Write of Way

Friday, Jan. 21, 2000 | 8:55 a.m.

Housewives, DJs, boxing promoters -- who knows who tomorrow's crop of rich and famous Hollywood screenwriters will be?

The Nevada Film Office is doing its part to find them, and at the same time attract producers to the state.

Las Vegas producers Dimitri Sotirakis and Kimberlie Chambers of DK Productions are doing their part to find them, which they feel will help sow the seeds that will grow a new Hollywood in the high desert country.

Aspiring writers all over the world are doing their part, submitting their un-produced scripts to the annual Nevada Film Office Screenwriters Competition.

"We've had submissions from as far away as Germany and Japan," Jeanne Corcoran, Film Office spokeswoman, said.

The office recently announced the winners of the 1999 competition, the 12th contest sponsored by the office whose job is to encourage those who make films to make them in Nevada.

The top three scripts include "Double Down," a comedy by Buddy Baron, a DJ in Bossier City, La.; "The Magic Ring," a fantasy by Henderson Smith, a former health administrator living in Phoenix, Ariz.; and "One Step Ahead," an action/road picture by Norwalk, Conn., resident Andrew Schub.

Of the top 10 scripts, only one came from Las Vegas: "Vegas Rules," by William S. Reed and Mike Pacitto.

There are a number of rules that must be followed by entrants -- the main one being that 75 percent of the script they submit must be able to be shot in Nevada.

"The scenes can be generic desert, small towns, flat lands, caves, tunnels or the Strip, it doesn't matter as long as 75 percent of them are shot in the state," Corcoran said.

The top three scripts will be submitted to a group of producers and production companies in Los Angeles for consideration. The remaining seven of the top 10 will be given contacts where their scripts have the best chance to be seriously read.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for writers and it is good for the state as well," Charles Geocaris, director of the Film Office, said.

Geocaris came to Las Vegas from Chicago, where he was director of that city's film office. Chicago began a script-writing competition about five years ago, but it is restricted to Illinois residents.

"We would get 2,700 submissions a year," he said.

Because, relatively speaking, Nevada is so sparsely populated, admissions are accepted from everywhere. About 100 make the first round of judging each year. A lot of entries are thrown out because they don't follow the basic formatting guidelines, which may be found on the Film Office website at www.nevadafilm.com.

The site also contains information about the upcoming 13th annual scriptwriting contest. (Submissions will be accepted May 1 through June 30. The entry fee is $15 per script for Nevada residents and $30 per script for entries from outside of Nevada.)

"Ours is the oldest state-sponsored screenplay competition for unsold writers," Corcoran noted. "It is a great opportunity for those who have not sold or optioned a script before."

She says that script readers in Hollywood receive thousands of submissions per year and they look for any excuse not to read them. "If the wrong format is used, they are going to toss it, even if it's the greatest script in the world. Being in the wrong format gives them an excuse to toss it," she said.

Winners of the state competition are assured a fair read from interested professionals. In addition to a reading that could launch their career, the top three screenwriters will receive a number of prizes -- including scriptwriting software -- and a luncheon in their honor. This year's luncheon will be at Planet Hollywood on Jan. 28.

The top scriptwriter this year, Buddy Baron, will not be able to attend because of a scheduling conflict. He just began a new morning slot on a Bossier City, La. radio station and won't be able to get away.

Baron was a DJ on Las Vegas' KFMS in the mid-'90s. He expressed sincere gratitude to the Film Office for giving him his opportunity. "They are a very aggressive little office," he said.

"Double Down" is his story about a man who wins a free trip to Las Vegas in a radio contest. The hero looks like a Mafia don and spends his weekend in Vegas running for his life.

Baron, who is a professional comedy writer as well as radio announcer, said he decided to write his script when he had some time on his hands last year. Since then he has written three more scripts.

"The contest is a huge leg up," Baron said. "It's hard enough to get anyone to read a script."

Smith, who formerly lived in Elko but resides temporarily in Phoenix, won second-place honors for "Magic Ring," her script about the 12-year-old daughter of a Las Vegas showgirl who finds a magic ring that brings people back from the dead. The girl brings back Marilyn Monroe and Elvis.

"I started writing about a year and a half ago," Smith, 42, said, adding that when she turned 40 she decided to pursue her writing interests in earnest, packing up and moving to Arizona. "I gave it a year," she said.

Las Vegas homemaker Andrea Sweet, 38, was among the top-10 screenwriters from the 1998 class of entrants -- although she was not among the top three. "The contest is a great way to showcase your writing," she said.

She said that a producer gave her script, called "Sage Sex," serious consideration but then decided not to do it. "It wasn't really the genre they were looking for at the time," Sweet said.

She continues to send the script to producers while working on other writing projects and taking care of her 7-year-old son. "I do most of my writing at 2 or 3 in the morning, whenever something comes to me," she said. "I try to write something every day."

Sotirakis and Chambers of DK Productions have been working with Las Vegas scriptwriter Mark Zeitoun, who won first place in 1998 for a dramatic script entitled "Strings." Sotirakis said the script his company is producing is "Help Wanted," which was written before "Strings." The earlier script is on hold while Zeitoun is working to get "Strings" produced.

While DK Productions' main focus is on commercials for several casinos and other businesses, Sotirakis has done a number of feature films in the past and wants to do more in the future. He said that the screenwriter's competition is a fertile ground for finding aspiring writers.

"The key in Hollywood is the writing," Sotirakis said. "If you can write, you've got it made."

By promoting scripts based in Nevada, the interest in coming here broadens. "Right now movies are coming here for the background shots," Chambers noted.

Sotirakis and Chambers are confident that it is only a matter of time before Las Vegas takes on the trappings of a Hollywood -- it just takes time, patience, lots of money and efforts such as those being made by the Film Office.

"This town needs to stimulate that kind of business growth," Sotirakis said. "We're not a small town anymore. Hollywood is taking a serious look at us."

In July the Film Office reported that for the fiscal year '98-'99, production revenues in the state doubled over the previous year, to more than $79 million. About 500 productions, including film, television, music and other media, came to Nevada between July 1, 1998 and June 30, 1999.

"We believe it is a direct result of the Nevada Film Office's aggressive pursuit of production through increased marketing and advertising," said Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt, who heads the Commission on Economic Development.

Although no major films have been produced from the Nevada-oriented scripts pitched by the Film Office, officials said that it is just a matter of time. Corcoran noted that seven scripts over the past 12 years have been optioned and two or three are in various stages of production.

"Having seven we know of go into play over a 12-year run," Corcoran said, "is a notable, successful result."

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