have five minutes to pitch my script before the bell rang, and I would have to move on to another table. Jason was the only ‘pitchee’ I was interested in (no offence to everyone at the other tables), given that my script was for a highly commercial Hollywood-style blockbuster which had already been through multiple stages of development. I arrived at the Pitchfest two hours before it began, to be sure I was first in the queue, and therefore the first at Jason’s table.
I hit Jason with the pitch, about two minutes long, giving us three precious minutes to chat afterwards. He said it was the best pitch he had ever heard (although, being a nice guy, maybe he says that to everyone?), and asked pertinent questions about the script – the most important one being: “Can I read it?” “Sure,” I said, but instead of handing him a stack of pages – I figure he’s about to take a flight back to LA, and doesn’t need any excess baggage – I gave him a USB memory stick containing a copy of the latest draft, plus my bio. He thanked me and I went on my way.
It was a while before I heard anything, but when I did – a phone call from the Vancouver set of X-Men: Days of Future Past – it was to say how excited he was about the script; an email followed from Bad Hat Harry’s Beverly Hills-based legal firm, with a proposed contract for the option. A little over a year later, contracts have been signed, and I am ready to start the first of (no doubt) several rewrites to get the script into shape to go out to actors, directors, and so on.
Oh, and did I mention I met my new agent at LSF too?
David Hughes
Screenwriter
Posted by a member of the London Screenwriters’ Festival team.
