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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Author Bob Zeidman edits the manuscript of a screenplay. Zeidman's unpublished novel, 'Horror Flicks,' is the third place winner in the 1998 Opus Magnum Discovery Awards.
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Mr. Zeidman Goes to Hollywood
Murderous movie rental has life of its own
By Michelle Ku
'The head of the tape stops while the VCR, amid soft mechanical groaning, continues to emit more celluloid, forming it into a snake-like coil.... The tape springs quickly. It wraps itself lightly around the couple's feet and spirals quickly up their tangled legs toward their waists. They turn in unison to look down and see the videotape quickly winding around their bodies and toward their chests. Their faces echo each other's bewilderment and panic. They try to get up, but the tape tightens, locking them together. Its climb toward their faces quickens, its smooth surface coiling closely around their sweaty skin. They struggle in vain against this instant cocoon. A few guttural sounds emerge from their throats before the tape wraps tightly around their necks.'
Imagine getting a video from a rental store only to be murdered by the movie's leading man--who died during filming and whose evil spirit is somehow embedded in the film itself. Anyone who rents the video is at risk, and who would suspect a videotape as the cause of a series of murders plaguing the Los Angeles Police Department?
The story, written by Cupertino resident Bob Zeidman, has the earmarks of a classic Hollywood horror film, but it isn't. Horror Flicks is Zeidman's unpublished novel, which received third place in the Opus Magnum Discovery Awards. Last week, Zeidman was in Los Angeles to accept his award at the Hollywood Film Festival.
"They put the award-winning writers in the very back [of the room] where they served dinner and made the presentations," Zeidman says. "We jokingly said that they were giving the writers a taste of how Hollywood treats writers. All the other awards were announced, and [the winners were] given a trophy."
Not only were the winners of the writing award not announced, they didn't even make the ceremony's program, and their certificates were mailed to their homes. In the Hollywood totem pole, writers are given a low priority. Despite the low profile of Zeidman's award, he says he's not upset about it. The ceremony was better than what he hoped for.
"It was actually a bit more intimate," he says. "I was hoping it was intimate so I could actually meet people."
Following the ceremony, Zeidman and his wife, Carrie, met and took pictures with director John Schlesinger and actors Patrick Swayze, Martin Landau and Jon Voight. According to the terms of Zeidman's prize, there was a possibility that his novel would be optioned, but that has yet to happen.
The festival wasn't a total loss for Zeidman, though. He attended four days of panel discussions on how to get an agent and how to sell to Hollywood.
"The opportunity seemed really great at the festival," Zeidman says. "But I'm finding it's very difficult to break in. People in the panel discussions seem very optimistic, but later, when you try to contact them, they aren't as helpful as they seem."
Writing Vacations
An electrical engineer by trade, Zeidman dabbles in filmmaking and writing. He's written a children's book, a novel, two screenplays and a textbook. In June, Prentice Hall published an engineering textbook of his. The publisher has sold the entire first printing of and is about to do a second run, Zeidman says.
Zeidman tries to take time out every year to write or do something different. On one of his sabbaticals he created short films. He wrote a children's book on another trip.
Zeidman wrote Horror Flicks in a span of three months on a similar trip seven years ago. The inspiration for the book came from a short film he saw several years ago in which a man is invited to interview with a film company. When he arrives for his interview, no one is in sight, but there is a film canister that begins unreeling and chasing him throughout the studio.
"I thought it was a funny film and would be funnier if I could expand it into a bigger story," Zeidman says.
With that idea, Zeidman wrote a short story about a couple who rent a movie and die after the tape attacks them. After he was finished, he realized it was unsatisfying because it was too much for a short story, Zeidman explains.
Taking a cue from the Stephen King books his wife reads, Zeidman decided to turn the story into the first chapter of a longer novel. Horror Flicks isn't a typical horror story, it's a comedic, psychological suspense. There are also parodies of Hollywood celebrities.
"Part of this was written to make fun of the slasher-horror movies," Zeidman says. "Nowadays, they are all gore and shock. It's not suspenseful. If you look at most horror films--slasher films--if it's not scary, it's silly. I took these things and make it scary and I bumped up the silliness."
Every third or fourth chapter of the book ends with the death of someone who has rented the movie. In one scene, a couple is squeezed to death by the film as they make love. In others, Theodopolus Popodopolus is bludgeoned to death by the video case and group of fraternity boys are electrocuted with beer.
"Each way they die is really different and funny," Zeidman says.
Although Zeidman does not read horror books, he was drawn to the genre by a fascination with monsters. While in college, he and his roommates used to dress up as Dracula for Halloween.
Hollywood Sleaze
Zeidman has worked with two agents in marketing Horror Flicks, his children's novel and his screenplays. So far, no one has been interested in publishing his novels or producing his screenplays.
"Some people think agents are romantic," Zeidman says. "It's really a very sleazy business."
Zeidman's first agent was hired to sell Horror Flicks and Sex and Violence, his first screenplay. The agent wasn't being paid by Zeidman, but he did ask for funds to cover manuscript copying and postage fees. After a while Zeidman provided him with several hundred dollars without seeing any results.
After Zeidman asked, the agent provided him with the rejections letters. He contacted the companies who claimed they did not have any records of his manuscripts.
"Some of the letters were on letterhead from the companies," Zeidman said. "But the companies said they were forgeries on counterfeit letterhead."
Zeidman reported him to the district attorney's office and he was eventually convicted for fraud.
Despite the fun and frivolity of Hollywood, Zeidman maintains his perspective by recalling the recent funeral of Arthur Schawlow, a professor at Stanford University who invented the laser.
"[The funeral] was attended by at least three Nobel Prize-winners," Zeidman says. "Being in the company of people who have changed the way of the universe is a lot more impressive than being in Hollywood. While the ceremony attracted a lot of press and a lot of gawkers, unfortunately Arthur Schawlow's funeral only had 50 people who attended. The laser saved countless lives and is used in almost every piece of equipment. It's sad that scientists aren't recognized."
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Cupertino, California Since 1947
