So You Want To Be A Movie Producer...
Former Warner Bros VP Lorenzo di Bonavetura's golden rules for getting a movie made (and yes, that's him in the specs chatting with The Rock on the set of Doom).
a) Trust Your Instincts
Getting a movie made is partly about sticking to your guns and partly about picking your battles carefully. Believing in your project is very important but it’s equally vital to refine your instincts. If something doesn’t work out, it might not be because the other guy was a dick - it might just not have been a very good idea. As for keeping your friends close but your enemies closer, I don’t hold with that. I want my enemies as far away from me as possible!
b) Producing Is Bloody Hard Work
In 2005, I produced four movies back-to-back-to-back - Doom, Four Brothers, Constantine and Derailed. It was very rewarding but completely exhausting. Then again, when I was Vice President at Warners, we were producing 25 movies a year. Either way, producing isn’t the glamorous, laidback lifestyle you might have been lead to believe it is. Will I make four movies in a year again? Probably not! I enjoyed aspects of the experience but it wasn’t one I’d like to repeat.
c) You’ll Never Have Enough Time Or Money
It’s a fact of life that every movie ever made didn’t have enough cash. I don’t care how big the production is, you never have the funds to do what you want to do. As for schedules, they’re insane but they have to be or else you’d never be able to get the talent. Most actors have very small windows in their schedules - two to three weeks.
If you want someone for two to trhee months, you’ve either got to have a lot of money or one helluva script!
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