Requested... again...?

So here's an odd, if pleasantly surprising, situation. As I mentioned, Adonis got a second reading request a month ago, that time from a literary management company called Energy Entertainment. That was very cool and a positive step, but a few days ago I got a decline for a meeting from them. I was disappointed, and frankly pretty bemused-- I really think the script is so good I have no idea how you could like the pitch and not like the script --but hey, that's showbiz. Art is always going to be a matter of taste.

But here's what's weird-- cool weird, but weird. I just got another request from that same company, Energy Entertainment. The request is delivered in the form of a form letter, so the text is basically the same anytime you get one (this is my third one in total now, so I compared them). This second from the same company has the same subject line, basically-- "REQUESTED by ENERGY ENTERTAINMENT" and "REQUESTED by Energy Entertainment". The only thing that is different is this new one specifies "Your script was requested by Colin," Colin Scully being the name of the executive I spoke to, while the first one did not specify a name like that.

So I'm a little unsure of what this is. I had assumed the first request, which was eventually declined after reading, had come from Colin Scully-- that's the guy I spoke to there! But I suppose there could have been someone else in the room with him, maybe off of the Skype camera, who sent the first one, and Colin made up his mind independently later to also ask for it.

I am slightly concerned this is an accidental duplicate of that original Energy Entertainment request, and there isn't actually a second person hoping to read it. In which case this isn't actually another opportunity at all. I don't know how that would have happened, I'm sure they have safeguards in place against that, but the thought occurs to me. I hope that's not the case, and there's actually another person who wants to read it, therefore giving me a second bite at the apple. At any rate, I am going to treat it as if it is a request in good faith regardless. If there was a mistake they'll tell me. So I'm just going to send along the script and hope for the best. I'm really happy for the possibility of another shot!

Bernie and I do wonder if it's worth it to try and edit at all to address the critiques in the feedback from the agency before. They did not ask us to revise, or they would have said so, but they did say the reasons they declined. Would it serve us to try and fix those if we're sending it to the same company? I'm not sure, especially since I didn't really agree with the feedback. The only thing that I sort of saw where they were coming from was they thought the narration was a bit detached, which I could understand given my attempts to not do the cinematographer's job, and also maintain an appropriate tone for an ancient epic. Maybe there is a way to make it less dry. I don't have a ton of time, unfortunately, and altering something that's so much a matter of my writing style might not be possible in that period. I don't want to risk making the piece weaker. I don't know. We'll talk about it today.

But this is a good thing. At worst, we're no worse off than we were before this came in, and at best, it's another chance. Damned if I'm not going to take it. Fingers crossed, as always.