Bankroll. Tom Malloy

package. We hired Kelly Wagner and Nancy Nayor to cast the film, who had cast Hostel, The Grudge, The Grudge 2, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose. We went after a lot of A-list talent to play Megan, the lead character, who basically carries the film. Rob Schmidt had suggested we consider Eliza Dushku. She liked the script, and it turned out to be a good fit. After Eliza signed on, the rest of the cast fell into place (this usually happens after one star says yes), and Tim Hutton, Cary Elwes, and Michael Ironside all came on board. I need to mention that several of the actors, including Ironside, Bill Moseley, and Martin Donovan, signed on primarily because they were Rob’s friends. That goes to show what hiring an experienced director does for your project.

      We were about two months away from our intended shooting date. Unfortunately, my HNI thought we were going to be able to raise the $2 million through other sources, and he had only committed about $300,000 so far. I’ll go over exactly what happened in later chapters, but this was a mistake I made. The other producers thought, “Well, Tom’s handling it,” so they all sat around and waited for the HNI to close. Thank God he did, but it took many trips and many drinks.

      When he finally put the check in, we were literally two weeks away from principal photography. I remember being at his playhouse (he actually had a separate house for his cars and games) with the rest of the producers, and going through the exact same pitch that I had been working on him for months. At one point, he left the room with his father-in-law and we were all sitting there, wondering if we were going to have to tell everyone that the movie was to be shut down. He came back in, his face giving nothing away at first, and then sat down and said, “Let’s make a movie.”

      It was one of the greatest feelings of my life, but I wouldn’t wish that stress on anyone. Every day I went into the production office wondering, “Is this the last day I’ll be here?” Ughh… it’s a terrifying feeling.

      But Greg came through like a champ, and the movie, I believe, came out amazing.

      In the meantime, I was busy trying to finance my third film in two years. It was the dance film that I always wanted to do, and it would be the most commercial film I had ever made. There were two major obstacles: 1) We needed $3 million, which would eventually balloon to over $7 million, and 2) I was going to be the star.

       Love N’ Dancing

      I could write an entire book on the trials and tribulations of Love N’ Dancing. However, for the purposes of this book, I’m going to focus on the money-raising aspects of this film and the lessons that I can pass on to you.

      When I realized that AnySwing Goes was never going to happen, I shelved the project several years prior to writing Love N’ Dancing, which I started in 2006. The only similarities are that there’s dancing in both. I went back to the first time I ever saw West Coast Swing, way back in 1998. There was a dance competition called The Big Apple Country Dance Festival (that still exists, I believe). I was watching the professional Jack & Jill Competition, where competitors don’t know their partners or the music… they have to create a routine on the spot.

      I watched this big guy, John Lindo, dance. He was over three hundred pounds and he was fantastic. I was so blown away by the style of dance that I said two things:

      ‹› I’ve got to make a movie about West Coast Swing.

      ‹› I’ve got to put that big guy in it.

      When I wrote AnySwing Goes, the dancing was a subplot. In Love N’ Dancing, West Coast Swing would take center stage.

      A funny thing happened that night in 1998. When they announced the winners, John Lindo took second place. I was awestruck, along with the crowd. Then they announced the winner and he went out to do a dance with his partner. I watched him dance and he was very good, but he wasn’t anywhere near John. Then someone elbowed me and said, “You know, that guy’s deaf.”

      When I went back and decided to write a new dance movie, I started from that moment. Love N’ Dancing opens in 2002, when my character, Jake Mitchell, wins the world championship, but doesn’t really feel he deserves it. Flash to the present day: Jake teaches dancing and does motivational speaking for kids (I always include something personal). It’s at one of these school speeches where Jake meets Jessica (Amy Smart), a bored-with-life English teacher who has a workaholic fiancé (Billy Zane). Jake and Jessica ignite a flame in each other after Jessica becomes Jake’s student, and they eventually compete for the world championship.

      Right away, I had my assistant put together a list of the best dance films and romantic comedies. Then I went through and started to find email addresses and contact information for the directors of these films. (I’ll explain this method in more detail in Chapter 12: The Attachment Approach.) I came upon a guy named Robert Iscove, who had directed the teen comedy She’s All That (which made $150 million), and had even choreographed the movie Jesus Christ Superstar back in 1973.

      I liked Rob right away, and he connected with the script. His notes were always well thought out and moved the story in a more positive direction. The only idea I resisted was to make the script focus more on the character’s deafness. I didn’t want to make it a “disability” story. As my friend Dr. Paul Stuart Wichansky (a fellow motivational speaker with cerebral palsy who served as the hearing loss consultant on Love N’ Dancing) will tell you, it’s better to see people for what they can do instead of what they can’t. In Love N’ Dancing, Jake’s deafness is almost a side note. Our movie shows ability, not disability. Rob agreed with this approach, and we were ready to move.

      As a producing partner, I chose Robert Royston, a legend in the swing dance community. He had over seven U.S. Open titles, and was the world champion in both swing and country dancing for four consecutive years. Robert is also a very charming individual and gives off an extremely positive vibe.

      Robert was involved in AnySwing Goes. I had brought him in and introduced him to the SP, and Robert was hired to choreograph. After that film fell apart, Robert and I stayed close (he was also one of my first West Coast Swing teachers… I figured, why not learn from the best?). Together, Robert and I produced The World Championships of Country Dance for GAC TV in 2003. It was the first time competitive country dancing was ever broadcast, and it was very well received.

      For Love N’ Dancing, I knew that I needed Robert’s full involvement, so I asked him to produce the film with me, and I wrote a nice supporting role for his wife, a theater actress who always wanted to make the transition to film.

      The first dollar came in from an HNI dancer I knew from Long Island. I met with him and pitched him on the project, then invited him to a special screening of The Attic. This guy believed in the project and in me, so he gave me $25,000. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. Through some family connections, Robert was able to find someone who wanted to invest another $25,000. Now we had $50,000 to develop our $3 million film.

      Robert had a fantastic reputation in the swing dance world, and knew a lot of people with money. One was a world champion poker player. Robert and I met with him and pitched him on the project, but he was already sold. He was such a fan of West Coast Swing (being a dancer himself) that he had no doubt a movie featuring the dance would be a hit. This was potentially the easiest money that I’ve ever been involved in landing. The HNI poker player wired $500,000, no questions asked.

      We were able to get a few more little hits, and we had around $700,000 when we started making offers for the lead role of Jessica. We focused on actresses who had prior dance experience. The bonus was that whomever we cast would get eight weeks of dance training with Robert Royston. We began getting bites right away.

      It was a total surprise when we heard Amy Smart had dance training. I was a fan of The Butterfly Effect and Road Trip, and I thought she fit the character very well. We made the offer, and she accepted.

      We had to make a “pay-or-play deal” (see Chapter 12: The Attachment Approach) with Amy, so we locked ourselves into a date. We had the money to pay her, but didn’t have much more than that. We moved forward using the Dangerous Approach