As any memoirist knows, the past can grow sweeter over time, but it can also turn bitter. And so it is with the gratitude former NASA engineer and author Homer H. Hickam Jr. expressed for his agent in the acknowledgments that preface Rocket Boys, his richly recalled account of a mid-20th century boyhood in a West Virginia mining town.
But in a civil lawsuit filed in June in Los Angeles, Hickam charges that Freiberg, who died in 2012, breached his “fiduciary duties” to the author by conspiring with the film’s producer, acting on behalf of Universal, to offer the story only to them, when Freiberg was supposed to be shopping it around competitively. In return for this betrayal, and unbeknown to the author, Hickam claims, Freiberg “worked out a deal to receive a percentage of the producer’s fee.”
But, no doubt like most of the audience, I was unaware that October Sky had no connection with Homer Hickam, or that he’d been working on his own musical since 2006 (co-written with Carl Tramon, with a score by Dan Tramon and Diana Belkowski). Or that their show had already been through numerous readings and two productions and was set to open off-Broadway, when, according to the lawsuit, Universal “pulled the rug out.” In June 2015, Universal informed Hickam by letter that it would not approve any additional productions of Rocket Boys “at least” until after October Sky had completed its run at Marriott, which Hickam says frightened off his investors. According to the complaint, a subsequent letter sought an agreement from Hickam that he would never again produce any live stage production based on his life story.
In a brief phone interview last week, Hickam said he can’t discuss the lawsuit, but he’s fighting for the Rocket Boys musical because it “lifts up people and makes them think that they can reach their dreams.”
