I'm so sick of stupidity in Hollywood! (1 Viewer)

[Chad R]

I have been trying to break into Hollywood as a screenwriter for some time now. My writing partner and I currently have a manager (agent), and have signed one or two contracts with production companies (not studios) but have never received one dime for any work we've done.

We're not happy with our current manager and are currently looking for a new agent/manager. We've got scripts out to a few, and recently got one back with this note attached:

"Great script! Great writing! But, historical movies don't sell well. Do you have something more high-concept we could look at?"

Grrrr! Arrrgh! (To steal from Joss)

For the uninitiated, high-concept is one line that can sell easily, like "a teen-age Fatal Attraction" (for those of you like me who suffered through that trailer in front of "Minority Report").

A) This was our high concept movie! It's a big action movie, that does take place during the civil war but isn't about the civil war. And what makes me laugh is that everytime a big historical movie is released it does well! Even the abyssmal "Wild Wild West" made a $100 million! Our current manager similarly refused to handle this script because it's historical!

B) If the script is good, and the reader liked it, why do they think that no one else will! Is there no one in hollywood willing to take any risks anymore? (rhetorical question #1) Is there no one in Hollywood intersted in making good movies, or are they all interested in just making money? (rhetorical question #2)

C) Agents are almost a thing of the past. No one is interested in handling a writer's career. Instead of thinking, "Hey these guys can write, maybe I should sign them and then get them work" like they used to, all of the agents are now managers. The diference is according to California law an agent can't produce a movie but managers can. The problem is that none of these managers want to get the little buck of setting a writer up on rewrites or adaptations, just the big "Scream" like sale for the fast, big cash.

So, next time you think that everything that comes out of hollywood sucks, and like was posted in another thread about screenwriters being brain dead; it isn't the writers, it's the damn executives that control the money.

Thanks for letting me rant. But, I don't feel much better because I'm so sick of stupidity in Hollywood!

 

[Paul Jenkins]

have you considered funding the project yourself, with loans from family, friends and other small business fund raising areas (even VC firms?)

for example, you could start a production company to film/market your first film. Figure out that production costs required to accomplish it and see if you can raise the cash to get it done.

What is the amount of $ you need to finance your film? Is there a way to minimize the financial needs (i.e. limit the amount of special effects, etc.) to keep the budget on the picture small.

There are many, many independent films being done, many on next to no budget. If you have a good idea, and you have the talent and tenacity, I think you can get it done!

 

[Chad R]

Not this picture. Its big, historical and will be expensive.

Many, many, many films are produced independently, financed on credit cards, and never make a splash. It's not worth the financial risk, trust me. For every one "Clerks" there's about a thousand movies you've never heard of that are languishing on shelves, unseen, that not even the Podunk, AK Film Festival will screen.

It's a good suggestion, but just not the route we're looking to take. We don't write small, talky movies. We write big movies that need to go the road we're taking them. It's just a long, glass filled, mine filled road.

 

[Paul Jenkins]

It's a good suggestion, but just not the route we're looking to take. We don't write small, talky movies. We write big movies that need to go the road we're taking them. It's just a long, glass filled, mine filled road.

I see. How much do you estimate it would cost to make the movie?

 

[JasenP]

Chad-

I have never blamed the writers for the plague that has infested Hollywood. As I man who has wriiten several screenplays that will never see the light of day, let alone be seen by anything resembling a human, I can sympathize.

Hollywood is less-populated by risk-takers as it is marketing monsters. If only films could be produced more often as art rather than an investment. What a world that would be.

Maybe you can shop it around yourself. Make up a press kit as if it were going into production and hype the hell out of it yourself.

 

[Jason Seaver]

We don't write small, talky movies. We write big movies that need to go the road we're taking them.

That's all well and good, and I'm not going to speak against grand ambition at all, but wouldn't it make a certain amount of sense to start on the ground floor? Build a reputation and resumé and make contacts with people who can help get the big films made before trying to go all-out?

 

[Matt Pelham]

Yup writers get screwed, bottom line. And when you finally do sell a script someone will go and screw it all up to hell. My uncle wrote the script for the movie Xchange and it was a really intelligent well-written script. When HBO bought it they rewrote it several times to dumb it down, cut out about 1/3 of it and hired Stephen Baldwin in one of the crucial roles. Then they hired a director who further changed things around, added a bunch of spx, explosions, and sex. The movie was absolutely horrible. I couldn't believe how such a promising script and premise could turn into a total crapfest. Oh well.

 

[Jack Briggs]

What Jason said.

Not to be discouraging, but do you have any idea how many scripts come tumbling into every single studio, both major and minor? Work the ropes. You can't go all-out without any credits listed on your resume.

Some people I've known started out by simply getting a job--any job--at a studio, no matter how menial. Many script writers were once script readers.

This is not exactly an easy town to break into.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Not to be mean Chad, but I'm not sure it's stupidity on the part of Hollywood not to give a big budget to an untested screenwriter. Just because you like your screenplays a whole lot, it doesn't mean that the rest of the world is stupid for not wanting to sink a ton of money into them.

DJ

 

[ShawnCoghill]

I am a writer as well,and Yes I started writing a film that would be a semi-large budget film,Im not talking 100 mill,but it would be more like a 30-35 mill.Then I stated thinking,Why am I writing this? I am a new writer and this is my first REAL script,I should start small,so I ditched it for awhile and moved on to another idea I had,and this is on the other end of the spectrum,this is a 50,000 dollar movie,which I am going to make myself,its a great story,but I know there isnt to many companies willing to take it,because its small,too small for big companies,yet I knew my other script was too large. I would do exactly what Paul said earlier,star small.Then move onto the large projects,and you would be more likely to get funding,if they seen your last and dug it.

 

[Paul Jenkins]

is there any chance of getting a preview of the screenplay for HTF members? just curious...

 

[Jordan_E]

Another frustrated screenwriter chimes in, and for every lame remake announcement I see online, I grit my teeth knowing there are many decent scripts out there by First Timers. But, in reality, would you turn down a chance to work on a remake if a producer likes your work and offers you the job? I've written a dozen scripts, a novel, and consider those my 'artistic' representations. I'd take the job. Money is money and I want to get paid like everyone else. Sorry.

 

[DaveF]

It's not worth the financial risk, trust me

And they said "irony" was dead

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Not to be mean Chad, but I'm not sure it's stupidity on the part of Hollywood not to give a big budget to an untested screenwriter. Just because you like your screenplays a whole lot, it doesn't mean that the rest of the world is stupid for not wanting to sink a ton of money into them.

I was thinking the same thing when I read his post, but they said, "Great script! Great writing!" If it was their own inflated opinions of their writing, then they wouldn't have gotten that, would they? Writers aren't marketable anyway, so it's not like they look for respectable names to stick on the poster.

That said, I agree, you need to make connections before you start with the "big stuff." If you're working within the Hollywood system, you may have to churn out some fluff first.

 

[Damin J Toell]

I was thinking the same thing when I read his post, but they said, "Great script! Great writing!" If it was their own inflated opinions of their writing, then they wouldn't have gotten that, would they?

I could see a very reasonable studio exec reading what he believed to be a great script while at the same time believing that it would not be a worthwhile investment for his studio. Great scripts are not necessarily great investments. I don't think it's "stupid" for someone to believe that.

DJ

 

[Tino]

I don't know if the following story will help or hurt.
I have a good friend who has been writing big budget action screenplays ever since he got out of film school. His local agent always told him that he should think small and maybe stick to trying to write for tv. He made his money during this time collecting carts at a local supermarket. He stuck to his guns and continued writing in the same manner.
I introduced him to my brother and his close friend who are aspiring producers
in Hollywood. Long story short, they read one of his screenplays, loved it and forwarded it to a producer friend of theirs who immediately signed my friend to a contract and got him an agent at ICM.
In the past 4 years, he has sold many scripts, made over $3 million dollars, met and worked with Steven Spielberg, Tony Scott, Ted Demme, Jonathan Hensleigh, Roland Joffe, Jerry Bruckheimer and others. However he has yet to see one of his screenplays made into a film. They are all in development and are constantly being re-written by him and other screenwriters, put into turn around at the last minute, and deals falling through just before filming was set to begin, much to his frustration. Jonathan Hensleigh was actually just paid $3 million to re-write ONE of his scripts for Mr. Bruckheimer.
He said he would work for free if he was guaranteed that one of these films would be made.
He hates Hollywood and how writers are treated, and is sometimes barred from writing meeting on scripts that he has written! And although he is well compensated beyond what he ever thought he would be, he longs to have a film made.
I guess my point is that unfortunately there are many talented writers out there who will never get the chance that my friend got because the right people didn't see his work. My advice is to do what you know, get a new agent and keep plugging away.
Good luck.

 

[Chad R]

Studios don't care who wrote the script usually. You don't have to be a big name to write big movies. Studios will trust our agent/manager who will have the clout needed to get it made. Usually, they take the good script from the new writer and then get one of their bigger names to rewrite it. That's fine, I'm willing to work my way up the ladder.

And they said "irony" was dead

The difference is, that the money guys in Hollywood can take that risk and still eat. I can't. I've worked on these independent movies for just about eeryone I went to film school with, and have just seen everyone of them go nowhere. I've seen too many frineds go into serious debt.

The whole point to this was the fact that they loved the script, but it couldn't be dumbed down enough to sell to the masses. I'm just sick of them seriously underestimating audiences.

I know that persistence is the key. We're serious and we're not giving up, it's just frustrating.

 

[Butch C]

My advise...save your A list stuff for later and pump out thier "high concept" crap...when you have enough money and connections hit em with your real art and it might be made...even Picasso sold art just to get rent money

 

[Jordan_E]

You read my mind there, Butch C! I even have a low/no budget horror script I'm holding back to shoot myself if/when I make enough money from writing, just to scratch that "director's itch." But the way things are going, that's many moons in the future.

 

[Todd Hochard]

but wouldn't it make a certain amount of sense to start on the ground floor?

Isn't that exactly what the Wachowski Bros. did? With Bound, then The Matrix? I've heard the idea for The Matrix was around prior to Bound, but they had to "prove" themselves.

Get another agent/manager. And another. And another, if necessary. If it's that good, someone is bound to pick it up.

Full Sail grad?