WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAILURE AND HEADY, UNDREAMED-OF SUCCESS?

Between washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant and treading the red carpet at the Oscars?

Not very much.

Ask Michael Blake.

Through the late seventies, he turned out one unproduced screenplay after another. But in 1981 a friend of his from film school, Jim Wilson, asked him to script a movie he was directing, called Stacey’s Knights. It was to star an unknown actor called Kevin Costner.

Both Michael and Kevin thought it was their big break.

They were both wrong.

But they struck up a friendship.

Several years later, Blake was at Costner’s house and got talking about an idea he had for a movie.

He had just read an historical account of a Civil War wagoner who discovered an abandoned frontier fort. Blake was fascinated by the old West and Indian lore and he had come up with an idea based on the story.

Costner and Wilson both liked the concept but persuaded him to write it first as a novel.

Firstly, they said, because his story would not then be limited within a standard-length script; and second, because they thought the story would sell more easily as a novel than as a screenplay.

Costner was still an unknown back then in Hollywood. (He did play the part of the corpse in The Big Chill, but the flashback scenes featuring Costner alive were edited out of the final cut.)

Meanwhile Blake bottomed out, both as a novelist and a screenwriter.

He had no publisher, no agent, nothing in development and no prospects. His office was a battered 1970 Chrysler. He fled to Bisbee, Arizona, and got a job washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant.

It took two years and thirty rejections for Blake to find a publisher for his book. Fawcett eventually picked it up and released it in paperback on August 12, 1988.

Blake hated the cover - it made it look like a romance novel.

Fawcett then told him they had no money to promote it and were not planning any further reprints.

Things were going better though for his old pal Kevin Costner.

He had become a huge star with movies like Bull Durham and The Untouchables.

Now if only he could persuade him to read his novel …

But Costner was busy making another movie called Field of Dreams.

Then one day Blake got a call. Costner had read his forlorn and dog-eared manuscript and wanted to option it, putting up $75,000 of his own money.

He wanted Blake to come back to LA and write the screenplay.

As in any good Hollywood movie, Blake dropped the dirty dishes in the sink, threw his apron at the head chef and ran.

It still wasn’t panning out quite how Blake had thought.

He had always imagined Viggo Mortensen in the lead role. But Costner wanted to direct and star in the movie himself.

But that dream was still a way off. No Hollywood producer would touch the screenplay: no one was interested in westerns anymore; no one was going to sit through a three hour movie; no one was going to listen to Comanche dialogue with subtitles; no one would be interested in Native Americans in lead roles.

Kevin, you haven’t ever directed before. And hey, who’s Michael Blake anyway?

Costner eventually got funding from a British investor and made up a shortfall of $3 million from his own pocket.

He even turned down roles in major Hollywood hits to keep working on Blake’s movie.

But concerns grew as budgets and shooting schedules blew out; industry insiders called the movie “Kevin’s Gate”, referring to the infamous Heaven’s Gate - a movie that almost bankrupted United Artists ten years before.

This is the story of ‘Dances with Wolves.’

Audiences proved the producers, the publishers, and the critics wrong. It grossed over $400 million worldwide, was nominated for twelve Academy Awards and won seven. The novel had a 14-week ride on the New York Times best-seller list. Blake won a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

So what’s the difference between abject failure and giddying success? Blake clearly had talent as well as determination. But what got him out of the kitchen of that Chinese restaurant in Buzbee?

Luck? The right connections? Someone who believed in him and his work?

It’s all a fine line.

First Lieutenant John J. Dunbar: ‘It seems everyday ends with a miracle here. And whatever God may be, I thank God for this day.’

GOODREADS MESSED UP MY GIVEAWAY. IS THIS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DISMAL FAILURE AND HEADY, UNDREAMED OF SUCCESS?? I HOPE NOT.

THE LINK SHOULD FINALLY BE WORKING TOMORROW SO CHECK OUT MY NEW GOODREADS BOOK GIVEAWAY! (ESPECIALLY IF YOUR NAME’S KEVIN COSTNER.)

Goodreads

Book Giveaway

Anastasia

by Colin Falconer

Giveaway ends March 20, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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