22
2012
NORTH CAROLINA L ITE R A R Y RE V IE W O N L INE
number 21
MY FILM BIZ BLUES by James Dodson
It was the kind of phone call many authors dream of receiving, especially on a slow summer afternoon in Maine. “Mr. Dodson, this is Patsy Pumpernickel from Creative Genius Associates in Beverly Hills; King Rex Films is terribly interested in acquiring the film rights to your latest book,” a voice announced with a whisper of condescension. To say the least, I was pleased. But also a little worried. These are mere nom de guerres I’m giving one of Hollywood’s most powerful film agents and her celebrated firm, the large film company that wished to acquire the film rights to Faithful Travelers, a true story of a cross-country fly-fishing and camping trip I made over the span of a turbulent summer with my precocious seven-year-old daughter, Maggie, and our elderly golden retriever, Amos. The memoir, which briefly found its way onto several different bestseller lists and was named by Reader’s Digest as one of the top nonfiction books of 2000, was a true labor of love for me, the account of a pivotal summer in my family’s life, and the idea of seeing it made into a film filled me with both happiness and apprehension. The apprehension derived from the fact that the film rights of the book that preceded it, Final Rounds – also an intimate and best-selling memoir – had been acquired by Hallmark Films and was, as they say in the biz, “in development.” This book
told the equally fact-based story of taking my dying father back to England and Scotland to play several celebrated golf courses where he’d learned to play golf during the Second World War. My nickname for my father – relevant to this tale, as you shall see – was “Opti the Mystic,” owing to his unquenchable optimism, his uncanny ability to see the upside of any situation. As it happens, Patsy Pumpernickel had served as the film agent involved in the sale of the rights to Final Rounds to Hallmark Films, though this was my first time actually speaking with the super agent herself. The president of Hallmark was an equally celebrated man named David Picker, a Hollywood legend who had helped create United Artists and produced some of the most honored films of the past forty years, including Midnight Cowboy, most of the early James Bond movies, and Tom Jones. The fact that David Picker loved Final Rounds and was determined to bring it to the screen was enough to make me lightheaded. Now Patsy explained that the aforementioned King Rex Films was offering seventy-five thousand for the film rights to Faithful Travelers and would agree to meet any reasonable terms that I, as author, would care to stipulate. “Great,” I said. “To begin with, since both these books involve my life and my family members, is there any kind of conflict?”