Asstastic Executive of the Week

That's right biyotches, the baddest feature of Assistant/Atlas is back.

This week's Asstastic Exec is something of a scapegoat. He may be guilty of the crime of which I am about to accuse him, but he's probably not the most egregious offender, and he's certainly not the sole offender.

You see, I've been spotting a trend, a very bad trend. And while I'm not so naive or egotistical as to think this blog could affect such trends, I can still rant about them. Now, let's be clear:

If you are in development, IT IS YOUR JOB TO READ SCREENPLAYS!

This doesn't mean you 'flip through it' or 'read a couple pages'. Oh sure, if a script is sent by some random wackjob, that's one thing. But if a reasonably credible agent/assistant/manager/producer/whatever sends you something that they've carefully chosen to fit your company, you should read it.

So, keeping mind that he's not the worst offender and that he is a scapegoat in many ways, the Assistant/Atlas Asstastic Executive of the Week is Carlo Martinelli of Bona Fide Productions. Now, Carlo seems to be a nice enough guy-- he's pleasant, if a bit abrupt, on the phone. He seems to know what he wants. But it's not just me that feels as if he gives the scripts he requests the most cursory of reads.

I quote my pal (and potential guest blogger) Assistant Indy: "At first, I really liked Carlo-- his turnaround time (on reading scripts) was insanely fast. But after a couple of send-outs, I was like, dude, you can't possibly be reading the stuff if you respond that quickly. And when I tried asking him about his opinions on the scripts, it became abundantly clear that they hadn't been read. I think he may even have said 'I read a couple pages and it didn't seem like it was for us.'"

Okay, great, Carlo, if it's not for you, don't agree to read it. You hear our pitch and probably read a synopsis before agreeing to read something-- THAT is the appropriate time to decide if you'll read it. Don't have us waste our time sending it if you're just going to flip through it and toss it in the circular file.

The point is, if you're in development and you aren't reading any of your scripts, the people sending them to you are going to figure it out eventually. And then they'll be pissed. And unlike me, one of them might actually have the power to do something about it. So just do your job, which is widely considered (somewhat naively) to be the most fun/interesting/rewarding in the industry. So shape up, or I'll let Nikki Finke carry out her plan.


What if no one had read "Pumpkin" and it had never gotten made? Wouldn't that have been a shame?


Now remember, if you're an assistant and you'd like to rant and/or rave about a Ho'wood exec, drop me a line at assistantatlas@yahoo.com. I'd love to be able to not use my own experiences and personal contacts to come up with the execs, if only to further protect myself from discovery (yes, I know, I'm paranoid).