The Screenwriter’s Package : We’re Sure the Offers Came Flooding In

There is chutzpah . . . then there’s Hollywood chutzpah. Take the pitch from literary agent Marion Rosenberg. Million-dollar spec scripts are no longer news, but for Buckeye Williams? (It’s a nom de plume). And with a deadline of noon Monday?

Even in an industry used to unreasonable demands, this one raised a few eyebrows in the executive suites.

One studio production chief said that he came very close to asking the head of business affairs to “make an offer of $100” just to let Rosenberg know how “arrogant” her request sounded. “I mean, it’s not unusual for a big writer to command high fees, but for a nobody? And the script is not particularly good. C’mon!”

Rosenberg nevertheless said she has a lot of interest in “Heartstopper,” about a female lab technician who is chased across country by a band of terrorists as she tries to deliver a new heart for the President of the United States.