I been having some rotten luck this week. For one, the shoot I was going to attend this weekend has been postponed due to the lousy weather we been having lately. It’s supposed to be summer, yet it won’t stop raining. Though the main thing that got my goat is that the comedy pilot has been cancelled. I was ready to go. The shoot was planned for for the next couple of weeks, but then we couldn’t use the script that was written for it. Let me explain. (No names are mentioned as this is ongoing situation)

I was approached by an actor friend of mine with an idea about comedy set in a gym. He had ideas of what he wanted to see, though not being a screenwriter couldn’t write a script. He asked me if I could write a script. I couldn’t at the time, because I was working on the feature. Ben Woodiwiss had too much on his plate to do it, so my actor friend said don’t worry, he would find someone else to write it.

So earlier this month I received a copy of a script from my actor friend. It needed work, but it was funny and with a bit of work could be really good. With the headaches I was having with the feature, I decided to sign up and direct it. A break from the feature was needed.

The first sign that trouble was brewing was when the scriptwriter wanted a director friend of his to direct it or we couldn’t have the script. This is the first time I have heard of a script writer, who has been been given the assignment to write a script, make a demand like this. I could understand if he was the originator of the project, but he wasn’t. But it did get sorted out. The scriptwriter assumed that he was also looking for someone to make it. When informed that there was already a director on board, the scriptwriter dropped the demand and we could continue on with making it.

So this week, we were in the middle of getting the cast and crew together, when I get a telephone call from my actor friend. A situation has arised. The director friend of the scriptwriter had bought the script. He told me that he had worked with this director before and he had gone through him to find this scriptwriter. So this director decides that he still wants to do it, so he swipes the script from under our noses. I couldn’t believe it. Why would anybody do that?

Of course it’s not all rosey for our would be thief. My actor friend had copyrighted the idea. So if they want to make the script they will have to pay my friend for use of his idea. Though vice versa, we would have to pay him for the script. It’s put the whole thing into deadlock. Neither party can make it without the other threatening legal proceedings against the other or paying each other off. And of course no TV station would touch it with a barge pole in this situation and that’s the reason we were making the pilot - so it would be on TV.

We both had to ring round those who were brought on and tell them that the shoot had been cancelled until this whole mess is sorted out. This industry amazes me. You think you heard of everything and then someone pulls a stunt like this. This is the first time my friend was trying to do his own project and he gets royally screwed by a colleague. I know who this director is and let’s say that I ever met him I would be having more than words.