AMAZON REJECT

For years I've wanted to make The Raina Kirkland Novels into movies or a television series. I had some trouble turning my first novel into a movie script because doing so meant cutting out characters and plots. When I found out Amazon was accepting screenplays for both movies and series, I had to try my hand at making Raina Kirkland into the new True Blood...or something like that. Also, as a series, I was looking forward to expanding Raina's world. I had a blast writing the pilot episode, but as the title of this blog might hint, I was rejected. In March 2017, I submitted the pilot (Dead and Dying) and just this week, 5 months later, they sent me a kindly worded email rejecting my project. 

Thank you for submitting your project, Into Darkness, to Amazon Studios for consideration. After evaluating Into Darkness, Pilot Script 1 - Dead and Dying, we have determined that it does not meet the needs of our Development Slate at this time. If you have other material still being evaluated as part of Into Darkness, we will continue to evaluate that material and notify you with our decision.

If you make significant revisions to your work, you are welcome to re-submit it in the future. We wish you the best of luck with your project.

Sincerely,

Amazon Studios Cast and Crew

I'm actually not upset at all. Usually, I don't take rejection well, but screenplays are different. Most pilot episode screenplays are rejected and even if they are not rejected, the final product might be. Game of Thrones was rejected. Its first time shooting the first episode was a complete redo. They had to rewrite it a bit, change some actors out and hire a new director! So I don't see this as a 100% not going to happen, just it's not going to happen as is. I wish I got more constructive feedback from them. It's a complete shot in the dark, but I'm going to rework the pilot and resubmit it. 

One of the things I'm going to change is the name. The pilot I sent to Amazon was titled, Into Darkness...but I already have a good title for the entire series, PARANORMAL WASHINGTON. Pretty much says it all... 

I'm also thinking about combining Tristian and Michael's character. I'll take out the 'Father Seth-Cousin Tristan' and 'Gay Vampire half-brother Michael' plots and just turn Tristan into Raina's Gay Vampire Cousin... That should clear things up and modernise the first season (since it isn't until book 3 that Michael comes out at gay and you find out Tristan isn't Raina's oldest brother, but her cousin who was adopted from her Uncle Seth by her mom on the condition that no one knows about it, not even Tristan) See, complicated... 

Another change that might help is making the main plot of the first book, FATAL simpler. The written word can convey a great deal more information without confusing the readers.  If I told you that a rich ass hole was selling vampirism on the streets to line his pockets with money because his dad downsized his monthly allowance due to having a new young expensive wife, you might say, okay, I can see that. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! The rich ass hole got that vampire blood that he was selling from his ex-immortal grandfather, who was dabbling in vampirism as a means to regain his immortality because a demon fell in love with his wife in hell and brought her back to life, therefore breaking the agreement the grandfather had with the god Apollo, who granted him immortality so long as his wife held his place in Hell...

Me thinks that's a little too complicated for12 episodes...But, because every book after FATAL plays off the first book, I'll have to be very thoughtful what I change.