Paul Kahn

Paul Kahn

Screenwriter

Los Angeles, California

Member Since:
March 2020
Last online:
> 2 weeks ago
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About Paul

My 74th birthday is coming soon, so rather than start at Day 1, 74 years ago, I'll save you all a boring, decades-long monologue and start my bio at 10 years ago. At that point in my life I had been working for the federal EPA for 35 years doing air pollution enforcement, and since 1989 was working in the Superfund program doing chemical emergency responses, chemical/oil waste site clean ups, and disaster response. I participated in more than 50 hurricanes responses, floods, chemical fires, major oil/chemical spill responses, and worked at Ground Zero in New York City for 4 months recovering hazardous materials from the rubble of the WTC.

During the last 10 years I started writing original screenplays and finished 4 of them, 3 action dramas and a comedy. At the suggestion of my uncle, who had some involvement with numerous Hollywood movie stars of the 50s and 60s, he gave me the outline for a spec bull riding rodeo movie. After about 4 months of research about bull riding, watching hours of bull riding events on TV, and going to 4 live rodeos, I came to the realization that bulls don't really have a story to tell, unless of course your a bull and your name is Ferdinand. But since that story has already been sold and told, I decided to turn the story into a love triangle set in the incredible world of professional bull riding. And in case it may have come to your mind, the love triangle did NOT include a bull! It was about two boyhood friends who went into bull riding out of high school and fell in love with the same woman, who was also involved in the rodeo world. With some creative assist from a movie star friend (now retired) I was able to write a very decent script. It got as far as having it read by an agent with the WME agency, but they passed on it. The experience of having a producer signed on and a 4-song sound track, and seeing my work meander through the submission/acceptance/rejection process was a tremendous positive experience, albeit a disappointing one. Not many writers can get that far in their first shot out of the gate (bull riding term!) so I was very proud of how far I got, and I was encouraged to keep writing; I turned my disappointment into a decision to keep trying.

So fast forward to 2017. While visiting my uncle in Tarzana I met a woman at a local gym (every good love story starts with that "Hello" moment). My home was in NJ at the time, so it was very difficult to sustain a 3,000 relationship. But we kept in touch, and in 2018, on another visit to LA, we rekindled our relationship, this time for real. Eventually I decided to retire from EPA and relocate to LA. In August, 2019 I hung up my badge and respirator at EPA, packed up my car, followed the admonition of Horace Greeley, and moved West! I'm very happy to report that the woman and I are together here in LA and I'm at the point where the moving dust has settled and I'm ready to revisit my 5 screenplays and update them for 2020 and beyond!

Unique traits: I've been told I have a great sense of humor and that I write well.

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