THE LEVERAGE JOB

I would give someone else's left arm to write on Leverage. Or even just to pitch a couple of ideas. Rogers?

I elected to write a Leverage script. Whether or not it would be read was simply not a concern for me, and I had a good idea and I wanted to execute it. Somewhere, I would find an exec that loves Leverage and she would read it. Then, I went to the Leverage panel at Comic-Con and in one portion of a sentence Chris Downey sent a jolt of "Fuck! No!" down my spine.

They were talking about how they make Portland stand in for a variety of locales (much the same way the Lost crew turned Honolulu into essentially every major city on Earth at least once in the course of six years. This locale, however, usually means a certain kind of story. But maybe not this time, stick a pin in it and wait.

Then I met someone last week who works in conjunction with Leverage. I knew they wouldn't be able to tell me much - confidentiality agreements, professionalism, little subcutaneous bombs in their necks - but I got *** to answer a simple question. "Do the words 'steal a *******' appear anywhere in the script?"*

They do. I thank this person for saving me from about forty-five more pages of work. Perhaps the research can be used in something else. Too bad, I had an awesome title that fits the whole "The _______ Job" system.

It happens to spec writers all the time. It hasn't happened to me in a good long while. Shortly thereafter someone said to me "At least it means your on the right track."

Yeah, but it means I'm riding on the caboose and I want to be driving the bloody engine."

Also, I'm looking for fellow writers who would be interested in playing in a casual, irregularly meeting run of the Leverage Role Playing Game...once it comes out in the fall. Why writers? Because shouldn't they kick a particularly high level of ass in role-playing games? If this sounds like you, leave a comment or email me.

*Those Leverage guys are real and somehow they mind-hacked me and stole my idea before I even wrote it or told anyone about it!