I used to freelance read for a couple New York production companies, ten scripts a week. And boy I would hate when they slipped in the occasional book. I hated writing coverage on novels. They were hell to skim. Pages and pages to read and in the same time period you're given for the elegant, super lean screenplay.
In my "reading" years, I don't remember recommending a single novel to either of the two prodcos I read for. But there was this one book that I bought on a whim back in 2000 without knowing a single thing about the writer. I picked it up based on the blurb on the back of the book and read it in three days. It was laugh out loud funny and I thought, absolutely wrong for Company A who I read for (looking for teen-driven material) and for Company B (looking for edgier fare). A couple weeks ago over at Done Deal Pro I read that the rights for the book ("My Legendary Girlfriend") sold to the brand new Tribeca-based production company, Princess Pictures with the adaptation being written by some dude called Mike Glock.
At first I felt triumphant. A little gem I'd spotted years ago was getting its due. Then the jealousy came. I never passed it up to the production company because I think on some level I always hoped some day I'd be in a position to produce it. It was the type of book I love and it was aching to be a Richard Curtis movie. Breezy, funny, charming. But after the first Google I discovered the writer, Mike Gayle, was something of a hot commodity in England, and the reality hit: I was a lowly reader with no connections just trying to pay off student loans. Still, one day if I find the book like that again, the proverbial one I can't put down, I'm finding that writer and I'm going for it.
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