It’s every author’s dream: Write a novel, have it published and then have Hollywood come knocking to turn it into a blockbuster movie or television series.
For local author Tina Palecki, the first two dreams have been realized. Now she’s been invited to Los Angeles to pitch her book to Hollywood insiders.
“I feel fantastic that that, you know, that they think I should even go down there and do this,” said Tina.
“It is a two minute pitch and in the packet it says they adhere to that very strictly. So my pitch is exactly one minute and 47 seconds long.”
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Two minutes to convince producers, directors and Hollywood execs that they should turn her book, “The Night Child,” into the next blockbuster movie or hit Netflix series.
“When you get down there, you walk into your pitch not knowing who’s in front of you. So it could be a screenwriter. It could be a producer,. It could be somebody from Lionsgate or Paramount. It could be Netflix. It could be Amazon.”
It could be any of the big boys. But she won’t know until she shakes their hands. And then that two minute clock starts ticking.
Tina isn’t used to doing things fast. She writes her novels the old school way — with pen and paper in hand and ink close by.
“I write with a calligraphy pen and try and really dig into that and feel that time period.”
The time period is medieval, and the genre is what Tina describes as medieval magical realism.
“There’s a little bit of magic that doesn’t go as far as like dragons and fairies and those kind of things but there’s magical elements and the realism is that the rest of the story is very based in fact.”
“The Night Child” was published a year ago. But it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that Tina received a call from her publisher that they wanted her to head to the moviemaking capital of the world and pitch her novel to Hollywood decision makers.
“They think that the genre is doing really well right now on TV, so they wanted to send me down there.”
Since that time, the pitch has seen more than a couple revisions.
“I think I’m on draft like 110 right now. But we’re getting there.”
And the excitement has been building.
“I keep telling people I am so excited and extremely terrified all at the same time.”
But Tina continues to do what she’s done for years. Teach at High Desert Middle School. Run the drama program at Three Rivers and continue to write and do book signings in her free time.
“I’ve got a lot of stories in me and I’m hoping that there’ll be a lot of Palecki books in the ‘P’ section soon.”
Last Saturday, she was at another book signing and sendoff of sorts at Barnes and Noble in Bend. She chatted with fans, worked on perfecting her pitch and signed a bunch of books.
“All of them are asking me now if they can be in the movie. I’m like, ‘You guys don’t understand how this works.'”
And who knows? The next thing she signs could very well be a Hollywood movie deal. A fitting Hollywood ending to this Hollywood tale.
“I think the realness of my book is is going to be is going to be a good thing because it it would be beautiful filmed on site, you know, on the islands off Scotland, Land’s End area.”
It could be a few weeks before Tina knows if she’ll get that perfect Hollywood ending.
