Hailey's Novel Diary – 12/22/17

Have you ever written a book that was turned into a movie? Neither have I. Have you ever been contacted by a production company that wanted to turn your book into a movie? I have now. That was a strange day.

I got a call from my agent asking me if I would be willing to option the book I'm writing right now. It is not even finished yet, but a production company wants to talk turkey. I don't know if I'm allowed to mention the name of the production company. I have not signed any contracts yet, so there are no non-disclosure agreements. I'm not legally bound to do or not do anything. Sometimes they want to shout about everything from the rooftops and get as much publicity as possible. Sometimes they want to keep everything top secret until the release date. I don't know where these people stand at this point.

I did some online research. They are a legitimate company that seems to specialize in book adaptations, but not one of the big movers and shakers. The producer whose name I was given has an IMDb page. It is not long, but it's not Joe Smith of Scam Productions either.

I never really thought about it before, but this book probably could work as a movie. It takes place in Los Angeles and the movie industry is involved. Hollywood loves making movies about Hollywood. There is also the Harvey Weinstein factor, which is most likely the only reason any of this is happening.

One of the characters is essentially Harvey Weinstein. Or, legally, I should say one of the fictional characters is similar in his actions and motivation. That was never my intention. I started writing this book months before the whole Weinstein thing exploded. Obviously, he was committing all of his crimes, allegedly, long before I started writing this book, but I never knew about any of it. The Weinsteinish character is simply my interpretation of a sleazy movie producer who uses his power over the careers of young women in ways that have been around long before any of us were born. My “entirely fictional” character is named after a completely different scumbag producer who is dead and cannot sue me.

The Weinstein coincidence would be great if the book were in stores right now. But he will stop being front page news long before the book comes out and years before any possible movie can ever be made. I also wrote about Hugh Hefner before he died. He is not a character by any definition, and only briefly metioned, but it would not matter even if he was. His death is already old news. After Weinstein, there was a long stream of powerful men treating women like property. Time Magazine even made some of the women who spoke out against sexual predators as their person of the year. I had no idea any of this was going to happen, but I wrote a book about what is going on right now.

Unfortunately, it will all blow over. Weak men have been afraid of strong women since the beginning of time. Powerful men have always used and abused people they think are beneath them. This is nothing new and not something that is about to go away any time soon. Sooner or later, everyone will be talking about the next big thing and sexual predation will go back into the closet.

But for the time being, someone wants to turn this book into a movie. Will that affect how I finish writing it? I hope not. Will that affect how much money I make? Probably not. I'm in no position to make any financial demands. And with Hollywood contracts, maybe they can find a way for me to owe them money. But I'm talking to them and they are talking to me. Let's see what happens.