The New Job

On Monday I started working for Shawn Levy, and within the first hour I realized that I should probably issue an advance apology to my friends and family in case I take forever returning phone calls, text messages, or e-mails... The pace of my new job is extremely quick; there's tons of work, reading, and research to be done; plus there'll always be a lot of errands I'll need to run... basically, I'm going to be busier than I can handle and that's just the way I way I like it... Fortunately, I couldn't have a better teacher than Shawn and his assistants. He wants me listening in on every important phone call, asking him questions whenever I'm curious, and reading every script that he's offered or that he and his producers are developing. As of Monday, I became a part of the inner circle and so I'm privy to every piece of information that concerns Shawn or 21 Laps Productions (his company)... of course I gotta keep a lot of that private so you'll have to forgive me if a keep a tight lip regarding certain matters... My mind was blown by lunchtime of my first day. I can't imagine what it's going to be like after I've spent a couple of months at this job.

The great thing is, I came along at such an exciting time for Shawn and his company. "Night at the Museum" has grossed well over $500 million worldwide and now it seems like every studio in Hollywood is looking for Shawn to direct or produce their next movie. He's been offered movies with Will Smith, Mark Wahlberg, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller (among others). Plus, 21 Laps Productions has over 10 scripts that have been greenlit by various studios and so they're now looking to attach talent and directors (...which means that they're holding lunch meetings, as well as "meet and greets" in the office, with all sorts of big name people).

Here are some highlights thus far:

- I listened to Shawn talk shop with Ari Emanuel (the real-life Ari off of which Piven's character is based)
- I had a 10-minute converstation with Paul Feig (creator of "Freaks and Geeks" and director of 7 "Arrested Development" episodes, as well as several "The Office" 2nd season episodes). It was nuts. He was waiting to meet with Shawn's producers and so I just started talking to him about "Arrested" and telling him how big of a fan I was. He directed the first season's finale ("Let Them Eat Cake"). We were going back and forth with GOB lines from that episode ("Bees??? Beads! BEES?!?!"... "Old Papa Bear likes his honey --- I didn't know we started calling him Papa Bear --- We never had the chance!!!"). He says that pound for pound, Will Arnett is the funniest guy in Hollywood. I also told him how much my friends and I loved the soundtrack to "Freaks and Geeks" (I specifically cited my favorite Seger song "You'll Accompany Me", which he used at the makeout party... he said it was an homage to Detroit).
- I got to listen to Carla Gugino's answering machine message and I'll tell ya, it sounds as sexy as she is hot (especially when she's naked)
-Unfortunately I was out of the office when the 45-minute Owen Wilson call took place, but I heard all about it. (on a sidenote, he and Kate Hudson are reportedly doing well... that wasn't addressed in the phone conversation but I figured it warranted mentioning)

It's going very well, and I'm definitely stoked for the future...