Polishing the Script

Within a few days, I had a conference call with Jacques, Jennifer, and my project coordinator, Richard Hull. Now, during the call, they told me that Rich had a lot of experience, but they didn't give any specifics. As soon as I hung up the phone, I hit the Internet Movie Database and looked him up, and I found out he's worked on a bunch of feature films, including "She's All That" and the 2007 release "Daddy Day Camp". Wow, my very own Bigshot Hollywood Producer. Cool.

Over the next few days, Rich and I worked on re-writing the script. He said my five pages should actually go very fast, because it's dialogue heavy, and so I could write a little longer. He brought some really good ideas into the mix, like Jack and Penny having a running argument over something. I turned that suggestion into Jack's lucky shirt. He also helped me work through a major plot hole - see, in the original version, Paula lived nearby and the mailman mixed up their letters all the time. Jack and Penny (then named Smith) actually cashed in the ticket, and that's how Paula figured out what happened. The hitmen (still masquerading as law enforcement) convinced the Smiths to sign a document admitting that they stole the money and turning it over to Paula. My husband pointed out that would raise a lot of questions, open an investigation into what happened to Jack and Penny, and make Paula the prime suspect in their disappearance (yeah, we watch a lot of "Law and Order"). Rich suggested that there be some better reason for the letter being misdelivered, and that led to the Reisers' house being Paula's old address, which made it easier for her to figure out what happened to her winning lottery ticket. It was also his idea to make more use of the news anchor (a reporter I used to work with), and that's how I happened to add the "news tease" tag during the credits.