Projects

My literary and cinematic assets and projects are so numerous and varied that the most economically savvy option might well be to seek a literary estate agent and hand it all over (but what fun would that be?). This could indeed be the outcome for the aspects where I see no way to progress in any other manner. If you are looking for something to engage with in my project, please read points 1-5 below, visit my homepage, and then check out point 6: THE JOBS below.

As both Laszlo (Senior/Dad) and Laszlo (Junior/I) are fiction writers with cinematic ambitions, most of our projects and jobs focus on books and cinema. While the book aspect is largely complete and ready for commercialisation, the film side is just beginning. However, there are three existing films, one screenplay, and one theatre script already poised for commercialisation. Although 1. BOOKS and 2. CINE are the primary sources of projects and jobs, there is much more involved: 3. REVIVE SENIOR concerns applying for grants to revive Senior’s memory; 4. DRUG POLICY aims to promote my drug policy texts and videos, arrange lectures, and in 5. SUNDRY, there are even more tasks — editing, translating, publicity, finding the right people, grant applications, in-house sales, etc. — all of which converge more specifically in 6. JOBS.

  1. BOOKS – Over the past decade, I have been completing my own books, in addition to translating and enhancing Senior’s work to make it more commercially viable. This effort has resulted in nine texts by Senior and eight by Junior, including translations, which brings the total to well over 70 texts, all of which are either currently available or can be accessed at the touch of a button as e-books and print-on-demand (enter "Andres Laszlo Jr." on ‘Amazon, Spain’). My main question is, “Traditional publishing or e/PoD?” The likely answer is that I will pursue both, seeking traditional agents (to liaise with publishers, book me at book fairs, etc.) as well as e/PoD agents (to advise, take responsibility for promotion, etc.). I have divided this “book part” of the project into "language" and "genre" with links to details. See 1. BOOKS below (follow the language/genre links), and then 6. JOBS.
  2. CINE – remakes of old films, the sale of finished scripts, and moving things forward: idea >> structure >> synopsis >> scenario >> treatment >> script >> movie – is where I intend to focus from now on. Fifteen years ago, I was tempted to start here, and the only reason I didn’t was that I believed it was better to first organise our texts, preparing them for the process outlined above. This “cine-part” of the project encompasses many sub-projects. Please refer to 2. CINE below, and then to 6. JOBS.
  3. REVIVE SENIOR. Andres Laszlo Senior was once regarded as a top-class European writer. Until thirty years ago, Ph.D. and Master’s students frequently approached me for approval and assistance with their thesis writing. The reason he is overlooked, apart from the fact that most of his texts never received proper content editing (partly due to my lack of effort until now), is that none of his four home countries (born Austro-Hungarian, naturalised French, writing in Spanish) has "adopted" him. However, today, all of these countries are members of the European Union. This organisation is sometimes willing to finance projects aimed at reviving the memory of its forgotten artists (as are the French). I am seeking someone to identify grants, apply for them, and then lead the revival project. See 3. REVIVE SENIOR below, and then 6. JOBS.
  4. DRUG POLICY. As a drug policy researcher, I have concluded that, although drugs may currently cause more 'bad' than 'good', the consequences of supply illegality are far worse than anything that might arise from a liberal/pro-legality policy. In my narcotics-conservative Sweden, few were willing to listen. As a fiction writer, I transformed my intended thesis into popular science (The Drug Problem) and crafted a video script (Drug Illegality is a Scam). I wish to promote the book, the script, my videos, and myself as a speaker. Please check out 4. DRUG POLICY below, and then 6. JOBS.
  5. SUNDRY. This term refers to jobs or projects that cannot be classified under any of the four headings outlined above: "Editing", "Publicist", "Resident salesperson", and "Literary Assistance", etc. Please review this and then proceed to the final section of 6. JOBS.
  6. JOBS. If you think there is something within my project that may catch your interest, please take a look at the job listing: 6. JOBS.

If you would like to learn more about my project and our texts/movies, I can send you a copy of The Tale(s) of Two Knaves, which will provide not only deeper insight into the project but also into our writings: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

 

  • 1. BOOKS

    BOOKS, unlike CINE, is mainly about sales. There are jobs such as: "Language-agents," "Genre-agents," “Present texts to publishers agent”, “Book me for book-fairs agent”, and “Take on a language agent.” So “BOOKS” covers a lot, and you will find all the corresponding job offerings below, under "6. JOBS".

     BOOKS BY LANGUAGE

    Senior wrote in Spanish, and I write in English (and Swedish). Counting all translations we have over 60 books, with an average of 10 in our six main languages: English, Swedish, Spanish, French, German, and Italian. Regarding some languages, I either do not speak the language or I am uncertain about translation qualities (Japanese, German, Catalan, Bulgarian). Read More

    BOOKS BY GENRE

    Our texts can all be categorized as fictional, apart from my two books on drug-policy, that are dealt with separately. The fiction falls into the sub-genres of adult fiction, juvenile fiction, short stories/biography, and "complete works". Read More 

  • 2. CINE

    CINE - unlike BOOKS, which deals largely with finished stuff - is mainly about "developing" (and only a little about selling). I have plenty of cinematic assets - many ideas, a dozen treatment-like short stories, half-a-dozen movie-prepared books, one finished script plus two initiated, re-make rights to three movies, showing-rights, and unpaid royalties - so even if only starting up, there are already plenty of CINE projects. Yet, this CINE-part of the project will focus mainly on pushing the various text assets from ideas and towards new movies. What to push and how to push will depend on 1. Where I find interest, 2. Where I enjoy working, and 3. Where I find interesting people to work with. Unlike BOOKS, the CINE-part of the project is thus very open-ended, and there are often other aspects than simply “Pushing towards movies, and cashing in” (aspects such as "nice places to work", "clever people to work with," and "having fun"). As I am moving away from BOOKS and towards CINE, I will be looking for all sorts of assistance, not only on how to find buyers but also on how to improve/develop texts: “How to structure?”, “What to keep/ditch/add?”, “Where to send?” and “Whom to engage?” I plan to arrive at Mumbai/Goa around December 15th. 2021 and leave in early February with a lot of new contacts established. You will find all the jobs below under the heading "6. JOBS".

     

    REMAKES (OLD MOVIE >> NEW MOVIE)

    There are three produced movies: My Uncle Jacinto that became a blockbuster, Paco Never Fails that got "contracted away" to Spain, and Sin Uniforme that I have never seen. In addition, there's Don Juan a performed mime-drama, as well as a possibly performed theater play, Doña Juana.

     

    SCRIPT >> MOVIES

    There is a "Hollywood quality" script of The Challenge in English, as well as the first draft of a Spanish translation, there's a to-be-improved first-draft theater script of Doña Juana, and there's also the beginning of the first draft of a new script for Paco Never Fails.

     

    IMPROVED TEXTS >> TREATMENT/SCRIPT

    This is where I hope to spend a lot of time the next couple of years because as I spent the last ten years improving and developing my own and Senior's short stories and novels, it has always been with "the silver screen" in mind. Apart from the already started projects mentioned above, I expect treatments/scripts to evolve mainly from these improved novels and short stories.

    1. IMPROVED NOVELS >> TREATMENT/SCRIPT

    One of Senior’s novels was about to become a movie at his demise (Mother Unknown), Senior’s French publishers recommended him to approach the Spanish film industry with another novel/novella (Doña Juana), his first published book also has movie potential (The Seal Castle) as a love story, and Junior’s adventure series (The Caspian Connection) is designed to become cine.

    2. IMPROVED SHORT STORIES >> TREATMENT/SCRIPT

    I have lots of ideas but as my project moves from BOOKS to CINE I am so overwhelmed by what seems to lie ahead of me that I have decided to put all other ideas on the back burner and focus on developing my now finished texts. Regarding short stories - that often have been rewritten so as to read closer to cinematic treatments - these are picked mainly from the 49 short stories that make up The Tale of Two Knaves.

    There's a lot of other CINE jobs: Rewriting a script for Mumbai or Goa, Bollywood representation, Tangier location-scouting, French & Spanish agents, Staging of a long-lost theater play, etc. You will find it all under the heading "6. JOBS".

  • 3. REVIVE SENIOR

    European writer looking for a home 

    Dad/Andres Laszlo Sr., in his heydays, was seen as a top-European writer, and a rising one at that. He had written My Uncle Jacinto that in the hands of Ladislao Vajda had become a blockbuster movie, and with Paco Never Fails Senior felt that his authorship had taken another big step. This book, in Senior's mind - a totally decent anthropological history-drama about a totally taboo subject written in generalissimo Franco dictatorship - had said; "Look at me! I'm pretty darn good!" However, though the text was great and unimpeachable by the sensors, the subject matter was one that the Spanish critics did not enjoy commenting on. Senior, after maybe getting a little too appreciated (thanks to Ladislao's superb cinematic interpretation) for My Uncle Jacinto (that competes for "best Hispanic movie all times" at film festivals) felt that he was not given the credit he deserved for Paco Never Fails. Thus, when he should have been (and, in a way, was) ready to take on the world, the success story ended. Bereft of the self-confidence so essential for a writer, he put writing on the back burner, and instead, he devoted himself to family, and pushing forged old-master paintings to museums; he forgot about writing, and - as he had no mother country to keep his memory alive - so did the world, about him. Read More 

  • 4. DRUG POLICY

    This Project, which has three parts, has its origin in my life as a drug policy researcher at the University of Lund, and my time at Oxford University. The project has three parts:

    The Drug Problem is a popular-science book that looks at the drug problem (drugs = illegal narcotic drugs) from a mainly philosophical/economical perspective, and though it is written to entertain, yet it is pretty profound: a drug-policy book like no other, which I so far have not succeeded to get one single publisher to read. Read More. 

    Drug Illegality is a Scam is a "sexy condensation" designed to conclusively argue that the consequences of narcotics' supply-illegality are not what we think they are. I believe that the videos that I intend to make - professionally produced (with or without me as the speaker) - actually could contribute to change things. 

    My lectures. I would like to promote The Drug Problem and turn Drug Illegality is a Scam into the video series they were meant to become, I would like to give a lecture tour based on its content, and I would, of course, love to give a TED-talk. I have no ax to grind in this, I am not even a drug user myself, but as I, as a researcher, feel that I have understood the consequences of supply-illegality better than most, I feel an obligation to explain these in a way that people can understand. Read More. 

  • 5. SUNDRY

    Beneath this heading is hidden not only what the heading suggests (i.e. what cannot be squeezed in under any other heading) but also writing-jobs.

    The truly "sundry" jobs are for example a publicist to find out whether I am promotable, a resident salesperson to sit next to me, a computer guy, and a rising-talent finder to locate the right people to do other jobs.

    "Writing-jobs" is partly about translation, as some texts could do with an English-to-German, English-to-Spanish, or English-to-French translation. Another writing part is about editing, which I have hidden here in order for those visiting other parts of my homepage not to understand that my English is not always as good as I might pretend that it is and that maybe some of my texts could do with a wee bit of editing.

  • 6. JOBS

    If you have read the above, you now have a pretty clear picture of my assets, and what I am up to, and if you think you could be the right person to join one of my projects, here are the associated jobs as I see them. The job listings are designed to "stand by themselves", so if you read several, you might find the first parts repetitive.

     

    BOOK JOBS

    Most book projects are described in the "By Language" and "By Genre" links below. I have also listed some other book jobs that I hope to find an interest in either from 1. "Rising talent," 2. Traditional agents or 3. Publishers/producers. Read More

     

    CINE JOBS

    As I am moving away from working on BOOKS and towards CINE, I do not intend to do all the hard work myself; instead, I will look for rising talent and agents for help, and I will make a point of staying much of the winter(s) in India (esp. Mumbai and Goa). Read More.

     

    REVIVE SENIOR JOBS

    As I started to "fix" (digitalize, improve, translate, adapt and improve) Senior's text I realized that my original thinking - "His two last books must have been ok as they became movies, but his five first must have been less good" - was wrong. Rather, his five first texts were on average better but they hadn't been given any content editing. However, whereas Dad wasn't all that logical, I am, and I have provided the content editing that his five first books never received. Read More.

     

    DRUG POLICY JOBS

    As a young research student, I was different from the other guys (in a good way) and I sat out to do something in return for the "magic" life I had furnished with. Drug Illegality is bad, and in addition, it is a scam. I tried to tell the world this at the age of 20 plus but as nobody wanted to listen I instead sat out to do "all-those-things-a-man-should-have-done" in order to be "listenable to". Today I've done it - today I am listenable to, and can eloquently corroborate the proposition that "drug illegality is a dysfunctional discourse" - but today I no longer have the energy and enthusiasm that it takes to fight my way onto the main drug policy scene: assistance needed. Read More.

     

    SUNDRY JOBS

    This is not only where I list projects that don't fit anywhere else (mainly promotion) but also where I hide jobs that I feel awkward about admitting that I am not good enough to do myself (like editing, translation, etc.). Read More