Published:

07/09/2011 04:07pm

Rebecca Sebek Interviews Novelist and Screenwriter Barry James Hickey

Rebecca Sebek interview with writer Barry James Hickey
Savvy-Writer.com
January 10, 2010

1. How did you become involved in screenwriting?

A: I started writing short stories in college. While water skiing in Colorado, I had my first idea for a screenplay; Joe Morgan's Mermaid – about a divorced gas station owner in a small Colorado town who catches a mermaid in his fishing hole and marries her. It took me a year to write and by then I was living in L.A.. I had my SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) card and was more focused on my acting career in the beginning. I toyed with the script, told people the story. Everyone thought it was new and different… but I didn't have a literary agent… Then Splash came out and took the wind out of that sail. People still think of Splash as "the mermaid movie" so even now it would be hard to pitch in Hollywood.

2. What was it like to work on a script version of Mario Puzo’s novel Fools Die? He’s a well known and beloved author. Was it intimidating to work on a script for Fools Die?

A: I didn't find it intimidating at all. First of all, I was writing for a German producer/director on spec with a possible $400,000 payoff if the deal went through. I wrote eight drafts, always too long, too long…. trying to get the story under 120 pages. It is a dark story… And yet, I feel Fools Die was closer to Puzo's life than his other stories. As far as I can tell, Mario Puzo was a degenerate gambler, often writing in the wee hours of a hot Las Vegas night on the felt of blackjack and roulette tables… How the writing deal went down was like this – Ulli Lommel had some guarantees for financing in place based on his optioning the novel. He negotiated with Bert Fields (Puzo's agent) for a film adaptation option on the book. Ulli Lommel brought me in, I read the novel. We took a trip to Vegas to grab the "atmosphere" and I started pounding away a few days later. I had a great time writing it, visiting Vegas every two weeks, digging into the seedy side of it. I had already spent a month in Vegas starring in my first movie (Las Vegas Weekend) so I knew my way around. In the end I thought we had a dark but electrically-charged human story based on the book which is all about degenerate gamblers and lonely casino owners… After the eighth draft, Ulli ran it around to investors. I went off to Globe, Arizona to write and produce Down Time, a comedy spec script for some guys in Phoenix. They thought they had the money to shoot a feature. While I was there, Jerry, my L.A. casting director for the film had a heart attack. I drove back to see him at Cedars Sinai hospital. While nurses changed his catheters, I started talking to a producer in the hallway who was also waiting to see Jerry. "And what are you working on?" I asked. "Fools Die," he said. "A mini-series." After I saw Jerry I called Ulli and told him he had a problem. As far as I can tell, Ulli confronted Bert Fields about selling the rights to otherparties. Fields' response was that we were doing a feature film and the other guys were doing TV. "No conflict of interest," he was told. Ulli's investors had forked over several thousands to Puzo. You might ask why Puzo didn't write the script himself since he adapted a few of the Godfather books and scripts for Superman and The Cotton Club, to name a few. Puzo was having major health issues and just wanted the money…. Not my first rodeo where money supersedes art… Needless to say, I was out a $400,000 payoff and neither the movie nor the miniseries was made…. After that, I used Fools Die as a writing sample for ghost-writing, spec scripts and as an introduction to producers. While I worked in the Story Department at the Disney studios, I managed to pull the coverage I received on the script from when I submitted it to Chip Diggins, a vice-president of production at Hollywood Pictures. The reader HATED the dark story. She thought no one would ever want to see a dark and disturbing movie about degenerate low-lifes in Las Vegas… If anyone reads the book, I recommend you watch Mar