This happened to a very good friend of mine about 30 years ago. He's a very good writer who (like me) has moved on to greener ($$) pastures than Hollywood presents most writers nowadays.
This involved his work adapting a Tony Hillerman novel for the Famous Hollywood Producer-Hyphenate who has pushed Tony Hillerman adaptations for 30+ years now and finally done it (who will otherwise remain unnamed but you know who he is).
My friend had done about four drafts on the adaptation. He was in a meeting with the FHPH to get his reaction to the most recent draft. At this point he was hoping something would happen that would get him fired off the project.
FHPH started going over the script, page by page. My friend has his copy of the draft and things become very scary very fast because the things FHPH is talking about are not on the page he is referring to, according to the draft my friend has in his hand. (I think many screenwriters have had this nightmare in their dreams, but in this case he was wide awake)
Finally, after about 20 minutes, now drenched in sweat, my friend hears FHPH say something and he realizes that FHPH is working from the previous draft!
He considers the moment, and then reaches across the table, plucks the script from FHPH's hand and gives him the current draft. "Can we work from the right draft here?"
The room goes dead silent.
FHPH spends the next 90 minutes (my friend checked his watch) reading the new draft as the silence in the room only becomes more silent.
He puts down the draft, looks my friend in the eye. "It's STILL wrong! And you are fired!"
My friend said he was so happy he thought later that he had floated out of the room.
Fortunately, as can be seen from the two seasons of the Tony Hillerman series (with a third now on order), time solves many things, and the stories are pretty good.
You caught me there. Thanks for the catch
On the happy side, there is one less remake in the world.
This happened to a very good friend of mine about 30 years ago. He's a very good writer who (like me) has moved on to greener ($$) pastures than Hollywood presents most writers nowadays.
This involved his work adapting a Tony Hillerman novel for the Famous Hollywood Producer-Hyphenate who has pushed Tony Hillerman adaptations for 30+ years now and finally done it (who will otherwise remain unnamed but you know who he is).
My friend had done about four drafts on the adaptation. He was in a meeting with the FHPH to get his reaction to the most recent draft. At this point he was hoping something would happen that would get him fired off the project.
FHPH started going over the script, page by page. My friend has his copy of the draft and things become very scary very fast because the things FHPH is talking about are not on the page he is referring to, according to the draft my friend has in his hand. (I think many screenwriters have had this nightmare in their dreams, but in this case he was wide awake)
Finally, after about 20 minutes, now drenched in sweat, my friend hears FHPH say something and he realizes that FHPH is working from the previous draft!
He considers the moment, and then reaches across the table, plucks the script from FHPH's hand and gives him the current draft. "Can we work from the right draft here?"
The room goes dead silent.
FHPH spends the next 90 minutes (my friend checked his watch) reading the new draft as the silence in the room only becomes more silent.
He puts down the draft, looks my friend in the eye. "It's STILL wrong! And you are fired!"
My friend said he was so happy he thought later that he had floated out of the room.
Fortunately, as can be seen from the two seasons of the Tony Hillerman series (with a third now on order), time solves many things, and the stories are pretty good.
Martin Balsam? I think you mean Martin Landau in the photo caption.