This is pretty funny, I had also gotten a similar phone message from a movie producer a few years about my Spaces of Law book. I couldn't imagine what the guy was thinking, and definitely did not see any way to make this dense book into a marketable movie. I looked up the guy and sure enough he had produced films with for-real people in them. I never returned his call, something was definitely up. (It didn't help that he was in Florida, which just made the whole thing sound sleazier). Turns out it is all part of some scam to snarl historians in legal troubles, just amazing.
J.R. McNeill, who had the same experience, writes:
"Only a desperate man out of good ideas (indeed, out of moderately bad ideas) would hatch a plan to recoup his fortunes by suing academic historians. In the annals of American entrepreneurship, this must rank among the least promising schemes ever concocted. For a movie producer, presumably accustomed to deals involving millions of dollars, this was passing strange. He could sue the entire membership of the AHA, win all his suits, and still walk away with only chump change. "
J.R. McNeill, who had the same experience, writes:
"Only a desperate man out of good ideas (indeed, out of moderately bad ideas) would hatch a plan to recoup his fortunes by suing academic historians. In the annals of American entrepreneurship, this must rank among the least promising schemes ever concocted. For a movie producer, presumably accustomed to deals involving millions of dollars, this was passing strange. He could sue the entire membership of the AHA, win all his suits, and still walk away with only chump change. "
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