Hollywood Tales
“I wanted to write the script Limitless with no executive interference. I had a vision. I wanted to do it. I didn’t want to have meetings. I didn’t want to have layers of notes. I didn’t want to be told it had to be PG-rated. I just wanted to write it as if it was this way. So that meant getting it out there. So it was lying around and they weren’t doing anything with it. And I wrote Harvey [Weinstein] a ballsy, profane email which I thought would get his attention. And I said “Listen, you hardly know me but I’ve written a bunch of movies. I will write this script for you, virtually for free.” Actually I used the phrase “This will get you in your Hasidic scrotum.” I really was trying to be funny because I had no chance of getting his attention and he is the type of guy that says that sort of stuff that’s hilarious. It was never done to offend him; I had every intention to just play with him. Because I really do respect the guy. But I knew the company was going to go under and I needed to get it out of there. So I said I’ll write the script for free, with no executive interference of any kind. And I’ll give it to you and if you like it you can make it. And if you don’t like it, I get the rights. And you have a certain amount of time to respond to this. But that was where the sneaky part came in. I was walking around a church in Italy and I put my hand on the tomb of Niccolò Machiavelli and said “Okay, what would you do?” And I don’t know if this had anything to do with what happened, but then came this idea that I should put a very short time trigger on how long they had between the time they read the script and the time I got the rights back. Well I turned it in during Cannes. I waited until every executive was on a plane. And they didn’t care about this anyway and I was doing it for free. They had sort of lost faith and they weren’t paying that much attention. They’re all off in Cannes, buying movies, looking at movies. They had forgotten all about me. No one read it. I’m serious. No one read it. Ding! Meter went up, I got the rights. Later they did read it and say oh you know, we like this. Tough. And that’s how I got it.”
— screenwriter Leslie Dixon on how she obtained the rights to “Limitless”
You can hear the audio interview with Dixon and interviewer Jeff Goldsmith here.
HT to roadrunner650 for the link.