I “met” Thunder Levin minutes before his meteoric rise to
fame (we’re all hoping fortune is soon to follow). I encountered Levin entirely
by accident: I’m stalking late 80s heartthrob Richard Grieco*, and Levin wrote
and directed Grieco’s most recent movie.
My research included the intriguing discovery that Levin’s AE: Apocalypse Earth (The Asylum’s “mockbuster’
answer to Will Smith’s After Earth)
had climbed onto the list of the 50 most active movies on IMDB. In my book,
this was already a pretty significant win, but it doesn’t begin to compare with
what happened to Levin just weeks later, when a little film he’d penned by the
name of Sharknado set Twitter on fire
and drew news coverage from channels as far-flung as Good Morning, America
It turns out that a little thing like 5,000 Tweets per
minute can have a big impact on a writer’s career, and Thunder (who is also a
director, though he didn’t direct Sharknado)
now has a new agency representing him and bright prospects ahead. And I’m very
glad he does—he’s witty, intelligent and well-informed, which is basically my
checklist for people I’d like to see capturing more public attention. And, I
happen to know that he has a little project called 2176 in development that I’m interested to see on the big screen.
I suspect that most of you never heard of Levin before last
week, but that doesn’t mean he came out of nowhere. In fact, his earliest
director’s credit dates back to 1992, when he was just 27 years old. My point
isn’t to say, “Man, this guy’s old!” (he’s a year older than I am), but to
drive home the fact that—like most people who suddenly catch the public eye in
the creative arts—Levin has been building the foundation for years. Decades, even. And although I haven’t asked him, I’d wager
that he never expected Sharknado to
be the vehicle that brought his big break.
The moral of the story is one you’ve heard a thousand times
before (and probably at least 500 of them from me): you never know when the
first crack in the door is going to appear, or when the right piece of work is
going to catch the attention of the right person or when the life-altering
opportunity is going to come along. You might never expect that it will arrive
on the tail of a flying shark, but sometimes it does. And the only way to get to
that moment is to keep building the foundation in every way you can, doing what
you were meant to do, finding a way to make it pay and being ready to move
quickly when you see that sliver of light along the edge of the door.
*No, not that kind of stalking. I'm hoping that Richard will agree to be the subject of my next, "no, really, there's a lot more to this guy than you realize" biography. So far, he's kind of a tease.
3 comments:
Usually, it's the misfortunes that strike in a heap overnight. Success is built bit by bit, drop by drop, and is often an elusive bird. That said perseverance has its rewards.
Thus proving that even bad publicity can be good publicity? :) I enjoyed this little glimpse into the writer behind Sharknado. Sounds a bit irreverent, with a witty sense of humor. Bit of a surprise, given the reviews I read at the time.
Very good points about building the foundation for "overnight success." That's the thing most people don't see.
I would watch this. Because it looks so freaking stupid. But I'd never buy it. - Scott Craighead
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