Early June 2025
Sant Mori Castle,
Girona,
Spain
Have you dreamed of writing a screenplay and seeing it come to life on the silver screen?
Or written a TV show or play that you long to see produced?
Or maybe you’ve published a book and are wondering about how to turn it into a film script?
Seems impossible, right?
Mentors
Andrew Lazar
Academy Award-Nominated Producer Andrew Lazar formed Mad Chance Productions in 1995 with a mandate to focus on smart, intriguing material in every genre and budget range. His debut was the Shakespeare-influenced teen comedy 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU starring Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Julia Stiles. His highly-acclaimed film AMERICAN SNIPER (directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper) went on to become the highest grossing domestic release of 2014, and received 6 Academy Award nominations.
Notable among his more recent titles are CLOUDS directed by Justin Baldoni, for Disney+ as well as an adaptation of Jane Austen's PERSUASION for Netflix starring Dakota Johnson. He is currently in post on NYAD also for Netflix starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster and directed by Academy Award winning directors Jimmy Chin & Chai Vasarhelyi.
With a first-look deal at Warner Bros., Lazar is currently engaged with the studio on a number of projects. Lazar is working alongside Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way to adapt the cult classic Japanese manga "Akira" by Katsuhiro Otomo with Taika Waititi attached to write and direct. He is also in development on a Marvin Gaye biopic for Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, written by Marcus Gardley and to be directed by Allen Hughes.
On the TV side he was most recently executive producer on the Showtime mini series GEORGE & TAMMY starring Jessica Chastain and Michael Shannon.
Some of his other feature credits include the critically acclaimed CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND which marked George Clooney’s directorial debut, starring Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, Julia Roberts and Clooney; Peter Segal’s GET SMART starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson and Alan Arkin; CATCH THAT KID starring Kristen Stewart, Corbin Bleu and Max Thieriot; I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS written and directed by John Requa and Glenn Ficarra and starring Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, and Leslie Mann; Danny DeVito’s DEATH TO SMOOCHY starring Edward Norton, Robin Williams and Catherine Keener, and Clint Eastwood’s SPACE COWBOYS starring Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones.
Martin Olson
Martin Olson is an author, comedy writer and songwriter who plays Hunson Abadeer, Lord of Evil, on Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time.
He is best known as a head writer for Disney’s Phineas and Ferb, for his New York Times best-selling humor book The Adventure Time Encyclopaedia (Abrams, 2013), and his notorious satire Encyclopaedia of Hell (Feral House, 2011).
Specializing in writing comedy specials and directing one-man shows, Martin became producer-writer for Penn and Teller on their FX variety series Penn Teller’s Sin City Spectacular.
Martin has just published his third book for Adventure Time, The Enchiridion & Marcy’s Super Secret Scrapbook (Abrams, 2015), with his daughter, singer/songwriter Olivia Olson (Joanna in Love Actually). He is currently staff writer for the Disney series Milo Murphy’s Law.
Martin has received four Emmy nominations, two for television writing and two for songwriting. He also received an Ace Award for comedy writing and has sold comedy screenplays to Dreamworks, UA, Touchstone and Warner Bros.
The film rights to Encyclopedia of Hell were bought by Warner Bros, through producer Andrew Lazar for Mad Chance Productions.
Wendy Kram
Wendy Kram is a producer and one of the industry’s leading script consultants. She is the founder of L.A. For Hire, an international consulting company that specializes in acquiring IP, developing scripts, packaging them with talent and directors and matching them with production companies, studios, streaming providers, networks and cable companies.
Wendy currently serves as an executive and producing partner at Reuben Cannon Productions, overseeing development for features and televisions series in partnership with DISNEY +, Oprah Winfrey’s HARPO FILMS, TRIBECA, and FOREST WHITAKER’S SIGNIFICANT PICTURES, among others. She is also producing a new feature film written by Rocaberti alumni, Carrie Wachob.
Previously, Wendy served as Vice President for UK’s media conglomerate Granada Entertainment, where she oversaw development and international co-productions. She was an executive for production companies based at Sony, Disney and Universal, developing and producing projects that received Humanitas, NAACP, WGA, and Golden Globe Awards, starring actors such as Sissy Spacek, Helen Mirren, Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, and Katie Holmes, to name a few. Past credits include MAD MONEY directed by Oscar-winning writer/director Callie Khouri (THELMA & LOUISE) and SALLY HEMINGS: AN AMERICAN SCANDAL for CBS, which won the WGA award for outstanding writing in a miniseries.
Wendy also manages a small group of screenwriters and filmmakers, including John W. Richardson, who wrote the action blockbuster NON-STOP for Universal, which starred Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and Lupita Nyong’o.
Wendy graduated Cum Laude from Columbia University in New York City. She has been a guest speaker and conducted film and television workshops at Harvard University, USC School of Cinematic Arts, UCLA and NYU Tisch. Creative Screenwriting Magazine ranks Wendy as one of the industry’s top script consultants.
Chris Deckard
Prior to co-founding the management/production company Fictional Entity in January 2017, Chris Deckard spent over seven years working with and representing talent at major agencies such as ICM Partners and WME. He has worked closely with traditional and new media buyers to find and develop content for domestic and international audiences. In addition to helping cast and package numerous features and series, he has evaluated thousands of scripts for actors and directors. Chris graduated from Cornell University and earned his J.D. from Notre Dame Law School.
Fictional Entity’s clients have been named to The Black List, The Hit List, The Young & Hungry List, The Blood List and been lauded by the PAGE Awards, the International Emmys and placed as finalists in The Heath Ledger Scholarship and the Academy Nicholl Fellowship The Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Awards, the AWG, ADG, SPA, and AACTA. Clients have written, directed, starred, and produced in numerous formats, including features, TV, virtual reality, and podcasts, independently and for companies like Netflix, NBCUniversal, AMC, Legendary, Meta, Marvel, Fremantle, SyFy, the CW, Warner Bros., Amazon, Blumhouse, Comedy Central, BBC, the ABC Australia, Foxtel, TruTV, Super Deluxe, Hallmark, CBS, Lifetime, E!, and MSNBC.
Chris has advised clients through multiple successful series pilot and pitch sales. He and his business partner were non-writing Executive Producers on a series pilot that sold to a major US network in 2021. In 2024, Fictional Entity client highlights include: a book-to-series pitch sale to Netflix, a first-time writer/director’s feature film entering production, the release of three series from first-time writing Executive Producers, and a feature film release.
The Retreat includes...
Sponsors
ISA
Freixenet
MWP