Have you ever had a person who you admired greatly, honestly felt they could do no wrong, and then learned something terrible about them? Something so shocking that you couldn't just write it off to them being "human" because it crossed so far over the line? Something where forgiveness was just not an option?
That's how I feel about Neil Goldschmidt. Fall From Grace is a true story that happened in my home state of Oregon back when I was growing up there but it has already had some profound national reverberations including winning the Pulitzer Prize for the journalist who first broke the story.
The scandal never saw the light of day until last year when the Willamette Week broke the story. Shortly after that journalistic sensation, I optioned the rights to the Willamette Week's reporting and set the project up at USA Network as a two-hour television movie. While that script was being written, the journalistUnfortunately, when he was making such a splash back in 1975, he was also having sex with his 13-year-old neighbor.
Also, during that time, I interviewed close to two-dozen people myself including, ultimately, the woman, now in her 40s, who was the teenager that Goldschmidt abused. Her life story rights are also under option now. I have heard her entire story, down to the smallest details. It's powerful, shocking and tragic -- and, frankly, if there is to be any justice in this situation, it deserves to be told.
who wrote it, Nigel Jaquiss, won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Journalism in April of 2005. This is sort of like picking a stock before it splits. It has now become, without question, a nationally recognized story.
Like a lot of other Oregonians, I was a fan of the public Goldschmidt who fixed the transportation system and brought new life to the city's downtown. Yet, at the same time, the seduction of power also was preventing key people from blowing the whistle on behavior that was, there's no other word for it, criminal.
Goldschmidt's story (and that of his victim) makes for compelling drama but so, too, does the story behind the story of Jaquiss getting the goods on something that had been swept under the rug for three decades. It's David-and-Goliath time as this small alt.weekly newspaper beats the monolithic daily newspaper at its own game. Jaquiss and his editor, Mark Zusman, had to break down a wall of silence that had stood strong for three decades. They were legitimately concerned that the whole thing could end up taking down the entire newspaper.
So, the bottom line is this: the script for Fall From Grace has, as its underlying truth, the story as told to me by Goldschmidt's victim and the side-stories of dozens of other people -- all of which had become Pulitzer Prize material.
The story, however, won't be told on the USA Network. After three drafts, and nothing but positive feedback and enthusiasm from the executives there, the company made a decision which goes far beyond this specific project. Namely, they have decided that they will no longer be in the TV movie business. For a variety of reasons, USA Network believes its future is in limited and regular series, period.
Fall From Grace is now an orphan. In Hollywood-speak, it's now it turnaround, which means that Frank Von Zerneck (my producing partner) and myself are free to find other ways to make it so long as whoever buys it re-imburses USA for their expenses in developing it.
We have decided that the material is so explosive and powerful that it's not likely we'll be able to make it anywhere as a TV movie. Our plan now is to find a way to make it as an independent film. We want to tell the whole story, always have, and this is our chance.
To that end, the final draft of Fall From Grace is available for production and can be read by potential investors and production partners. It is based on the journalism of multiple sources, my dozens of interviews, the Willamette Week's own story and, especially, the personal story of the victim herself. Because it contains many explosive revelations that have yet to actually see print in any journalistic venue, including the Willamette Week -- it can't be posted here.
Authentically interested parties should contact Stephen Marks of Evolution Entertainment at (323) 337-0669 and we'll make sure you see it so you can judge for yourself.
