BARRY LEVY could not get read. He had been kicking around town for years, working as a development executive for an animation studio, but the aspiring screenwriter couldn't get anything of his own made.
Yet on the strength of one spec script, the multiple-perspective assassination thriller, "Vantage Point," now a major motion picture starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox and Forest Whitaker opening in theaters Friday, Levy is on the verge of becoming Hollywood's next big thing, working on several high-profile projects including Warner Bros.' upcoming "Kung Fu," based on the 1970s television series.
"That's the greatest thing about Hollywood," says "Vantage Point" producer Neal Moritz. "Nobody knew who he was; he writes this great script, got it out on a Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday morning, he had sold it for a lot of money. We called his agent, 'I'll offer you a million bucks but the offer's off the table in 10 minutes.' Then everybody knew who Barry Levy was."
But the 35-year-old Levy laughs at the notion of being a screenwriting sensation: "Believe me, my hairy back excluded, if I could have been a stripper that wound up writing 'Juno,' I mean, there's something great about that story. I remember when I was in college, meeting John Singleton, and I just loved his story. There was no story for me. 'Nebbishy balding Jewish guy writes a script.' That's a real sale."
After attaining history and psychology degrees at Washington University in St. Louis, Levy attended the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC. He went from there to assisting the head of Canada-based animation studio Nelvana. Within a year, the 24-year-old had become a top development executive there. But he wasn't doing what he wanted. At 27, he walked off the executive path to make his own films. With a few scripts in hand, he hustled for direct-to-video work for a few years, earning credits on little-seen films such as "Black Irish."
"The first nine jobs I got as a screenwriter totaled less than the Writers Guild minimum for a half-hour script [about $21,000]," he says. "Never again, I was so tired of writing what other people wanted me to write. [I thought,] 'You know what? I'm going to tell the story, "The Hero's Journey," Joseph Campbell, but it's a relay race.' "
