CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY WOMAN OF STEEL T PATRICK MURRAY

Woman Of Steelby

T Patrick Murray

Treatment, WOMAN of STEEL INDEPENDENT FILM STUDIOS CONFIDENTIAL & PRIVATE

CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY WOMAN OF STEEL T PATRICK MURRAY

THIS IS THE INDIRECT BIOGRAPHY OF

THE MOST POWERFUL WOMAN IN HOLLYWOOD

I have written a film about a genius film executive who happens to be a woman. The subject upon whom the film is based is a deceased public figure, so anyone can make this story, but alas, no one has… so while rights are irrelevant we still are not doing the exact literal Dawn Steel story itself, she is implied at every turn that we are referencing her in a fiction interpretation of her incredible and dramatic impact and legacy imprinted upon not just the industry but society itself.

DAWN STEEL (bio compiled from Wiki)

Dawn Leslie Steel was one of the first women to run a major Hollywood film studio, rising through the ranks of merchandising and production to head Columbia Pictures.

Steel was born in the Bronx, New York to Nathan "Nat" Steel (ne Spielberg), a zipper salesman to the military and semi-professional weight lifter called the "Man of Steel,"and Lillian Steel (née Tarlow), also an electronics executive.

She grew up in Manhattan and in Great Neck, New York, according to her autobiography.

Both of her parents were of Russian Jewish descent.

When she was 9 years old, Steel's father suffered a nervous breakdown, so her mother was the family's sole support.

Steel attended the School of Business Administration at Boston University from 1964 to 1965, but left due to money problems.

She attended New York University from 1966 to 1967, studying marketing, but did not graduate.

In 1968, Steel worked as a sportswriter for Major League Baseball Digest and the NFL in New York.

In 1968, after starting out as a secretary, Steel became merchandising director for Penthouse.

In 1975, she founded a merchandising company that produced novelty items such as designer logo toilet paper called Oh Dawn! Inc.

One of the products she created was Gucci-logo embellished toilet paper.

Within months the Gucci family sued Steel for copyright infringement.

Steel hired attorney Sid Davidoff, a former top aide to Mayor John Lindsay. The case was in the news as "toilet paper caper" and was the subject of an editorial cartoon- it was settled out of court.

In 1978, Steel moved to Los Angeles, working as a merchandising consultant for Playboy.

In 1978, Steel sold her interest in the Oh Dawn! merchandising business to her ex-husband and asked Davidoff to place a call to Hollywood.

Treatment, WOMAN of STEEL INDEPENDENT FILM STUDIOS CONFIDENTIAL & PRIVATE

CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY WOMAN OF STEEL T PATRICK MURRAY

Davidoff made an introduction to Richard Weston, who ran Paramount Pictures' merchandising unit.

In 1978, Steel joined Paramount Pictures as Director of Merchandising and Licensing, where she planned marketing tie-ins for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

She was promoted to Vice President, and then Vice President of Production in 1980, Senior Vice President of Production in 1983.

She was a protege of Barry Diller, who was CEO of Paramount at the time.

After becoming President of Production at Paramount in 1985, where ROBERT EVANS thrived.

Steel was responsible for the making of Flashdance, her first hit film.

She then green-lit Fatal Attraction, Footloose, Beverly Hills Cop, and Top Gun amongst others.

She became vice president of production in 1980 and production chief in 1985.

Steel was the second woman to head a major film production department (the first being Sherry Lansing at Twentieth-Century Fox and the third being Nina Jacobson at Buena Vista).

Steel became president of Columbia Pictures in 1987.

She was the first woman studio head.

Under her tenure the studio released When Harry Met Sally which had been developed and produced independently by Castle Rock productions.

Steel's brief two-year tenure was marked by continued turmoil and losses, and she was asked to leave the studio in 1989 and shortly thereafter Coca-Cola spun off the studio and exited the movie business; Columbia was thereafter sold in A GREAT CONTROVERSY to Sony Corporation of Japan.

She resigned from this position on January 8, 1990.

In 1990, Steel formed Steel Pictures in a production deal at The Walt Disney Company.

She left Disney in 1993 after making two films, 1993's Cool Runnings, a comedy about the Jamaican bobsled team, and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit.

Cool Runnings was her first Disney film as a producer.

In 1994, Steel formed Atlas Entertainment with husband Charles Roven and Bob Cavallo.

They had a first look deal with Turner Pictures. Her final two films were Fallen and City of Angels.

In 1993, she wrote They Can Kill You But They Can't Eat You, which described her time at Columbia.

In the book Steel describes finding out – after giving birth to her daughter – that she was fired as President of Production at Paramount.

Treatment, WOMAN of STEEL INDEPENDENT FILM STUDIOS CONFIDENTIAL & PRIVATE

CONFIDENTIAL SUMMARY WOMAN OF STEEL T PATRICK MURRAY

In her obituary for The New York Times, Nora Ephron said:

"Dawn certainly wasn't the first woman to become powerful in Hollywood, but she was the first woman to understand that part of her responsibility was to make sure that eventually there were lots of other powerful women. She hired women as executives, women as producers and directors, women as marketing people. The situation we have today, with a huge number of women in powerful positions, is largely because of Dawn Steel.”

Her career at Paramount as Chief of Production was referenced in the HBO series, Entourage, in the Season Three (2006) episode "What About Bob?”

When fictional producer Bob Ryan asks Ari Gold if Dawn Steel will still be working there, to which Ari replies "Bob, Dawn Steel died nine years ago.”

In 1989, Steel was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.

Steel's father changed the family surname from "Spielberg" before her birth. The name Steel was chosen to reflect her father's weightlifting career.

In 1975, Steel married Ronnie Rothstein, a former partner in Oh Dawn! merchandising company.

She dated young struggling actor Richard Gere in 1975 and director Martin Scorsese in 1983. In 1985, she married film producer Charles Roven with whom she had a daughter

In April 1996, Steel was diagnosed with brain cancer. In August 1997, she died at aged 51 after a 20-month battle against the disease. Her film City of Angels was dedicated to her memory.

WOMAN OF STEEL takes these facts and adds a dramatic touch here and there and shapes the story to maximize the power of the narrative, but it is indeed the loose biopic about the flaws, gifts, failures, success and genius of Dawn Steel.

IF WE SHOOT A MOVIE THAT TRULY SHOWS HOW A WOMAN PRODUCES GREAT FILMS IN AN INDUSTRY SO MALE DOMINATED IS BOTH ARTISTICALLY VALID & COMMERCIALLY VIABLE

I am seeking the interest of a dynamic woman who is beautiful, as I want to comment on the notion that a beautiful woman cannot be a genius as if beauty is somehow inversely proportional to competence or brilliance.

WOMAN OF STEEL T Patrick MurrayWriter/Director 3233770001 broadcastream@iCloud.com

Treatment, WOMAN of STEEL INDEPENDENT FILM STUDIOS CONFIDENTIAL & PRIVATE