An executive producer, a lovely young woman, who had gotten lucky on a screen play out of college that won her an Oscar and much respect in the industry looked out the window of her Los Angeles office. Noting that the sky was it's usually smoggy gray.
"Rancette, I am a bit disappointed that the casting has not worked out on this film. And I have decided that maybe we were too hasty in letting you go several weeks ago." I said in a stern voice. Not happy about how the situation had progressed. Looking down at the list and shaking my head.
CAST LIST
DEPUTY KATO KAELIN ... Kato Kaelin [crossed out] Brad Pitt [crossed out] Rance [crossed out] Kevin Bacon
ANNA MONTOYA ... Anna Paquin [crossed out] Jennifer Lopez
SAM ... Matthew Settle
STAN ... Marton Csokas
ROSE HAYGOOD ... Connie Nielsen
CLYDE CANTER ... Paul Bettany
MR. BUD ... John C. Reilly
LILY ... Perla Haney-Jardine
SARA ...Drew Barrymore
JOGGER ... Kevin Spacey
BILL ... David Carradine
"We have gone through 3 different leading men, and now we are up to Kevin Bacon. And are you really sure that Jennifer Lopez is right for the role of Anna?" I turned around and looked at the young, well dressed brunette who sat uncomfortably in the chair facing my desk. I loved that my office was so intimidating to most of Hollywood.
"LM, look you know that when this started we wanted Kato Kaelin for the lead, and you and the producer decided not to go with him. Brad Pitt was clearly out of your price range and Rance backed out when Paquin turned down the role and you cast J-Lo." Rancette said firmly, not as intimidated by the office and the power of the entertainment executive that stood starring out the window. She was excited that she was back on this film. To hell with what her agent told her, she was destined to cast this film.
"Lets not even go down the path of how wrong a choice J-Lo is going to be." I shook my head, J-Lo, please.
Rancette crossed her legs and held back a look of disgust how badly the situation had deteriorated since she left. "Well who would you suggest for a leading lady? We need to get Kevin Bacon locked in for this, I think for it to be successful we need to have a name on this film."
"Hmmm that is a good question. Not that I have a thing against Jennifer, I just think that this role might need a little more, substance. And I am fine with Kevin, you are right about us needing some star branding on this film." I sat down at my desk and rubbed my eyes. I could feel a migraine starting and this was just the beginning of the day.
"Well you know I have two thoughts, maybe we swap Drew Barrymore into the role of Anna and put in maybe a Jennifer Gardner into the role of Sara." Rancette suggested.
LM looked at the casting director and decided that maybe it was a mistake firing her a few weeks back. "That has possibilities. Make some phone calls. Hey do you think if we get rid of J-Lo we could possibly get Rance?"
Rancette shook her head sadly, "No, I think that we might have burned that bridge LM"
"Well that is probably for the best, he would probably want to take over the script anyway. Thanks Rancette." LM said, clearly dismissing the casting director.
Rancette got up from her seat and took her exit from the office. She had quite a few phone calls to make. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to give Rance a call. And oh how much fun is it going to be to pull the rug out from underneath J-Lo.
......
I watched Rancette walk out, glad to have someone finally working on the casting for this film. It had barely started and it was clearly looking to be severely over budget. Rance...pffft, fat chance we will get him back after the Jennifer Lopez blunder.
Time for the next problem, picking up the phone and quickly dialing.
"Hello, yes this is LM. ... No I haven't read the latest draft of the script... Yes I think we will keep the PG-13 rating, but I don't know if we start getting to graphic....No I don't think we will get any full frontal, but if our leading man changes we might have to consider that....Alright, I will ignore the last draft and wait for the next script. Okay, thanks RDD" I hung up the phone and smiled, thank god that RDD was on this film, otherwise it has zero hope of getting completed.
(to be continued)
Posted by captainhoof
at 1:59 PM CDT