Gone with the Wind-up

I have a gentleman named Paul Rigby to thank for a letter he sent me, informing me of one of Jim Moran’s genius stunts in Hollywood. Apparently Moran, who was wanting work in Tinseltown, approached a couple of Hollywood film studios to pitch for business.

He posed as a Lithuanian film producer, even learning a few key phrases in Lithuanian, and then spent two weeks with a voice coach so he could speak English with the correct Lithuanian accent.

Moran came up with the idea of remaking Gone With The Wind, set in an Eastern European country, and to Moran’s surprise, it was deemed an amazing idea. Before he could say Scarlett O’Hara, Moran was dragged off to see the money men at the studios. When Moran admitted it was actually a wind up, they just didn’t believe him, as he and his pitch were so convincing. In the end, once he really had make them realise it was a ruse, he won two or three film contracts from them for his enterprising approach.