SHOOTERS was "distributed" by St. Martin's Press, but
published by their
sub FORGE.
The SONY/TRI-STAR story is another nightmare. They optioned
the book
four years ago. At the end of their 18 month option period
they stated
their time wasn't up because the publisher hadn't signed a
one page
release form until 5 months after I signed the movie
contract, even
though I signed with SONY first and their contract superceded
the
publisher's. They had also hired a screenwriter and he was
working on
the film during the 5 months they supposedly didn't have the
rights.
Frankly, they just stole the time. The script generated was
dreadful and
I thought I would get the project back at the end of their
free five
months but they exercised their option for another year. I
was horrified
because a pretty big time director had contacted us
expressing interest
in making the film and I wanted the rights back. SONY did
nothing to
develop SHOOTERS over the following year, but they did
develop and make
a very similar project, 8MM, which will be released next
month. They
were obviously just keeping my book off the market so we
couldn't
compete with their new package. Ironically enough they
started filming
8MM on the very same day that their final option ran out. I
worked with
the director in question for about two months until he found
out about
8MM, then he got cold feet and jumped ship.
There is no bigger scumbag in hard boiled literature than
an
entertaiment attorney in real life.
Down this road there be tygers....
TL
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