Sandra Bullock should send Julia Roberts a huge thank you gift.  Bullock gets sloppy seconds but this time it turned out to be golden.  Before Sandra Bullock landed the starring role in “The Blind Side,” suits at 20th Century Fox offered the project to Julia Roberts.  Having already stolen one Oscar from Ellen Burstyn, Roberts could have been the one to steal the Oscar from Gabourey Sidibe.  However, Roberts turned down the to be Oscar winning role.  Then, Fox reportedly wanted to alter the script and change the lead to a male.  Leave it to the studio giants to take a true story and bastardize it to the point beyond recognition. 

The film is based on the true story of Leigh Anne Tuohy, a Caucasian interior decorator in Memphis who adopts a homeless African American teen and assists the young man in achieving academic and athletic success. He is presently a starter for the Baltimore Ravens NFL football team.

All the major Hollywood studios had taken a pass on the movie. Enter Alcon, a small independent production and finance company with a very powerful financial ally named Fred Smith, founder and CEO of Federal Express.  Up to this point, Alcon produced some relatively low budget family friendly films like “My Dog Skip” and “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” which did fairly well at the box-office.

When Bullock was approached for the starring role in “Blind Side,” her standard fee was north of $10 million and 10% of the gross. Who knew it could be so lucrative to star is so many cheesy and terrible romantic comedies like Miss Congeniality 2 and All About Steve.  Alcon was dealing with a limited $35 million movie budget.  But following negotiations, Bullock agreed to take half her normal upfront fee and a larger piece of the box-office take.  Smart move by Sandra since the movie’s staggering box-office will actually put her take higher than $25 million.