Rick Pamplin

Burt Reynolds' last film was Movie Money: Confidential (2022) written and directed by Rick Pamplin.
Pamplin directed his first feature film Provoked (1989) based on a verbal pitch, samples of his work, including a short film, a syndicated TV series, his spec script and the commitment of the star of the TV show to play the lead in the movie. He met the distributor who backed the film at a seminar at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Pamplin successfully taught screenwriting for 10 years in Hollywood. His classes and seminars were primarily held at Sherwood Oaks Experimental College, Loyola Marymount University, the Artists & Writers Workshop and the University of Southern California. Out of roughly 1,500 students, about 65 scripts were sold, many of them to major motion picture studios.
A Hollywood literary agent once met with Pamplin and his writing partner after reading their screenplay. He forcefully told them they were talentless, should get on a bus the next day and go back to Michigan, where they were from, and never come back to Hollywood or think about writing movies. They ignored his advice, then wrote and sold numerous screenplays.
Pamplin has been included and/or profiled in seven editions, beginning in 1998, of Louise Levison's best-selling book "Filmmakers & Financing: Business Plans for Independents." For the 9th edition, published in 2022, he wrote a 5,000-word chapter where he interviewed himself.

There are really only two sure fire ways to make it in Hollywood, nepotism or being born into it.
Hollywood isn't a hundred yard dash, it's a marathon.
You wouldn't buy a train ticket if you didn't know your destination, never start writing a screenplay until you know where you are going.
There is no such thing as screenwriting, only screen rewriting.
If you have one idea for a movie, it's probably not very good. If you have 10, maybe one might be good. But if you have 100, then one of them will be fantastic.