Dunstan and Melton go meet with some agents at ICM. "I've never seen two first time screenwriters step into the process with more confidence," Soisson jokes. They have the biggest egos, and Soisson notes that. Gulager hasn't had anything change, even though the screenwriter's lives have changed significantly. He picks up his paycheck and ends up using most of it to go pay his bills and pay back debts. Gulager takes his family out to eat and gives them the rest of his three thousand dollar paycheck.
"The anti-Gulagers," as Soisson dubs the screenwriters, are having lunch at Le Dome with their lawyers. They're eating up the Hollywood spotlight, as opposed to their director, who is now showing off his cashed check. Michelle Gertz, the Casting Director for the film, meets with the screenwriters and Gulager to discuss casting. The writers were displaced for casting, and they had to go and share offices with others for the pre-production portion of Feast. "They just want name recognition," Ben Affleck explains about the casting.
They had people come in and read for them, to see what they can find in the way of casting. Gertz and Gulager weren't impressed at all by who showed up and what they showed in front of the camera. Gertz is frustrated by the lack of knowledge and feedback Gulager had when dealing with the potential actors and actresses. "They really crave direction and feedback from you," she tells him. She flips when he tells her he wants his family in the film; she tells him that he can't necessarily do that. "The director usually gets to cast people he wants in there," he says. "Ideally, I don't want to bring anybody in for any of the roles." Gertz holds her ground to tell him how the casting actually works. She's very frustrated with him. "I think he still has his plan, there is some friction," she says.
Rona makes a call and tells everyone the creatures look horrible. He doesn't want them to be aliens; he wants them to be better than that. Tunnicliffe is floored, and he doesn't know what to do, and he wants to make whoever he can happy. "I'm not designing them for John Gulager," he muses. He comes back with better drawings, and everyone sits around, not sure what to make of the picture. Ten weeks closer to production, and they don't have a budget or creatures.
"I'm not getting great feedback from their meetings with them," Gertz talks to Leahy about the casting process. So far, nobody wants to come in and audition, because of his lack of confidence. "It's with everyone," she says, nobody has confidence in his ability behind the camera and because of that nobody wants to come in and audition for Feast. Later that day, Gulager's family comes in and reads for various parts. Basically, he wants to get his family into the spotlight and break into the big time, too. As Gertz tries to work with his family, she gets them to do things that Gulager doesn't necessarily want them to do, because he is close to them. She gives him the benefit of the doubt, but it doesn't hold much wait. "What do you feel about nepotism?" Soisson asks. Gulager tries to use other director's as example as to why he should be allowed to hire his family members, but Soisson tells him he's going to have to deal with hiring people who aren't his family.
Ben Ormand, the line producer, comes in to discuss the budget. Rona was going to give them range. Even though reductions to the script, for five million dollars, was too much for a film of this caliber. Out of a $5.3 million budget, it still has to be slashed down by one-third, as said by Soisson. He advises a one week major restructure, he's coming to Los Angeles the next day and have a conversation face-to-face to discuss the project.
At another casting meeting, Gulager gives little feedback. Gertz confronts him about his brother for the "beer guy character." "Usually, you submit a number of actors to a studio for a role," Leahy says, "That's going to be problem with the studio." Gulager sticks to his guns, but nobody is happy about it. He then confronts her based on her audition skills, and she goes back at him for bringing it up three days later. "So, if you don't get your brother where are we going to be with beer guy?" she asks. "I don't know," he shrugs. They tell him he can't do this, but he doesn't want to listen to anybody.
