Hollywood producer's lot is hard one in 'Hello, He Lied'

LOS ANGELES -- Take the telephone firmly in hand and dial the first of some 60 calls. Take a half-dozen meetings, often at chic restaurants where the point is the deal, not the meal. Be rejected countless times.

This is the life of a Hollywood producer as jauntily outlined in "Hello, He Lied," an American Movie Classics special loosely based on producer Lynda Obst's 1996 best-selling memoir.

Moviemaking is hell for the man or woman who sees a film through assembly, production and distribution, according to the documentary from Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini.

"Hello, He Lied" (9 p.m. Tuesday) jumps lightly over the subject that Obst's book covered in intimate detail. Instead, it offers Obst as host and the experiences of other producers to explain how the game is played.

The game, at first, seems fuzzy. As veteran producer David Brown ("Jaws," "The Sting") acknowledges, "Nobody knows what a producer does, including the producer's wife."

Schmoozing apparently takes up a good part of the day, with writers, agents and studio decision-makers among the producer's chief targets.

This frenzy of fellowship is aimed at locating good material, convincing a studio the idea is worth pursuing and persuading actors and directors to enlist in your cause.

Between script and the greenlight for production comes what Hollywood fondly refers to as "development hell."

There's one particularly telling scene in "Hello, He Lied" that has a veteran writer warily fielding suggestions from fresh-faced studio executives.

One comments that he's cool toward the story about Napoleon because "this era just never appealed to me on a visual level."

The clearly annoyed writer parries: "I don't take that personally because I feel like your tie defines your ... taste."

The documentary supplies a list of four top Los Angeles-area schmooze spots, including a yoga center, parents' night at a particular private school and the In-N-Out Burger on Sunset Boulevard.

All this effort and not a minute of film has been shot.

So just what is the attraction of producing?

"My theory is that when producers were really young their mothers dropped them on their head," a wry Obst said.