Just finished talking to Tom about his meeting with John. I can firmly say that we are now in the negotiation dance.

John is still excited about the project, and Tom's feeling is still a very positive one. However, John feels that the prices presented to him were too high for the writing experience that the writers bring to the table. John's going to present Tom with comps (comparable quotes from other projects) within five days, and then we'll see what he thinks is a fair fee.

And that's going to be sticky part.

From what I can glean, John's worry is that two new feature film writes won't be able to deliver the goods. Now, I completely understand that worry. It's a lot to ask someone to place his company's reputation, not to mention several million dollars, on writers who haven't yet proved they can bring in the bucks. On the other hand, Paul is already an established TV writer so his mettle is proven. It sounds like John's already thinking about people who he can bring in to punch up the action dialog. Whatever. That's the way this town works. If John needs that safety blanket, he's welcome to it.

Paul has already indicated that he thinks the price is fair, so I'm not sure how he's going to react to the news. We now have to wait until we see what John comes back with, regarding comps. If we don't like it, we move on.

Tom's feeling remains positive on the project. He's not happy about John wanting to lower the writer's fees, but he's at least willing to keep his mind open and see what we can negotiate. We all want to work together, it's just that we have to figure it out!