Infante's Inferno - The Big News

10:28 am - The Big News

I've gotta admit, it's amazing how much attention a small brief in The Hollywood Reporter -- one that wasn't even even online -- can get, but I've been fielding phone calls all weekend, so I suppose it's time to say something. I've been prohibited from talking about this much, but since HR let the cat out of the bag ...

Yes, the news is true. My agent has negotiated a simultaneous book and screenplay deal for my semi-autobiographical novel, Never Spoken: Sex, Redemption and Poetry. The contracts are signed, and I'll be heading to New York in a few weeks to talk over the schedule for manuscript revisions, etc., etc., etc.

I haven't even seen a hard copy of Friday's HR yet. I should probably have someone send me it. But evidently, it launched a whole slew of questions, which I should probably address. The answer to most of which is, of course, "I don't know."

1.) Does this mean your quitting your job/leaving Worcester/moving back to California: Not as of yet. It's a nice chunk of change, I won't lie, but I don't foresee me giving up my day job just this moment, especially as I have a number of projects coming up soon -- including developing new content for Telegram.com that's under way, and putting the final touches together on the Worcester Hip-Hop, Spoken Word and Burlesque Festival. For the moment, I'm terribly committed to those projects, and will find ways to make it all work.

2.) Who's going to star in the movie? I have no idea. No one's been cast. There's not even a director signed on. HR said that Judd Apatow is attached to the project, but that was the first I'd heard of it. I'm told that he might be coming on as an executive producer, but after that point, it all goes over my head. I will say that, when talking about how I envisioned the movie, I was asked who I saw playing myself, and I answered Paul Rudd. So maybe I'm getting my wish.

3.) Am I In The Book? Not really. I mean, it's semiautobiographical, of course, so there are superficial resemblances. It follows a young poet's career from slamming in inner-city Long Beach to the national stage -- kind of like 8 Mile, but with more Snoop Dogg. Legally, I can't really give away any plot details, and of course I'm under contract to do a rewrite anyway, but I can say that I'm not really inclined to bring any dirty laundry to the fore (which seems to be a big concern in the phone calls I've had), although there are a few sly winks to things that really happened. Nothing to worry about, though. (On the other hand, there is a character named Manny Holis, who's naked the entire book. Because I couldn't resist.)

4.) Will there be poetry in the book/movie: Oh, yeah. I've written some material specifically for the book, a lot of which has entailed me having to master the metrics and technical aspects of rap, which has never been my forte. I haven't been able to read any of it out, because the project was under way, but hopefully I'll be performing some of it at features later this year, and putting together a one-man rap show to tour. I'm very excited about this! I love hip-hop, but this is new territory for me as an artist. Of course, professional actors will be doing the rapping in the movie, but if I can get this polished enough, I'm hoping to cut a CD. Which would be pretty cool. I had joked about how cool it would be to work with Long Beach rappers such as Snoop and Warren G, and my agent seemed pretty certain we could pull something together. So .. who knows?

And that's all I've got. More info when I have it (and am allowed to share it!) Thanks again for your support and well-wishes!