Greg Phelan, 4days in LA

GREG PHELAN-BIO

I am an actor, writer and budding producer who has been in LA since the 80s. Exactly which year in the 80s is up for debate depending on the mood I am in. A wonderful education at UCLA and a lifelong love of all things movies, TV and music have led me to an industry that I just absolutely adore.

In between those ever-elusive acting roles, I decided to pass the downtime by writing more and more. I’d always loved to write, to be the one that starts the whole damn machine running. You can’t direct, act or produce without a script, without material. This led to writing feature scripts (THE MONEY TREE, THE LAST CHILDREN), movies of the week (THE BABY RACE) and an original series (KEEP DREAMING).

I had always been interested in gay film and tried to watch and support every single one. I had been the star of GREEN PLAID SHIRT and making that movie dovetailed into my own coming out to even more family and friends. One day, I realized that I had never seen a gay-themed film in an actual theater. So I went to LAEMMLE SUNSET 5 to support THE BROKEN HEARTS CLUB. I loved being able to watch this movie in a theater, with my popcorn and among people who were enjoying the movie for the same reasons I was. This wasn’t a movie I had to watch at home, that I had to rent because it never played in theaters, that I had never heard of because it wasn’t properly promoted. I met Greg Berlanti after (it had been a special screening of the film) and asked him why more films like this weren’t being made. He said even BHC was tough to get financing for and keeping it in theaters was a constant challenge - even though it was well acted, well reviewed and everyone seemed to love it.

And I thought, that shouldn’t be the case. Really. And I got angry for a minute. The gay community is about 10% of the population. If a good portion of them had made it a point to see BHC, it would have made millions. And then what a great path we would have been on!
A year later, I went to see ALL OVER THE GUY. Another good gay drama that didn’t deal with the usual themes of coming out, of dying, of being subtitled from a foreign language. I left that movie high because this was becoming a great habit.

So, I got in touch with Dan Bucatinsky, the director of AOTG, and he told me more of the same. AOTG was going to make it’s money back to it’s investors, but good luck in trying to get a gay themed movie financed and released. Again, I wondered, why? There are so many people who want to see these films! Quite a few of my gay friends have seen EDGE OF SEVENTEEN, TRICK and dozens of others. But they weren’t huge hits. Why? WHY?
Well, it’s easy to rant and rave. Time to jump in the river and take on the tide. That night, I shook Greg Berlanti’s hand and told him that I was going to make the next one. I was going to keep the momentum going. With good product constantly coming, a sea of change would have to occur.

So, I wrote AS FAR AWAY. A gay road trip comedy. PG-13. It's hilarious and the characters are terrific. Lotsa fun. Not expensive. Tried and true formula. But I couldn't get it read. I couldn't get the support. Undaunted, I wrote FOUR DAYS IN LA. This script was a little racier, the situations more adult, the characters more challenged and challenging. I sent this out to only a few friends and BOOM, what a response. Everyone loved it. Now I've got some people interested in getting this movie made. An internal, somewhat frustrating discussion with myself of why it was so much easier for people to get behind the R-rates script but not the PG-13 one shall remain internal... Nonetheless, making FOUR DAYS will still be hard. It will still be a challenge.

FOUR DAYS IN LA will be rated R. It's sexy, it's romantic, it's fascinating. The subtitle is THREE STORIES OF LOVE, LUST AND LONGING and the script makes good on that promise. But I have a hunch about FOUR DAYS IN LA. If done well and released correctly and IF my gay brothers and sisters go see it and support it, I think it's gonna be a hit. I think it will make some money. And I fervently hope it will inspire the next guy to make the next one and another guy to make the one after that.

I have subsequently written the romantic dramas LONELY IN LAS VEGAS and NOW & THEN. I've been keeping a journal since 2001 about my efforts to get any or all of them to the screen. I so much want the courage to put the journal on this website, but I fear it may embarrass some of the people who were/are trying to help me out. I sent the idea of the journals to OUT and ADVOCATE to see if they wanted to published the struggles but ADVOCATE didn't respond and OUT said they'd be interested in a story once the movie got made. Well, then. I guess I better go make it!

Look, already this has been amazing. The opportunities we have in this day and age are tremendous. FOUR DAYS IN LA will get made. It's too good not to be made. I only want it to be a hit and to be a high grosser so that more people like me will have an easier time of it to get to tell their stories. That way, we can have more than just one movie per year. And we can enjoy all the other worthy efforts that are sadly only seen at film festivals or big city fringe theaters for two quick weeks before being replaced. Oscars 2006 (TRANSAMERICA, CAPOTE, and BROKE BACK) have given us some great momentum. And as artists, we have to move forward, to add and grow from these trails that have been blazed with such bravery and determination.

I once read an article in THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER that 30 years ago, WOMEN IN FILM was created when it was revealed that female writers were just not getting the amount of jobs that they felt they deserved. That they felt they needed to survive. The article quoted an exec saying that 30 years ago, those pioneering women would probably never dared to dream that women would be the heads of studios and running networks and music divisions. But I bet that exec was wrong. I bet more than one of them dared to dream about it. Something think about....