[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Bill Mikita, Screenwriter: Even my story now is somewhat so unbelievable that I don’t even share it with certain people because you wouldn’t believe it if I told you that I made this Hollywood movie.
Film Courage: Bill, when did you start writing Chasing 3000?
Bill: That’s a good question because when did I really start writing. I was an attorney by education and profession. My mother died after a short illness of a brain tumor. She was 60 years old. I was half her age. I thought What if half of my life is over? What did I really want to do? I wanted to write but I had never expressed it to anyone.
I had a friend who worked at Disney, Rick Haskins. I visited Rick and he took me to see some producers. One of the producers was Barry Bernardi who has a lot of credits. An interesting guy. I think his wife is from Cincinnati. He said Well Bill there’s two ways to get into business, start as a gopher and work your way up.
I thought:
Well, I have a pregnant wife and two daughters. I hope Option B is better than that.
He said:
[or] You have something that we want and we will pay you for it.
So I spent the rest of the day driving around LA saying:
What did I have that no one else had?
I had this really interesting relationship with my brother growing up. I said what if I wrote a story about my brother and me?
I had never written a screenplay at the time. I just bought books about how to write a screenplay.
I wrote a very autobiographical story. I think it was called The First Step. It was very autobiographical and fairly crudely written, it wasn’t terribly good but it got some attention and a producer almost purchased it for if you remember at the time after school specials? It gave me the encouragement to keep writing.
I kept writing and I wrote a number of other screenplays. After I wrote about two or three more screenplays I got a little better at my craft. I went back to my original story and added the hook about the boys going to see Roberto Clemente get his 3000th hit.
So I wrote Chasing 3000. Probably my first draft was like 1999. I pitched it and tried to get it made. I had another friend who worked at Warner Brothers. I met with one of the executives and he liked this story but he had some criticism of it.
He said:
Well, there’s no girl in this story.
I said:
Well, my mother.
He didn’t laugh.
I said:
That’s a joke.
I met a young actor writer named Cris D’Annunzio. Cris said:
I really like your screenplay Bill, but I think it needs to be bigger.
The feedback I was getting is that the story was too small. I learned at the time as a writer that meant it was…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
WATCH ‘CHASING 3000’
CONNECT WITH BILL MIKITA
About:
Bill Mikita was born in Steubenville, Ohio, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Brewer’s Boys, Chasing 3000 (2010) and Medal of Honor: American Heroes. He has been married to Pattie White Mikita since February 25, 1978. They have four children.
Advertisement – contains affiliate links:
More affiliates:
Camera we use for interviews – https://buff.ly/3rWqrra
Sound we use for interviews – https://amzn.to/2tbFlM9
Other books on Amazon that Film Courage recommends – https://buff.ly/3o0oE5o
