Ireland is known to have a soft spot for a chancer but this pair take the absolute biscuit.
Two aspiring screenwriters got their comedy script, 'The Kosher Nostra', into the hands of some of the most powerful producers in Hollywood by pretending it was written by Seth Rogen and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg.
Last week 'The Kosher Nostra' script began circulating around Hollywood, falling into the hands of producers such as Ted Sarandos (Netflix), Megan Ellison (Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker), Scott Stuber (Role Models, The Break-Up), Mark Gordon (Steve Jobs, War Dogs) and Will Ferrell.
As it was supposedly written by Rogen and Goldberg, execs were clambering to get their hands on the script about truggling screenwriter who drives for Uber to pay the bills and ends up working as a getaway driver for the Jewish mafia.
However it turned out that the script was not from the masterminds behind Superbad and The Interview and instead was written by two aspiring screenwriters named Jonathan Witz (25) and Jeremy Spektor (29). The pair had hoped that by putting Rogen and Goldberg's names on the script it would be read by the right people, including Rogen and Goldberg themselves.
“Like any young writer, we all have our heroes — Seth and Evan are those guys for us; they inspired us to write this script in the first place,” Spektor told The Hollywood Reporter.
Witz and Spektor first wrote the script two years ago with hopes of getting Rogen, Jonah Hill, James Franco and Aziz Ansari (the characters are all named after the actors who’d play them) to star. However, even though plenty of assistants and creative executives told them that their script was good, they weren’t able to get it into Rogen's hands
The pair decided to chance their arm by drawing up a new title page on the script with Rogen and Goldberg listed as the writers. They also listed Jonah Hill for story credit as the icing on the cake. They set up a fake email account for a talent agent at United Talent Agency named "Danny Goldstein" and sent it to their favourite producers and studio executives.
Apparently Rogen and Goldberg became aware of what was going on last week and their legal team sent a letter to "Danny Goldstein" demanding that he stop circulating the script with Rogen and Goldberg's names attached.
Witz justified the move by referencing the age old myth about Steve Spielberg sneaking onto the Universal Studios lot and setting up his own office.
"We’ve all heard the myth about a young Spielberg slipping onto the Universal lot,” Witz said. “This was about getting our script past the ‘gatekeepers’ and into the right hands."
Whether or not Witz and Spector's ploy will work or not remains to be seen. One would think that if the writing is good enough then someone will buy the script. However people don't like to be made fools of, especially people in Hollywood, and this may have just stopped their screenwriting career in its tracks before its even gotten started.
Via THR
