When you need money, write a screenplay.

All you are selling them is time. They don’t buy many screenplays outright. Usually, they buy an option. I cannot for the life of me figure out why I fired ICM. I’m stupid. Actually, I fired them because they wanted me to publish my books in a certain order. RIVER would go first. Geronimo’s Bones would go second. That is not what happened. I wanted to go with the Boy and the Dog up as the next book, no one liked that idea. Then, a bunch of anthologies wanted work. They paid upfront. When they pay upfront, follow the money. You can sell a screenplay multiple times. I can do an anthology piece in a day. I had just negotiated a deal with the New York Times. It was now time to rock and roll. Having been poor all my life, I am always knocked on my ass when the figures start emerging. I’m sorry, but some people have too much money. The mass and size of the deals in film are figures that cause me to choke in front of an email. Every single time I have interacted with these guys, it has cost them money. I am open to selling outright, but now it’s their turn to choke.

The option gives them so much time to turn the thing into something that can be put on film.

Is it art. I do not know. Maybe.

But probably not. If nothing happens somewhere in the dark corners of reality that would see another rewrite to the work, you get all the rights back. Even though you have been paid. And here’s the gig. You get to sell that motherfucker again. There are millions of them in Brentwood alone. THE REENACTMENT OF SAIGON connects the past to the present. We lost the war. We lost the country.

So we bought it. Then, what.

Destroying it was impossible. So we made a deal, and we bought it. The whole thing culminates in one moment. For the future to happen, a spy must be shot in the head. Time and gravity. Twice. – tim barrus screenplay