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Thursday 6 January 2011

The King's Speech - How the filmscript was pitched

The new film The Kings Speech is tipped to be a possible OSCAR winner.



It is the story of how King George VIth overcame his stammer to address his people.



A story about the risky strategy for the sales pitch that the film's producers Bedlam Productions took, has started to do the rounds.





The story has parallels for those involved in complex high value sales.





The risky strategy invoked the anger of the film's star Geoffrey Rush by taking the unorthodox step of posting the movie script though the star's letter box in Melbourne, Australia.






Rush's management wrote the filmmakers a furious and lengthy email for their impertinence. Despite this, Rush eventually accepted the role of Lionel Logue, the king's speech therapist.



Joan Lane (theatre producer and agent to David Seidler, who wrote the original script) rather brazenly realised she knew someone who lived two doors down from Geoffrey Rush.



She took the rather audacious move of posting the script in a brown envelope through his door - which flies against the normal protocol of how the film business works.



She ended up with a four page tirade of an email from his manager. But it finished off with Geoffrey Rush saying he liked it and that they should talk.



Joan's audacious thinking had paid off.



Rush's involvement was instrumental in winning the film's financiers which included the UK Film council.



Maybe on 27th February it might even win an Academy Award- in part due to the chutzpah of getting the script through all the barriers that usually baulk such attempts.



Fortune favours the brave in selling.

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