I don’t need much to prove that my description of this fiasco is true as written. My letter firing my movie writing agent (Part Four, Chapter Fourteen) is, in my view, proof of most of what I allege, at least the broad strokes, if not every detail. That my former agent’s only response was “Can’t you get along with anyone?” and not a correction of my description of why I was firing her should do it. But my main proof is the dumb-ass outline the director came up with, and the fact that the studio labeled it “soulful” and “possessing all the elements.”

This pretty much brands the whole bunch as dumb-asses, no?

If the excerpt of the outline I subjected you to in the book didn’t do it, I’ll here archive the whole nightmare; if you’re a writer or interested in the storytelling process, you might plow through the thing, see how not to craft a story.

By the way: A libel lawsuit aimed at my sorry ass from the producer, director, or anyone at the studio would be dumb-ass for more reasons than that they’d simply lose the case(just based on the outline).

They would look even more dumb-ass than they are in the publicity shit storm I’d engineer.

They might also attempt to secure an injunction (or whatever) in order to force me to remove the outline from this website, for copyright infringement (or whatever), i.e., publishing it without their consent. I also recommend against that, since I’d likely win that one too, for this reason: copyright infringement only applies to intellectual material, if you get my drift.

I’d also make sure the whole world knows of that litigation, etc. So if they took me to court for any reason they’d look foolish, and publicly so, which is anathema to their only real job.

So suing me would be dumb-ass.

But wait.

A version of my catch-22 kicks in here, doesn’t it? Something like, Anyone dumb enough to think there’s a movie in my book (etc) is dumb enough to sue me. So who knows? I’ll keep you posted. Sean Penn. I figure the only legal gripe Sean could have is that I published his emails. As with the rest, if he tries to harass me for that he’ll only look foolish.

Click here to go to the unedited version of the director’s dumb-ass outline. (Adobe PDF file).

Click here to go to the unedited email I wrote to Sean Penn about my troubles with the studio during the writing of the script.

Click here for Sean’s response to my letter. 

Click here for a reproduction of the email exchanges with the Producer I salvaged.