Screenwriter Stories: Matt O’Neill
You can rely on the trades (i.e., Variety, The Hollywood Reporter) to cover screenwriters… up to a point. But sometimes you have to search through alternative sources of information to surface features on movie writers. Occasionally there will be articles in the “local writer makes it big” vein. Such is the case with this article from something called The Deadham Transcript, a feature on Matt O’Neill, someone who has made a giant leap toward becoming a full-time professional screenwriter:
The circumstances surrounding how Matt O’Neill’s screenplay “Bait and Switch” came to the attention of Mark Wahlberg could make a screenplay, though some might question its believability. Hey, truth can be stranger than fiction.
Here’s the scenario. O’Neill had just seen “Blades of Glory,” the 2007 film starring Will Ferrell.
“I came out of the theater and I thought, ‘Wow, I want to work with the guys who made this movie,”’ recalls the Hopkinton native. “They had a ridiculous sense of humor so I put together a query letter about ‘Bait and Switch’ and faxed it to the production company that made ‘Blades of Glory.”’
That company would be Smart Entertainment. An executive there, Zac Unterman, picked up the fax and promptly threw it in the trash. “But then he thought about it some more, picked it out of the trash and called me,” says O’Neill. “He said, ‘I think this might be a movie. Can you email me the script?’ So I did. He read it that night, he called me that night and I was in his office the next morning. It was like a whirlwind.”
Then John Jacobs, the president of Smart Entertainment, got on board. Jacobs is currently producing “Ted,” a film now shooting in Boston and starring…pause for effect…Wahlberg.
“We got the script out to a bunch of people,” says O’Neill. “Then one day, Zac Unterman called me and said, ‘Ari Emanuel and Adam Venit, who are the biggest agents in the world, just called and said, “We love your script and we’re giving it to Mark Wahlberg.”’ Pretty much after that, Mark Wahlberg signed on to produce, along with his production partners Stephen Levinson and Scott Stuber, and possibly star. Stuber took it to Universal where he has a deal and that was that.”
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While he waits for “Bait and Switch” to get made, O’Neill is working on other screenplays — he’s penned a total of 15 — and meeting with major studios to pitch film and TV ideas.
“I have no day job now,” he says, “but I may get to the point where I need one. For the moment I’m living the dream. To have Mark Wahlberg, an Oscar-nominated actor and producer, attached to my script is a dream come true.”
Proof positive once again that a total outsider to the Hollywood system can break into the business. But the key, as always, is the script. If it’s on the page, it can happen. If not…
For more of the article, go here.
And congrats to O’Neill on his success!