LOS ANGELES — When the film series you worked on for years has broken all manner of box office records with its first installment, which is nominated for the best picture Oscar, you would be forgiven for wanting to talk about nothing else. Especially in the weeks running up to the Oscars.
Shane Salerno, who has story credit on "Avatar: The Way of Water" and helped develop the subsequent three films in James Cameron's saga (he will have screenplay credit on the fourth), is happy to describe the thrill of getting the job ("We had to submit four separate screenplays") and being part of one of Hollywood's most secretive franchises ("It was a locked room, no one was allowed in it besides us, we all had key cards because there were whiteboard walls with a billion dollars' worth of ideas").
But he is just as eager to discuss the success of the authors he reps through his homegrown agency the Story Factory, including but not limited to: the bestselling "Heat 2" by clients Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner; the recent announcement that James Patterson will finish Michael Crichton's last book (Salerno reps Crichton's publishing estate); and the upcoming FX series based on Don Winslow's "Cartel" trilogy (Winslow was Story Factory's first client; Salerno is co-creator and executive producer of the series).
