Scams galore....

[James Charles]

Oh my. I received this email:

Hello James, Good Day! Your published material "Spirit of the Amaroq: A Story of Salvation" was recommended to us for review and our company - TriStar Pictures would like to invite you to go through our Final Screening stage by submitting your screenplay. We see that your published work and story deserve to be recognized and be given prominence so we would like to check your material and see if we can work together in creating a possible TV series/ Movie adaptation for the year 2024-2025. Final Screening Requirements: Screenplay written by an approved distinguished screenwriter It should be in PDF/Word format Film Pitch Overview In case a screenplay is not available, we can assist you in finding a literary agency/firm that should meet the above requirements and ensure that a screenplay is completed in 3 months before going through our final screening sometime in the 1st quarter of 2024. Your approval to forward your information to a firm/agency is required so kindly let us know if you would consider this option. We are excited to see this story come to life. Your spot on the silver screen awaits! Sincerely,-- Victor Kaufman Founder of TriStar Pictures 10202 West Washington Boulevard, Culver City, California, U.S. The content of this email is confidential and intended for the recipient specified in the message only. It is strictly forbidden to share any part of this message with any third party, without the written consent of the sender. If you received this message by mistake, please reply to this message and follow with its deletion, so that we can ensure such a mistake does not occur in the future. Someone want to write me a screenplay? Can't pay, as I had to put four new tires (tyres) on my old Jeep wrangler for $1,200! @AgentPete ​

 

[JohnBertel]

"We are considering acquiring the film rights to your novel. The screenplay should be in PDF format"

 

[Ed Simnett]

I actually do know a Nigerian prince as it happens...

 

[AgentPete]

There are growing variations on this scam. Was sent one by a Litopian just the other day whose hopes were sadly raised – I had to dash them. This variant, allegedly from “Lionsgate”, wanted weird legal compliance docs created and notarised before they’d buy movie rights. If the author didn’t happen to have their own IP attorney handy, “Lionsgate” would let you use theirs, for a very reasonable $3.5k. Which I assume was just the start of the fleecing.

Movie deals simply do not happen like that.

If in doubt, you can always run it past me, the back Room is a good place to do it.