Dud EBay Movie Script Auction Doesn’t Go by the Book
The first auction of a feature film script option fizzled on EBay last week, showing that the ultimate online clearinghouse is no match for the insular world of Hollywood deal-making, at least not yet.
A development option on a 1997 book titled “Fighting for the First Amendment” attracted just one bogus bid, and that $5,000 offer came nowhere near the $250,000 reserve the seller had set.
But that was just as well, it turned out, because the seller was a former publicist who had no right to be auctioning the script deal in the first place.
In fact, Cory Dunham, the author of the book and a former general counsel for NBC Television, said he was unaware of the auction when called by a reporter last week. “This is really outrageous,” he said.
Dunham then traced the auction to his former book publicist, Peter O’Toole, now a speech writer at the Energy Department in Washington.
O’Toole said he was merely trying to drum up interest in a possible script based on the book.
Sign up for our Book Club newsletter
Get the latest news, events and more from the Los Angeles Times Book Club, and help us get L.A. reading and talking.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
