Screenwriter Karl Gajdusek shares behind-the-scenes details about Pierce Brosnan’s The November Man, which he reveals almost didn’t make it to the big screen.
Addressing his beginning with The November Man, Gajdusek said he collaborated on the project with his good writer friend, Michael Finch. “We both knew we were screenwriters, but we were in San Diego and we used to surf together, but we would actually not talk about the industry, we just surfed.”
So after writing a couple of “really great B movies,” he said he teamed up with Finch – who already knew Pierce Brosnan – to work on the spy thriller The November Man. “So we came up with what we thought was a great story and we sold that story, and that was right before the Writer’s Guild of America strike. So we sold it and the strike happened and the whole thing fell apart.”
And then over a period of several years, after “stumbling around” trying to resell it, and Brosnan had moved on to other projects, but eventually they found a producer, Sriram Das, who at the time was taking his first steps in Hollywood.
“That’s one of those movies where we did all the due diligence, we did all the drafts, we worked, worked, worked – and then we really thought, it’s done, it’s just not going to happen. And there’s many, in any writer’s life, you write 20 and if you make two you’re happy.
“Then, literally the phone rang and they said ‘We’ve got the financing, we’ve got the stuff in place, we’re going to make the movie – very unexpectedly years after we thought that was done.”
He also explains that because of budget concerns, many locations were changed from the original concept to save money.
Watch the full episode to also hear Gajdusek talk about working with Tom Cruise on the action film Oblivion, and for a discussion on different ways to break into the business.
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