More ‘The Horror of “DRACULA”’: Lessons from the Unbelievable True Story of the 2013 TV Series
TV showrunners, literary reps, and “the Fixer” himself weigh in about my experiences on “DRACULA”, what I could’ve done differently, and what other screenwriters can learn from my story.
On February 9th, 2011, I took a general meeting with two producers and their executives to discuss a potential collaboration. Seven-and-a-half months later, we sold my first TV pilot to NBC inspired by Bram Stoker’s iconic horror novel DRACULA. What followed was a screenwriter’s horror story, by most accounts. This past January, I finally revisited what happened to me in a four-part Medium series called “The Horror of ‘Dracula’: The Unbelievable True Story of the 2013 TV Series” about the conception and sale, outlining, writing, and straight-to-series green light of a television series called “DRACULA”. The monster in this story was not the titular bloodsucker, but a soul-sucking one — a producer I only identified as MR. SMILEY. Today, I want to return to the events I described, reflect on them through the words of other screenwriters, and call upon fellow creators/showrunners, literary representatives, and TV executives to weigh in about what, if anything, I could’ve done…
