We all know and love Stephen Spielberg. Wonderful guy, wonderful imagination and a terrific ability to take us back into the mind of a kid as adults and make us remember things in a way that all generations can understand. He's masterful at it and well regarded.
When you have achieved his level of success you become philanthropic and find interests that you start foundations for. They become personal and they become things that you do extra work on with your wife, kids, friends and family. They are your favorite things to do and affect people that you know and love. Let's say at this point Stephen got the chance to do what he is best at, direct a movie, with what he knew and loved the most, something for his philanthropy. The two would be perfectly matched. Stephen Spielberg's movie about Stephen Spielberg's charity...perfectly matched.
He's the natural to direct it, right. He knows the charity. Is personally involved with it. May have been working on it for years. Maybe decades. His friends have been helping him. He's the face of the charity ( well, Stephen and his wife) and he's the guy people look to.
His friends have their families working on this project too. Some of them joined the project for one reason or another. Some even came on board because they have an interest in the project too. They have an afflicted loved one or they know somebody or they just have a friend. They've asked to help and you say sure. Their family wants to get involved and you aren't going to turn them away either. It is one big charitable family.
You later find out that one of those parents is someone that can actually help your charity gain more recognizability, that's cool too, but it's not the most important thing. One thing though, that parent has some friends that he wants involved that you don't know. At this point you have little concern about them because your friend's parents aren't your biggest concern. You've got several teams. You are getting going well. You've got television interviews. You've got a reputation. You are getting the West Coast nod as the expert. You have the story of a lifetime and you are rocking.
All of a sudden, this parent start doing things that Steven doesn't like. You ask him to stop, but he won't. Now it is hard to imagine anyone with more money that Stephen Spielberg, but this guy, let's pretend does. He wants to take this project out of your hands and do it his way. Without out you at all. Soon what you have been doing for years is being controlled by this parent's two friends that you don't know, behind your back, without any notification by his son that you trusted with your life. This goes on for nearly 8 years. Until the damage is so bad and so many times the father has sabotaged things for you that the story is now in shambles and your charity that Stephen Spielberg had ready to tell people about can't be told the way it was set up because now the father is claiming, "I won't let anyone else tell this story, it's mine!"
Um, it isn't though. Not at all. It's Stephen Spielberg's life story...er, I mean, it's my life story.
Now Jeffrey won't let me tell it. In fact, yesterday, he completely re-wrote the ending with the girl that had me shot at...through that blond fucking monster that came here with him to steal it from me again.
Mr. Spielberg, Jeffrey didn't leave DreamWorks Animation, he was talked out of it. "You weren't showing him the respect he deserved," is something that Missy tells people all the time. Did you and David hear something like that? Let me guess. "Kung Fu Panda"...something to do with that movie? Listen, I must have heard it a thousand times. And timing is everything. Jeffrey is a baby and babies don't like the word, "No." One thing that I've learned is that Jeffrey needs to hear it far more often. Like with this new company of his. I know what you would say...that's his business. Me, I say sinking $600 million into an online television device streaming service is stupid...you can do all that shit for free already and on a thousand sites. He thinks it's innovative, I say it's old. I know, I'm an asshole. If I was him, I'd go smaller and offer to shrink television shows down for studios and format them...so they could be offered to those services for a price. Forget the streaming. Just do the job of shrinking and sizing for large inventories. That way you can store them and offer them. Hell, I can stream from here. If you want to make money, shrink for studios and film studios and offer them to streaming services.
Don't spent $600 million when you can spen $60 and make $540 from the studios...just business.
At any rate my point was this. Not letting Stephen Spielberg direct a movie about Stephen Spielberg's charity is like not letting Kevin Bond tell the true crime story about Kevin Bond's life with Laurie...and the victims of Palm Springs. It starts with me.
