Story by Chris Graham 

Allan Moye’s screenwriting career was derailed by “Free Willy.”

No, I’m not making that up.

Moye, who teaches screenwriting at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, had his script for “The Blue Man,” which he termed a “kind of a near-future, post-apocalyptic, microscopic kind of environment, similar to Staunton, believe it or not,” optioned by a production company being started by Lauren Schuler Donner, the wife of famed director Richard Donner, and Jenny Lew Tugend.

The company had “Free Willy” in preproduction, “and mine was their next consideration,” Moye said.

The producers and Moye were working together on the script for “The Blue Man” in the meantime - “and it looked like a go,” Moye said.

“Then I got news from them that they were going to release their first film - and that I wouldn’t hear from them for a while, because of PR, they had to do their public relations and promotions and et cetera. They said, Give us six weeks, and then we’ll get back with you,” Moye said.

“I waited eight, and finally got them on the phone. And Jenny Lew Tugend told me that they were going to drop my film because their first film was very successful, and they wanted to make a sequel.

“So now I have the perverse pleasure out of being able to tell my students that I was bounced out of Hollywood for ‘Free Willy 2,’ ” Moye said.

Another film that didn’t have the success of “Free Willy” also had a negative impact on Moye’s moviemaking prospects. Moye’s script “The Good Neighbor” was optioned around the time that a Sissy Spacek-Whoopi Goldberg drama entitled “The Long Walk Home” that had some similar elements was ready to hit theaters.

” ‘The Good Neighbor’ was a Southern drama, really probably the most autobiographical script I’ve ever written,” Moye said. “I came from North Carolina in the tobacco belt. The story was set during the integration of the public schools. What they actually did was the NAACP in my county paid the first black student to go to the white school - because nobody would want to do it otherwise. I knew this girl - and I created a kind of fictional scenario of that.

“That had been optioned - but it got dropped. I had a meeting with (the production company) one time, and they decided to drop me because ‘The Long Walk Home’ didn’t make any money, unfortunately,” Moye said.

Moye turned to teaching out of necessity - “I quit pursuing Hollywood because, well, let’s face it, I needed to work,” he said.

But after a decade of staying on the sidelines, he is making a comeback, of sorts. Moye won the 2006 Virginia Governor’s Award for his screenplay “Signs Following,” which tells the story of a celebrated city photographer who revisits his Appalachian hometown to document a community of snake-handling Christians led by his estranged father.

Moye thinks the award - presented at the 2006 Virginia Film Festival - could open the door for his scripts to get attention from producers in Hollywood.

“I sent it in just to see what the feedback would be. One thing that I like about the Governor’s Award is they do an evaluation of your script. I got a really good evaluation - so I said to myself, Well, I guess there’s a possibility that I could be awarded the thing again,” Moye said.

“Industry professionals read it for the Virginia Film Festival - so I’ve already had some people read it that I can talk with,” Moye said. “I was at the awards ceremony and the party afterwards hobnobbing - I won’t drop any names, because the way the business works, this will probably fall through - but I did get to talk to some producers who were welcome to look at it, et cetera.

“So there you go - you’ve already got some in,” Moye said. “And when you put out your query letters and set up pitch meetings, you can say, This one won this award. And they do perk up their ears better. Because they’ve got hundreds of scripts on their desks.”

Moye isn’t holding his breath that he will get any further now than he did pre-”Free Willy.”

“The old saying is, Everybody is writing a screenplay. Maybe so, I don’t know. But what I do know is, there’s a lot of wonderful writers out there that you’ll probably never hear about,” Moye said.

“It’s a cutthroat business, it’s not always logical, and sometimes it’s very frustrating. So you’d better like writing. Because if you don’t like writing, if you don’t like doing it, you’re going to be disappointed that you’re not being paid for it,” Moye said.

Filed under: 8-January 2007 Issue