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

[Chad R]

Valencia (A.S. Film) and UCF (B.A. English Literature) grad actually.

We actually have a smaller, high concept movie that's been through the ringer already. It's been through the development process three times now and countless number of drafts. It always gets our foot in the door (which is what its designed to do) but never gets picked up for cash because vampire movies don't do well, even though there always seems to be about three a year. Another sign of the stupidity in Hollywood. The problem is that this script has been played out having been around so long. That's why we've moved on to other scripts. But now we're told it's great, but we still won't buy it.

It's frustrating as hell. But I love movies enough to hack it out.

 

[Matt Pelham]

Hey Chad, I'm at UCF right now actually! Need some help?

 

[GerardoHP]

Chad, much of the advise here is very realistic and could be extremely helpful to you, primarily the "start-small" and the "play-by-the-rules" ideas. Yes, money is the bottom line and no one, especially Hollywood people, likes to take any chances with their money or careers. As one is often reminded of here in Hollywood, it's called show-business and not show-show for a reason.

 

[David Rogers]

I think the reference to the Wachowski Brothers is very excellent relative to your described situation. It's on the Matrix Reloaded disc (the extra 'extras' disc that was put out a few months ago, in the interview footage); they talk about how they'd sold THEM (studio and money dudes) on Matrix, but THEY were unsure due to the amount of money required for Matrix. So the Wachowskis did Bound to 'prove' they could do a movie and have it make money, have it be good, etc...

For the record, since you aired it publically; I think you should "start small" too. Making a Braveheart or Titanic level production first is probably too much on one roll, your first roll. Do something smaller that can be turned around from paper to film-in-a-theater in a year or two and make a buck. I expect you'll get more interest for your expensive projects then.

 

[Chad R]

The Wawchowski brothers is an intersting story, but they were demanding to be able to direct, we're not. We're more than willing to write scripts first to build up enough clout to direct if ever (a long shot inside a long shot).

The best advice we ever got (and the best we have to give) is that don't try to tailor your scripts to a market. Just write something you'd want to see on screen, that way you'll write a great script.

We're not selling to studios right now, because they look at stuff submitted through agents. That's what we're doing now, looking for a new agent since we're unhappy with our current one. And when I say unhappy, I mean that they just don't have the time right now to devote to us. We love them to death and they've been great to us so far and we'll be leaving them on good terms.

The agents carry the clout for us. Many big movies have been sold on spec, by first time writers. There's very little risk in trusting a new writer because they can always take the idea and send it to a more experienced writer to rewrite. And honestly, that's fine with us. We understand the nature of the business. We're willing to start at the bottom floor.

The whole point to this was to vent some frustration over being told that the script was great, but that the agent wouldn't try to sell it. There's no risk involved for an agent to try and take the script, he admitted to loving, and trying to set it up at a studio. That's what's frustrating.

 

[David Rogers]

I'm a writer myself, and personally, I think you're either crazy or determined, to try to be a writer in the Hollywood system.

How many projects have ONE writer, and then shoot and release that script?

Versus how many projects have a writer, usually a few, initially, then go through round after round after round of rewrites?

I couldn't stand to have that many people go through my work changing stuff at whim. I'd *BE* the next movie of the week after I grabbed something heavy and chased after their skulls or something!

 

[Steve_Tk]

I sometimes wonder how something like Jason X or Kung Pow (no offense but to me not even worth my dollar at the dollar theater, better to spend that time mowing the grass) could actually make it to the theaters, these were a waste of time and it would seem that anyone that helped make these movies would think, "wow this is really horrible". I know there are hundreds of scripts and people out there that could make much better movies, so how do these horrible movies make it?

 

[Damin J Toell]

I sometimes wonder how something like Jason X or Kung Pow (no offense but to me not even worth my dollar at the dollar theater, better to spend that time mowing the grass) could actually make it to the theaters, these were a waste of time and it would seem that anyone that helped make these movies would think, "wow this is really horrible". I know there are hundreds of scripts and people out there that could make much better movies, so how do these horrible movies make it?

Because they're relatively cheap to make and they do well on video.

DJ

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I think it's time to set up a "frustrated screenwriter" forum here at HTF.
One of our regulars here optioned a script to a major studio once, but it didn't get made due to an estimated $130 million budget. Point being, he at least got paid something for a first-time script that was a big action flick. (Then again, it was pretty high-concept. . .)
One of my sister's former clients signed a 6-script deal with Miramax, wrote 'em and got 7 figures for 'em, and none of 'em got made. (I believe he's now head writer for one of the big-name soaps.)
I'm working on two scripts, one's a sci-fi epic (but not really high concept--fat chance!), the other is a much more down-to-earth adaptation of an Elmore Leonard type novel (written by a friend). Right now I'm concentrating on the adaptation. I was laid off 7 months ago and haven't been able to find a decent job, so now I'm selling my house and moving to Florida temporarily, where I can afford to live cheap while I finish these projects.
Good luck to us all!!!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Oh yeah, one more thing. . .I thought the first 30 minutes of Kung Pow were absolutely hysterical! Hit-or-miss after that, though.

 

[Jordan_E]

The best of luck, Aaron! I was able to take a full year off from working due to the wife's position at work, but now we're expecting out first born and full time employment is calling. I managed to write a number of scripts and will continue to try getting them "Out There," but I'm not expecting much. I wrote, I enjoyed what I wrote, and will continue to write.

 

[Keith Yatsuhashi]

While reading the comments about the Wachowski brothers, all I could think about was Peter Jackson. Damn he's talented. Thank God this is the guy making Rings a reality. But he started out pretty small too.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Thanks Jordan! And best of luck to you with your future movie star!

 

[Chris Lock]

Chad, have you thought of publishing your Civil War epic (or any of your stuff) as a novel first? You could always sell the film rights later. Having a book published can't hurt your resume, I'd think. If it's a hit, some studio might seek you out.

Aaron, what part of FL are you moving to? Did you ever get your snowblower from The Price Is Right?

 

[Chad R]

For clarifiction: this isn't an epic. It takes place during the Civil War, but there's never one battle on screen. It's not a great big movie. It's just a bigger movie than I could produce on a mcro budget. Aside from one major sequence (which isn't vital to the story and easily removed), everything is on a small scale to specifically be more attractive to the number crunchers.

And, actually we have done just that, turn it into a novel, with another script. It's having just as difficult a time weaving its way through the pitfalls of the publishing world as the script had in Hollywood.

Agents are famuous for offering no feedback. 99.99% just return your work with a simple "not interested" (that's why it was extra frustrating when this one guy had to tell us how good he thought it was, but still not interested. What's interesting is that we got a comment from a friend of Dale's, who didn't know anything about the screenplays and just thought this was a first effort book, told us that it seemed too much like a movie to be a good book.

Go figure.

 

[Jordan_E]

I tried the opposite approach. I wrote a novel years ago and tried cutting a 400+ page story into a 120 page screenplay. It was a terrible experience, taking out so many subplots that I knew it wouldn't work (Sean Cunningham Productions told me so in very unkind words). Tried a half-hearted attempt to find a publisher, but have been working on the screenwriting side of the writing world lately to concentrate on the novel.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Hey Chris,
I'm moving to the West Palm area. How far is St. Pete?
I eventually got the snowblower, in kind of a funny way though. I got a note on my door one day that UPS had tried to deliver a package (this was over a year later, after I'd given up on ever getting the thing), but it didn't say what it was or who it was from. I called UPS, and they couldn't give me any info at all. I said that I'm never home when they deliver stuff (and you can't pick up at their facility on weekends), so they offered to reroute the package to my office. The next day, I get a call from my *old* office that there's a snowblower in the lobby with my name on it!!! I had no way of getting it home, since it was too big to fit in my car, so I sold it to the head of one of the securities desks and let him worry about it.

 

[Jason_Els]

The scarey part is I have an awesome idea for an historical screenplay and hearing this only confirms my worst fears and fears I can't even imagine. Oh great....

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Jason,

To paraphrase, the only thing you have to fear is NOT WRITING!

There are zillions of people out there writing screenplays, and most of them suck. But who cares? Maybe yours will be GREAT, you just have to WRITE IT and find out! And you know what, even if it doesn't come out the way you hope it will, you'll always be able to say that you wrote your own screenplay, which is more than most people can ever be proud of!

Grab yourself a screenwriting book like Syd Field's or Lew Hunter's that walks you through the process, and plug in your own idea. The hardest part is getting started--don't let other people's frustrations get in your way.