Conceptual Image

Lance Mazmanian

Double-bladed swords, by the way... Mixed media "forced" conceptual plate from a long dead personal cinema project, resurrected early 2026. Art by a supervised illustrator, directly from project pages. About 3' wide (2.35:1; 0.91-ish meters). One of six. See final statements, in the closing. Far too many tales to tell, but my favorite is the one where the entire group of original images was sent to Pat McQueeney . Spoke to her several times on the phone and found her tough but quite charming. A serious manager, with guts and intellect. As it goes, she wanted a "certain" director to come aboard, which never happened. Thus, the project never happened. Still, Pat was very cool to me, and I never forgot her. By the way, look to the far left of the painting. Chances are you'll see her only client. Another story on the conceptual painting(s) is a goodie. Started with my only rep in the days, who piqued the interest of Stacy Maes at Jim Cameron's Lightstorm. Apparently Stacy dug the paintings group, and most especially loved the screenplay attached to it all. Jim (I'm told) read the script three times and finally passed, due to his secular nature. He didn't feel he could move the story around and take away from its overall "view". Have to love Jim for his amazing honesty and effort. Wished at the time I'd taken a different path with the quasi-religious stuff. C'est la vie. Another fun story on the concept plates: After an event at the Hollywood Roosevelt I managed to encounter Mr. Rick Nicita , at the time co-chairman of an agency you may know, called CAA . He waited to collect his car in the Roosevelt valet. Rick—such a charming dashing dude, solid gentleman, smart as hell. So I said to him, "Mr. Nicita! How 'bout a high-tech action-adventure about a man who finds a map to heaven?" Rick was blank for a second...then smiled and nodded. Slowly. "Get it to my office. Right away. What's your name?" We talked a few secs. Met hundreds (thousands) of people in the Hollywood years, but few like Rick. Lovely guy. And for some reason, we had chemistry. Cool. This connection re-visited later years. I'm quick to tell that if not for Rick Nicita's tough-love, my writing would never have gotten to 2026 levels. Most especially in dialogue. Yes, Rick imparted secrets about ways of clever razor dialogue that emerges real, organic, different. And man, did I need it. Rick Nicita was also part of the story where I stood with Leo DiCaprio up at Mike Medavoy's house one night. And before. All due to someone else's invites. Not my own ticket. DiCaprio  is cut from a different cloth, entirely. Hell of a dude. And Leo might remember how I walked up behind him at Medavoy's and said, "Hey, man. How'd you get to be such a tall fucker?" He laughed his ass off and replied, "I don't know, man. Guess I just grew that way!" We're exactly the same height, FYI. An awesome conversation followed. Class act cat, no doubt. Also runs top-caliber "Appian Way". Serious life. So yeah, another incredible night of stories from the hills. Perhaps a tale to tell. Later. But for now... Adding a last adventure to this Conceptual Image thing, years ago Ridley Scott ( after the Too Magic excitement) a nd his biz partner Mimi Polk (Gitlin) were introduced to the project via executive Susan Morgan Williams...in the era when the Scott production company was called Percy Main (Percy in "XXXXXX"  was named as homage to Sir Ridley, by the way). Susan Williams loved the project's concept and its "way out there" ideas about tech and beliefs. She got Ridley and Mimi into a long meeting, after both had checked it over. As a fun coincidence, at the same time the thing was at Percy Main, William Morris agent Ames Cushing informed that Sammi Davis , then 26, was interested in a supporting role...depending upon who came along as the primary star. That kind of thing used to happen all the time in Hollywood. Still does, I reckon. Ultimately Ridley Scott felt the project needed intense revision to make it work. Too much to get behind back then, but Susan Morgan Williams opened the door to future stuff. Nothing really happened, because to be honest I let the meter run to zero. Foolish, but not the first time I dumbly missed a train. C'est la vie, and another huge thanks to Pat McQueeney (RIP), Percy Main, Rick Nicita, and Jim Cameron . Update: For fun decided restoring the project to a readable contemporary level. All the supernatural/religious stuff was eliminated and packed into a neutral, cross-culture archetype. Tech was painstakingly accelerated to 2026 and years beyond. After cutting 32 pages and doing many hours of stupid labor, it was done. And now you can read the whole thing, over here . Cheers.