Bankroll. Tom Malloy

a director wasn’t my sole decision. I gave a lot of my power away on that film because I was so young and naive. I had brought pretty much all the money… I should have had the most control! (I realized that soon enough, and made up for this on my second film.) But, it was probably worth it because I did have a lot to learn.

      So I took it upon myself to remove the WBD’s changes from my script. The problem was, as he was making changes, I was making changes, and I couldn’t remember which were his and which were mine. Truly, I tried to take everything out, but I just couldn’t tell for sure.

      This guy, upon hearing that the film was financed and he wasn’t the director, was furious! He threatened to sue unless I gave him shared credit on the film. As another insult, he directed all his comments to my producing partners because, as he put in an email, “Tom is just a child and a thief.” I couldn’t believe it! He had already put the knife in my back on Any-Swing Goes. Now, in the case of The Attic, he actually thought I was trying to steal his writing because it was so good!

      I hired my own attorney to make sure the WBD didn’t get shared credit. The joke is, the WBD probably changed 15% of the script, and never changed one scene from my original draft. He only changed dialogue, which, according to the WGA, doesn’t warrant a credit. So even if I kept all his stuff in there, he wouldn’t have had a case. But I wasn’t WGA, and I didn’t know this yet.

      The attorney I hired was a kind of arrogant, eternally pissed-off New York City lawyer. Looking back on it, he screwed me somewhat. He could have told me the day I met him exactly what I had to do to get this guy out of my script, but instead he fed it to me piecemeal over the next four weeks. I recognize this now as typical lawyer BS… a strategy for running up an hourly tab. We had signed Mary Lambert at that point, and we started to get cast attached.

      I eventually found out this lawyer’s plan was simple:

      ‹› Take out anything from the script that I even remotely considered might not be mine, and put “…” in its place.

      ‹› Copyright that script.

      ‹› Have a brand-new writer who knows nothing about the script come in and fill in those blanks.

      After I completed this, the WBD wouldn’t have a case. Realize that I just told you, the reader, how to do this in fifteen seconds. This lawyer slowly fed it to me, and by the time he got to what I had to do, I felt it was too late.

      On top of that, I started feeling a bit bad for the WBD. His marriage was falling apart, and, truthfully, he had been screwed by the AnySwing Goes producer (SP) as well (though he chose his side and it was the wrong one to choose). The only thing I was really pissed at was his anger toward me. So, I said, “Forget it,” and gave the guy a shared writing credit. I remember this really bothered me because I thought The Attic was going to be so big! I didn’t want people thinking that the dialogue being said on the screen was his. I did everything in my power to remove what I thought was his writing from the script, but there are still one or two lines in the finished product that I’m unsure about. So, for those one or two lines, he’s got a shared credit. It just shows what karma gets you. The WBD hasn’t written anything since, he’s not in the WGA or the DGA, and he’s getting up there in age. My bet is that he’ll never write or direct for the screen.

      The lesson is, always try to do the right thing. It helps so much in this business. Karma comes around. Good deeds get paid back. Screwing someone over, well, that comes back too.

      Not to say there aren’t two sides to any story. In all fairness, I bet if you heard this guy’s version, he might blame it all on me. Probably not, though. The facts are very clear. I tried to reason with him several times. The only case that he could argue is that maybe there were more than one or two lines in the movie that were still his (but I’d love him to point out which ones). That still doesn’t warrant shared credit.

      When I first started getting The Attic together, I was afraid of the SP from AnySwing Goes. He really gave off this air that he was a powerful producer. I look back and laugh at this. He had everyone bowing to him because he was a complete con artist, and he was good at it. I’m thanking him officially, because I’ve since run into several con artists, and I’ve always been the first one to pick them out.

      Aimee Schoof and Isen Robbins had been attached to AnySwing Goes as producers. At first, the SP was adamantly against hiring them. I never quite knew why, but I now think it’s because he knew they would eventually weed him out as a fraud.

      SIDE NOTE

      You’ll notice something in this book. For those I like and respect, I use their real names, Others, however, are referred to as “that guy” or “that woman,” or they get nicknames like the WBD and the SP. Exception to the rule: I identify all my investors as “HNI” (High Net-Worth Individual). I love them all, but they don’t want their names plastered everywhere!

      Aimee and Isen are good New York indie producers. They can get the job done at any budget and can be hard with numbers, which sometimes crews and vendors hate, but investors love. I met them because they were hired to produce AnySwing Goes, and eventually, they got screwed over by the same producer (the SP). I’ll always remember the day Isen called me, though, and gave me the heads up that the SP was trying to boot me out of the movie and steal my script. Isen chose the winning team, and that will stick with me forever.

      I really liked Aimee and Isen from the start and wanted to use them for The Attic, but I didn’t want this fake SP knowing about it, because I still thought AnySwing Goes might happen.

      So I went out and got two different producers to help with The Attic. Mistake. One was a lawyer, who, despite acting negative all the time, was not a bad guy and has done some okay stuff. The other was a director who was bitter and arrogant. Right away, the three of us didn’t mix. The funny thing is, this was when I was considering hiring the WBD to direct The Attic. I didn’t realize it then, but they were trying to remove the WBD and replace him with the arrogant director guy. (Ironically, when the WBD threatened to sue me, he went right to this lawyer for advice. I guess he didn’t realize that the lawyer was trying to screw him a few months earlier.) This director thought he was the God of indie film, though I’d never heard of any movie he claimed to have made. He thought of me as just an actor who didn’t have any special film ability.

      I knew I was going down a bad path with them but was willing to stick it out. At that time, the fake SP found out I was making another movie and used it as the perfect excuse to get angry with me. I still don’t know how I accepted this. He said, “How could you do this to me?” I actually felt that I had done something wrong. Ridiculous! Back then, I believed the SP thought I looked up to him and wanted him on every project I did, but I know now that’s not true. He was just creating something out of nothing so he could boot me out of AnySwing Goes and continue the charade. Aimee and Isen were the ones who eventually called him out and exposed him, but I was booted off the project long before then.

      Anyway, the SP, who was the main opponent to Aimee and Isen when they were hired for AnySwing Goes, now was “appalled” that I didn’t choose them to produce The Attic. The joke is, I didn’t even realize that was an option, and I would have attached them without hesitation. I balked out of fear that the SP would retaliate, and now here he was telling me I should do it. It’s a classic example of the con artist’s technique. He tries to make you look like you did something wrong, no matter what.

      I was forced to join the two producers I hired (the lawyer and the director) with Aimee and Isen, and the kitchen had even more cooks. On top of that, I really started thinking that the arrogant director was going to try to take over The Attic. All I could think of was that it was going to be AnySwing Goes all over again, where I’d be booted out. So, I made a judgment call and asked the lawyer and director to step away from the project. They did so without much fanfare, though I had to pay them $5000, as the lawyer had put together some boilerplate paperwork.

      SIDE NOTE

      I’ve run into the lawyer since then, and we’re amicable to each other,