Bob Hilgenberg And Friends - Hollywood Writer

Early on in our writing careers, we had finished a spec script that a lot of the studios liked, but, didn't think was commercial enough. Still, they were open to hearing our ideas, so our agent sent us out with our first feature pitch. The idea was that we would meet with lots of the big players at the studios, and maybe we'd get lucky and sell something.

With pitch in hand, the Bob & Rob corporation started off on a pitch tour. We were very well prepared with our little comedy idea as we had carefully worked out all of the finer points of the story...it was pretty close to "bullet proof", at least in terms of story and logic. Whether or not anyone would get excited about the idea was any ones guess. So, keeping in mind that we had very little experience with real "behind the gates", show business, (we had been struggling actors before discovering writing, a story for another blog), we prepared to take the plunge.

So, as would become our routine on pitc…

Not long ago we were approached to do a rewrite on a film being shot in London...the studio execs, based in LA, were apparently frustrated by the work they were getting out of some of the "non Hollywood" writers. Our agent sent them a sample of our work and since our style was close to what they were looking for in their project, they wanted to hire us. The story got back to us that after the exec read our sample script, he called the producers in London and shouted..."I want to hire these guys...I want to use "Professional American Screenwriters"! Ha! We've been called a lot of things in this business, at times we may be professional, and yes we are Americans who get paid to write screenplays...but rarely, if ever, do those words all collect together as a description of who we are. Come on, look at our names, Bob & Rob, nothing flashy there. But, there was something sexy about being referred to in such a grown-up, almost regal manner...and we are ex-p…