I may have a shot, through a personal connection, at attaching name talent to something I've written. But not in the lead role - more like the third spot. Upside as I see it: it would show talent is interested in my project and potentially generate heat. But what about downside? I assume in most cases the lead or director is attached first and then others may be added. Would my project be marked as amateur by doing things out of order? Or worse, scare-off others entirely?

so many questions: These are tricky issues. As I don't have any personal experience on this front -- every movie I've written has been a studio release, so the questions of acting attachments out of my hands -- so my thoughts are purely based on observation. First, do you have representation or not? If not, I assume one of your goals with attaching talent would be to generate interest with a rep. If the latter, everything you do needs to be done in consult with your rep. Second, what type of project is it? A small indie film? Something bigger and more mainstream? Third, what type of genre? And does the actor bring juice with him/her in that genre? Fourth, how much heat would the talent bring to the project? How recognizable a name does s/he have? There are different kinds of commitments. Some are 'hard' commits, others 'soft' commit. So if your project is a small indie film, genre piece or otherwise, and you could use this talent to give you an edge in getting representation and in general jump-starting it, perhaps they give you a soft commit. "Sure, I'll lend my name to your project. Let's see how things go with financing and what not, then take it from there." At the end of the day, however, while talent may help ootz a project along, it does have potential downside - as discussed in today's post and last week's - particularly with re seeking out a director who will definitely have his/her thoughts on casting. And as always, it always comes down to the writing. Unless you've got Jennifer Lawrence attached. Then you could have a script written in crayon and you'd be gold! If you need more advice, drop me an email. Happy to give you more of my two cents. Good luck!