How It Began

On my last day as a Supervising Producer on LEVERAGE, I was hanging out with the creator & showrunner, John Rogers, probably forcing him to tell me more stories about his Stand-up days, when I was summoned to Dean Devlin’s office. Dean was the “big boss” – his company produced LEVERAGE. I went up wondering why he wanted to see me. 

In his office he said, “Hey, I want to pitch you an idea for a movie.” Sure, great. He proceeded to not pitch a movie idea, but rather a concept (big difference), and a couple of ideas for scenes Basically, it was: Satellites can control the weather. Because he was the big boss, I said, “Sounds great, Dean!” To which he replied, “Good, I want you to write it with me.”  Uh…

When I went back downstairs Rogers asked me what that was about. I told him Dean pitched me a movie idea. Rogers said, “Is it the satellite one?” Over the next several weeks I wrote fourteen outlines for the movie - by myself - until Dean finally liked one enough to say, “Yes! Let’s go write it!”

What Went Wrong

If you’ve seen the film you’re probably aware that there were a lot of things not great about it. What few people outside the industry understand is how many different entities, situations, personalities, etc., etc., can affect the final product you see on screen. For this one, there were only a couple, but they were SO big that in the end they altered what could have been a very smart, very cool new spin on disaster flicks. 

The machinations of the making of GEOSTORM are a Masterclass in Hollywood, and while I can’t write about it here, I’m happy to share the story during a Coffee With The Screenwriter, or some of the other private one-on-one opportunities at Screenwriting Truth. 

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