WGA Interviews Twilight Screenwriter Rosenberg
An excellent interview with the screenwriter who adapted the Twilight books for the big screen, thanks to WGA. Enjoy…
In her tenure as sole scripter on the entire Twilight franchise, Melissa Rosenberg has experienced the screenwriting equivalent of the heady, harrowing arc of Bella Swan, the beloved human heroine at the center of the spectacularly popular teen vampire bestsellers-turned-blockbusters. Even as the franchise’s third installment, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, hits megaplexes everywhere and Rosenberg slogs through a marathon junket promoting the film, she’s already neck-deep in adapting the fourth and final book, the 900-page bone-rattler Breaking Dawn, into two separate films simultaneously. The twin closer has already set Twihards across the globe into a frenzy of speculation as to how the film will depict Bella’s visceral, nearly fatal half-human-half-vampire birth and her (SPOILER ALERT!) transformation to immortality.
Rosenberg has maintained her breakneck pace since late 2007, two months before the writers strike, when she was tapped to adapt Stephenie Meyer’s maiden book in the series, Twilight. Not only did she turn that first script around in a little more than two months to beat the strike deadline, but she’s written the franchise while juggling her co-EP-ship of the hit Showtime series Dexter. Time and the enormity of writing two scripts at once for Breaking Dawn drove her to leave Dexter behind, a show she counts as the best of her television career.
In a junket day chat with the Writers Guild of America, West Web site, Rosenberg discussed this new penultimate book and film, Eclipse, which grapples with Bella’s choice between her vampire love Edward and her werewolf friend Jacob, the challenges its action-heavy third act presented, and how she feels about life after Dexter and Twilight.
You’ve said you thought this current film, Eclipse, would be easy at first. Was that partially because you knew Breaking Dawn, your two-part adaptation of the final films of the Twilight series, was coming?
That was actually from the outset, separate from Breaking Dawn. Looking at the first three books, it seemed like it would be easier just because it had all this action. Of course, that was wrong. Thinking anything in writing is going to be easy is always…
A mistake?
Always a mistake. It is never easy. Writing is hard. If it wasn’t, everyone would do it, right?
True. So Eclipse has a lot of action, but it’s mainly in the third act.
Exactly.
Tell me what you had to do with those first two acts to lead up to that big conflict.
It was about taking that threat and building on it to the third act conflict. The entire book is from Bella’s point of view, so anything that happens in the book, she hears about after the fact, [when] she’s not actually present. With the script, I don’t have that restriction. I could actually go away from her point of view occasionally, so I was able to build a few of those scenes that she hears about after the fact and invent a few to help build to this conflict, which, hopefully, helps to keep that sense of threat impending and growing throughout [the first two acts].
This Twilight phenomenon has happened really fast, but it’s also been, what, three and half years now that you’ve been ensconced in this?
Yeah. It was about two months before the strike.
In all that time, has your process for breaking down these books remained the same?
I’ve used the same system that I’ve had from the beginning. The only thing that’s changed a little is that I’ve involved Stephenie Meyer a little more in my process. I’ve used her as a resource more and more as I’ve gone along… and our relationship has developed over that time.
You must start to feel some sense of ownership as an author, too…
I’ve certainly become very invested, but I give all props to Stephenie. I would not have the career I now have without her, so I take nothing from that, certainly.
Of course. And going back for a minute, can you encapsulate what your process has been for these breaking these books?
The first thing I do is read the book and sit back and let what comes to mind pop. What I’m looking for there is structure; what emerges as the mid-point, what the arcs of the characters are and how best to structure them. I let the scenes wash over me to decide what the big moments are.
Then I start building from there. The way I do that is to put into a very abbreviated few pages what the key scenes in the book are, chapter by chapter. Once I have my structure of what the basic acts are, I start filling in the muscle and sinew.
Did Eclipse take comparatively less or more time than the others?
Well, to some extent, it’s [been a matter of] how much time I have. I did have a little bit more time with Eclipse. With Twilight, we were fighting the strike deadline, so I slammed that one out. With New Moon I had more time, but I was juggling Dexter at the same time.
How fast did you do Twilight?
I think I outlined for about a month, while simultaneously working on Dexter, and then it was five weeks to write the script.
Geez.
Yeah.
And then with New Moon you had…?
New Moon was over the course of about six months, but you gotta understand, that was two days a week.
Right, because you were doing Dexter…
So it was two days a week times six months.
No one’s sayin’ you’re a slacker here, believe me.
And then Eclipse was done when Dexter was on hiatus… I did rewrites when it came back.
So for this one you were luxuriating in time, relatively speaking?
Yeah, although I had to take a few months off to just regenerate a little.
Did it actually make it harder, having the luxury of a little time and being able to focus on just the one script, not being completely under the gun?
Well, I was still under the gun with Eclipse because I knew Dexter was coming back, and I had to get it done. But with Breaking Dawn now, I have that for the first time. I left Dexter. I had to knowing that Breaking Dawn was probably going to be two movies. I can do one Twilight and Dexter, but I couldn’t do two.
So I very sadly left Dexter, because that show was my favorite television experience to date, and I’ve had many.
But it’s true that, when I don’t have time pressures, I don’t use my time as wisely. It’s a so much nicer way to write, and it allows me time for creative contemplation, which is great, but sometimes I find myself just kind of surfing the Web, and I’m like, “Wow, three hours just passed.”
On the one hand, perhaps I’m coming up with more ideas because I have time. Maybe the work is better. Then again, maybe it’s not because I’m not as disciplined.
And looking ahead to Breaking Dawn, where are you with it now?
Deep in the center [laughs].
Now that you’re in the midst of this final couplet of films and the end is in sight, what are your feelings contemplating this being done?
Well, it’s interesting. For the past four years I’ve been writing Dexter and one Twilight or another. Both projects have been amazing experiences, the best of my career. I know both of these worlds really well, I know the characters’ voices, [and] I’m comfortable living in their worlds. That has been hard-won. I’ve spent many, many years trying to find a home, and then I found two.
So that’s hard to leave. It’s a nice feeling; confidence is a nice feeling. And yet I’m excited to see what’s next – nervous about it, but very excited to see what I can do next.
WGA Announces Final Board Candidates
No additional candidates have joined the 18 already battling for eight board slots for the Writers Guild of America West, according to Variety.
The guild announced the final list Friday, a month after the 18 candidates approved by its nominating committee were disclosed. Other candidates could have emerged via petition but none did so.
Showrunners Matthew Weiner of “Mad Men,” David Shore of “House” and Christopher Keyser of “Lonestar” are among the nominees along with incumbents David A. Goodman (”Family Guy”), Mark Gunn, Katherine Fugate (”Valentine’s Day”), Karen Harris, Kathy Kiernan and Aaron Mendelson.
Other candidates are Robin Schiff, Cheryl Heuton, Timothy J. Lea, Mick Betancourt (”Law and Order: SVU”), Erich Hoeber (”Battleship”), Erica Montolfo (”The Game”), Matt Pyken (”NCIS: Los Angeles”), Naomi Foner (”Bee Season”) and Steve Skrovan (”Everybody Loves Raymond”).
The guild will host a candidates night town hall forum at its headquarters Sept. 7, and announce election results Sept. 17. The elections usually draw roughly 20% participation from the 9,000 members.
With the WGA’s contract expiring May 1, results of the voting will be closely scrutinized. WGA West voters narrowly elected John Wells last fall over Elias Davis in what was seen as a turn toward moderation following the four-year tenure of WGA West president Patric Verrone — highlighted by the bitter 100-day strike of 2007-08.
Verrone was termed out of the presidency last year, but received the most votes of any board candidate. He and his allies have retained control of that panel, including VP Tom Schulman, secretary-treasurer and current board members Goodman, Howard A. Rodman and Dan Wilcox.
WSF Member Chris Vig Makes it to the Quarterfinals
One of our members, Chris “Stick” Vig, has made it into the quarterfinals of the Chicago Screenwriters Network Contest with his screenplay entitled “Kings Murder Still”.
logline: After murdering his abusive coach, a gifted, small-town basketball player struggles to lead his eclectic team to the State Championship and prevent a sex-obsessed, rage-filled detective from finding the truth.
Good luck, Chris!
The Life of a Rank and File Screenwriter
Another excellent Variety article that every aspiring screenwriter should read. As a writer who is currently under assignment, there is much truth to what is said here and writers need to know what to expect. Although thankfully thus far I haven’t had to write a draft for free. Yet. Enjoy…
Rewrite gigs are a gold mine for the top tier of scribes, but for many other writers, a twist on an old motto rings true: Will work for free.
For writers who have sold a script or landed an assignment, studios have gone from making deals that included a traditional first draft, two sets of revisions and a polish to what are called “one-step” deals. It’s essentially payment for that first draft, with fees for additional work left to be determined.
In a landscape of waning producing deals and fewer pictures in the pipeline, writers say it’s become especially difficult to insist on getting paid for rewrites — even if they end up doing more than a dozen drafts. Their fear: not getting a next assignment.
“Jobs have become so few and far between that writers are willing to keep on writing until they’ve gotten it to the finish line,” says one manager, who, like many, declined to be identified for fear of antagonizing studio execs. “When a writer really wants to be the writer on a project, they’re willing to take a lot of abuse. One of mine did 70 different rewrites on a franchise film.”
One veteran writer says it’s commonly accepted that scibes do seven drafts but get paid for two or three.
“The way you know is when they say something like, ‘As you can see, we want a lot done,’?” he notes. “They know that you wind up making the equivalent of your fees in residuals, so it’s in your interest to get it done.
“If you’re like most of us, you don’t know when your next check is coming.”
The problem is nothing new. The Writers Guild of America tried to address the issue in the 1990s, when times were more robust, but it couldn’t curb the practice.
While there has always been some leeway for a certain level of free rewriting and polishing, Daniel Petrie Jr., former president of the Writers Guild of America West, believes the problem has worsened.
“When I came up in the business, there was an understanding of what producers would feel was appropriate to ask of writers in terms of a courtesy pass that would take a reasonable amount of time. But that’s all gone out the window,” says Petrie, whose credits include “Beverly Hills Cop” and “The Big Easy.”
Younger and less experienced writers are more susceptible, particularly on projects with multiple producers.
One scribe, who’s been on the staff of two TV series and has a feature going into production this month, said she felt like a “rented mule” on her first gig. “There were 13 rewrites because the producers didn’t know what they wanted,” she recalls. “I was killing myself, and my agent finally demanded that I stop.”
The bottom line is that with studios making fewer movies and cutting back on producing deals, even writers with a proven track record are having to work on spec and generate their own work.
“What used to happen is that once you sold a script to a studio, you’d then have enough heat to be able to book open writing assignments for a year,” one manager recalls. “Those gigs are much less available, and they tend to be for material that they’ve already invested in rather than new development.”
Guild leaders don’t have much to say nowadays about free rewrites. The issue is not mentioned on the WGA’s website, other than a cursory general instruction in its contract enforcement section to contact the guild’s legal department if a signatory pays late or fails to pay; WGA West president John Wells cited the approaching contract negotiations with the congloms as a reason for not commenting.
But free rewrites were once a huge issue. Leaders complained loudly about members being victimized by what they described as the widespread practice of delivering multiple drafts at no fee before their official “first” drafts were submitted to the studio.
During the 1990s, the WGA included contract proposals spelling out compensation and rules for “producer passes,” but got nowhere as Nick Counter, the late president of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, responded that there didn’t need to be written rules; writers should “just say no” to free rewrites.
In 1994, the WGA persuaded the companies to identify in a scribe’s deal memo the person authorized to request rewrites, but that didn’t solve the problem in the guild’s eyes. In a 1997 survey, the WGA found that two-thirds of respondents had been asked to perform free rewrites; 85% said it was a priority issue.
While Petrie was WGA West president in 1999, he said in a member newsletter that free rewrites had evolved from members doing a “favor” for producers into a scenario in which writers became expected to work for free.
So the WGA filed arbitration claims in 1999 on behalf of writers, covering 42 projects, alleging that the studios had violated the basic agreement on such scripts as “Practical Magic,” “Heart N Soul,” “Varsity Blues” and “Black Dog.” The idea was to make the WGA, rather than individual writers, the “bad guy” in the dispute.
But the arbitrator rejected the grievance after 35 days of hearings, noting that studios were not liable for the behavior of producers, who are usually a writer’s point of contact yet aren’t signatories to the minimum basic agreement. The studios are. Arbitrator Anita Christine Knowlton issued a ruling in March 2004 that sided entirely with the studios, noting that the process is highly individualized and echoing the admonishment from Counter at the bargaining table: Writers can “just say no.”
Six years later, Petrie still believes Knowlton erred in her ruling and made the situation worse — particularly given the combination of tightened development spending and individual writers not wanting to get bad reputations by refusing to do more work for free.
“I think she misunderstood how the business works,” he says. “It’s a very difficult issue because everyone’s work process is different, so it’s very hard to find a bright line rule and have an enforcement mechanism.”
Marshall Herskovitz, president of the Producers Guild of America, laments the prevalence of studios opting to pay writers via “one-step” deals rather than multistep arrangements.
“It’s a reflection of the studios feeling like they aren’t getting enough for what they paid for,” he says. “The studios tend to view that money as wasted development rather than the price that they have to pay for getting the really amazing stories into production. There’s so little development going on that I’d rather see someone at least get hired, even if it is for only one step, because the whole process forces writers to work on spec, which is what the studios want.”
Another reason writers keep writing for free stems from the sheer volume of competition: There are more than 80,000 submissions annually to the WGA West’s intellectual property registry.
And one veteran scribe says the notion that a writer will “just say no” to a free rewrite is naive at best.
“If you’ve worked with a particular producer three or four times, you’re going to figure out a way to do it because you want to keep working,” he says. “Ultimately, it gets down to an argument over what’s a polish and what’s a rewrite and how many producers passes are there, so if you’re not concerned with getting rehired, you say, ‘Talk to my agent.’
“I’ve never done that. I’ve prided myself as a guy who gets it to the finish line.”
Scribes Reap Rewrite Ritches
An excellent Variety article that every aspiring screenwriter should read. Enjoy…
Once upon a time, the ultimate Hollywood ambition was to direct.
Nowadays, clients are more likely to tell their reps: “What I really want to do is polish scripts.”
For Hollywood’s dozen or so top-tier script doctors, that means commanding $250,000-$300,000 a week, being booked months in advance and keeping their efforts largely cloaked in anonymity.
Script rewrites have been part of the filmmaking process since the days when Irving Thalberg kept a stable of scribes competing for his affections at MGM. But in recent years, the trend of tapping the industry’s most expensive writers to polish studio pictures has become a high-end cottage industry as the majors increasingly bank on tentpoles and seek the extra bit of insurance that comes from getting the second (or third, or fourth) opinion of writers they trust.
And it’s not just studio execs. Stars such as Will Smith, Matt Damon and Vince Vaughn have their go-to writers who are brought in, at some point, on virtually all of their projects.
The current crop of in-demand rewriters is mostly male and differ in their levels of experience. Some have Oscars, which usually brings a salary bump. All are paid handsomely for polishes. David Koepp, Hollywood’s reigning top-paid scribe for penning such scripts as “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and “War of the Worlds,” also leads a pack of script surgeons that includes John August, Jamie Vanderbilt, Aline Brosh McKenna, Steve Zaillian, Scott Frank, Akiva Goldsman, Brian Helgeland, Simon Kinberg, Dana Fox, Eric Roth, Gary Ross, John Logan, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, Paul Attanasio, Allan Loeb, Aaron Sorkin, Susannah Grant and Ron Bass.
The downside, of course, is that so many hands on a screenplay can leave the voice of a picture disjointed at best and schizophrenic at worst. The results of test screenings and focus groups play a big part in driving the urgency for last-minute rewrites on pics that have already reached the post-production stage. And while even A-list screenwriters have had to endure rewrites, there’s a hush-hush aspect to these jobs that makes the whole issue something that few in the creative community want to address. (A number of writers contacted for this story declined to speak for the record, as did numerous studio execs and talent reps.)
“This current system is broken,” says one lit manager. “You have your midlevel writer responsible for most of the screenplay, and then the studio pays a ton of money for someone else to come in and own it, and it doesn’t make for a cohesive thing.”
For top-shelf scribes, however, the rewrite market is a welcome growth area at a time when film and TV salaries are getting slashed and studios are cutting back on their development spending and release slates. For the lucky few, it’s steady work that’s outrageously lucrative.
During the past year, studio fave Scott Frank came in to punch up dialogue on everything from Universal’s remake of “The Thing” to Fox’s upcoming Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz starrer “Knight and Day.”
Dana Fox, another scribe high on the script polishing food chain, also did work on “Knight and Day” and has become the favored script doctor for thesp Vaughn. Will Smith relies on Goldsman, and Damon counts on George Nolfi for 11th-hour dialogue tweaks.
Like talent, studios keep their favorite writers on speed dial. For instance, Sony frequently works with Zaillian, who was brought in during post-production for less than a week of uncredited emergency work on the upcoming Angelina Jolie starrer “Salt.” Though Helgeland and Terry George had previously contributed to the Kurt Wimmer-penned screenplay before lensing began, Zaillian “did the Hail Mary at the end,” as one insider described it, by writing material for reshoots.
20th Century Fox is partial to McKenna and Kinberg, who are known for their respective specialties: romantic comedy dialogue and action sequences. The two scribes did uncredited rewrite work on the Steve Carell-Tina Fey starrer “Date Night.”
Some of the most frequently tapped polishers haven’t had official onscreen credits in years. Jim Uhls, who has only one screenplay credit since penning “Fight Club” more than a decade ago, works regularly as an uncredited gun-for-hire. Shane Black, who once earned the distinction as Hollywood’s highest-paid screenwriter, also is high on many studio wish-lists for being a closer.
But as rewriting becomes the norm, some biz veterans wonder if it is worth the extra time and expense.
In the view of one production prexy, the answer is “sometimes.” But the exec cautions “sometimes you have to spend even more money to fix the problem created by the script doctor you just hired. It’s a crapshoot.”
Another production topper explains that spending big on late-stage revisions is a necessity.
“Once a movie is greenlit, you’re no longer spending development dollars, so it’s not speculative spending,” the exec says. “You’re now making an investment on making this the best movie it can be. And at that point in the process, that last 10% of the script is the most important.”
Though the job seems ideal — big bucks and no fingerprints if a film flops at the B.O. — experienced rewriters note that they face unique pressure to perform, which makes them earn every penny.
“You have a director, a studio head and an actor who are all freaked out when you come on to a project for a couple of weeks of work,” said one busy rewriter. “Their careers are on the line, and they’re looking to you to save this f—ing thing.”
Furthermore, the writer said that a two-week $500,000 gig can often turn into six weeks or even two months.
“I’ve never turned it in and said, ‘Good luck with that. Bye,” the scribe explains. “It’s not like it’s two weeks and you can go to Europe for rest of the year. I’m on call. And they will call you constantly. And I’ll always do the extra work because you never want to burn out a studio.”
Manager-producer JC Spink likened it to a high-wire act. “For that kind of money, you have to be able to close consistently,” he explains. “You don’t get many strikes for that kind of money.”
Some writers, particularly those who are successful in selling original screenplays, might look down on these assignments. But one agent bristles at that attitude.
“I tell my writers, ‘Alexander Payne did rewrites on ‘Jurassic Park 3.’ You’re not above it,’ ” the agent quips.
In fact, Payne and partner Jim Taylor became two of U’s favorite comedy script doctors. The pair came in on a polish assignment for the Adam Sandler vehicle “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” wound up overhauling the script and eventually shared screenplay credit with the pic’s original scribe, Barry Fanaro.
Beyond the pool of established screenwriters, there are plenty of TV scribes who put in uncredited time on features. As studios become more budget-conscious, TV writers have become an inexpensive (by comparison) alternative. One “baby” TV scribe recently signed up for a three-week rewrite gig with a studio that couldn’t afford to throw big rewrite money at a particular project. The writer earned a mere $1,500 a day but delivered a fresh perspective.
“TV workers know how to work under extreme pressure, and they are totally collaborative,” said one production prexy.
Sitcom writers have long picked up extra coin during summer hiatus periods doing polishes and punch-ups on scripts. For years, the “Friends” writers room was famously the go-to place for any studio with a comedy script in need of more yuks. Nowadays, scribes on “The Office” and “30 Rock,” among other hit series, have no shortage of offers.
But not all TV writers come cheap. “Arrested Development” creator Mitch Hurwitz is among the notable showrunners who has pulled down big bucks for his uncredited labor on feature scripts.
Despite earning up to $60,000 a day, the gig isn’t right for everyone.
As another lit manager notes, “You don’t see Diablo Cody doing polishes. Her voice is too original, and if she came in and punched up dialogue on someone else’s script, it would probably sound out of place.”
Bullock and Reynolds Reunite for “Most Wanted”
Sandra Bullock is reuniting with Ryan Reynolds for the action comedy “Most Wanted” for Universal Pictures, according to Variety.
Anne Fletcher, who directed Bullock and Reynolds in last summer’s box office hit “The Proposal,” is in negotiations to helm. “Most Wanted” is being produced by “The Proposal” producers, Mandeville Films’ Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman.
“Most Wanted” is based on a pitch from writer Pete Chiarelli and Universal’s keeping the logline under wraps. But it’s understood Bullock and Reynolds will portray a couple on the lam, with Bullock playing a criminal while Reynolds plays a federal marshal — with both forced to go on the run together when they’re ambushed on the way to court.
Project, which is in early development, could be Bullock’s follow-up to her Oscar-winning turn in “The Blind Side” if a script comes together quickly and skeds align.
Reynolds and Jonathon Komack-Martin are exec producing through their Dark Trick banner. U’s Erik Baiers will oversee project.
Bullock, Reynolds and Chiarelli are repped by CAA; Chiarelli’s managed by Mosaic. Fletcher is handled by UTA.
Hollywood Myths and Hoaxes: Connections
Here’s a great article courtesy of The Writer’s Store, written by Richard Walter…
You’re heard it a gazillion times: it’s not what you know but who you know.
Talent, schmalent, one screenplay is pretty much like another. Don’t oodles of lousy scripts get produced? We’ve all seen movies that were worse than one or another of our own unsold screenplays. How can it be that a bad script gets shot and my superior work remains on the shelf? Clearly, the explanation can only be that what counts in Hollywood is not the quality of writing but the right parties, schmoozing up the right people, making the right connections.
In fact, this is the opposite of the truth. I know personally all kinds of well-connected writers who cannot manage to sell a screenplay. On campus at UCLA in our graduate screenwriting program, on the other hand, I see brand new writers break through every season. The truth about Hollywood, as hard as it may be for skeptics to acknowledge, is that it is a meritocracy. Newcomers succeed on the basis of the worthy scripts they write.
I moderated a screenwriting panel years ago in Maui (am I a lucky guy or what?) in which big shot screenwriters discussed writing issues. The panelists were Carrie Fisher (beyond her career as an actor, she has also substantial success as a writer), Steven DeSouza, James L. Brooks, Ron Bass, and Nick Kazan. I pointed out that prior to their success only one of these writers had any connections at all. That would have been, of course, Carrie, who told the crowd that her connections held her back for years, actually militated against her success, served not as support but obstacles to overcome. All the others achieved what they achieved starting from scratch.
If your writing career at the moment wallows in scratch, therefore, you are in good company.
Every successful writer without exception, no matter how adored, rich, envied, lauded and accomplished, was once as anonymous as you.
Cynics love to quote Dorothy Parker’s timeless line: “Hollywood is the one place on earth where you could die of encouragement.”
My answer appears in my 1999 novel Escape From Film School: “Hollywood is the one place on earth where you start at the top and work your way down.”
Your best credit is no credits. Exactly as movies romanticize and idealize the human condition, so also does the movie business. Producers can project upon a blank slate the romanticized, idealized vision they seek. They cannot do that with a writer who has development deals that didn’t develop, movies that got made that never got distributed, or movies that got distributed but bombed at the box office. This is the only business I know where inexperience trumps experience.
At the first meeting of my regular UCLA screenwriting workshop, in which each student has ten weeks to write a feature-length script, I brag to the attendees about all the movies, not to mention movie franchises, which have emerged from scripts written in these very same classes. Forgive me for bragging, but it’s the writers’ fault; they give me so much to brag about.
After this orgy of boasting, I caution the writers: “Please don’t try to sell the script that you write in this class.” I follow this with what some call my characteristic long pause.
Is it not a contradiction? I brag about The Highlander and Backdraft and Ace Ventura and more, projects that grew out of assignments in my own and other instructors’ classes, and then instruct the writers not to try to sell the work they write in the class.
There is, in fact, no contradiction whatsoever. I do not tell the writers not to sell their work. I tell them not to TRY to sell their work. Indeed, fervently I hope and pray they do sell their work. If they do, I’ll add it to the list of projects to brag about at future such sessions.
There is a Zen line regarding archers: You can’t hit a target by aiming at it.
To sell a screenplay you have to forget totally about the sale and simply wallow in the process. You have to do all those California things: follow your bliss, go with the flow. I’ve never known a writer who was not surprised by a twist or turn in the story, a line of dialogue spoken by a character that emerged wholly by surprise.
Isn’t life like that? The late writer/director UCLA film school grad Colin Higgins (Silver Streak and Foul Play among others) told me years ago that when he was still a film student, he prayed to win first prize in the Goldwyn competition, which would have provided enough money for him to do nothing but write for a year. He would not have to suffer the distraction of a day job. Alas, he won only second prize, which required him to seek part-time work. He chose the perfect job for a writer or actor: working for a swimming pool cleaning company.
At the first house whose pool he cleaned, an upscale home in the flats of Beverly Hills, he noticed a man sitting at the end of the pool beneath a beach umbrella, reading a script. Clearly, this was the owner of the house. Just as clearly, he was a movie producer. Indeed, this neighborhood positively overflowed with producers. Colin got to chatting with him. He told him that he was a screenwriter himself, and persuaded him to read his second-prize Goldwyn-winning screenplay. The producer ended up making the movie. It established Colin’s impressive, productive career.
Some people will remonstrate, “But isn’t that just another example of connections, of meeting the right people?” They focus on the meeting and overlook the fact that the script happened to be Harold and Maude. Had Colin given the producer an unworthy script, we would not be recounting this story.
“Just think, Richie,” Colin said to me, “If my dream had come true, if I had won first prize, I’d be cleaning swimming pools today.”
The lesson: stay open to the surprises. This is true not only regarding the surprises in your screenplay but also your life’s narrative.
It’s not who you know, or even what you know.
Ultimately, it’s what you write.
Richard Walter is a celebrated storytelling guru, movie industry expert, and longtime chairman of UCLA’s legendary graduate program in screenwriting. A screenwriter and published novelist, his latest book, Essentials of Screenwriting, will be available June 29, 2010. Professor Walter lectures throughout North America and the world and serves as a court-authorized expert in intellectual property litigation.
Hirsch to Face “Darkest Hour”
Emile Hirsch has signed on to star in the supernatural film “The Darkest Hour” for New Regency and Summit Entertainment, according to Variety.
Described as thriller in the vein of “28 Days Later,” the $40 million pic revolves around a group of kids struggling to survive in Russia after an alien invasion.
Chris Gorak (”Right at Your Door”) will helm the pic, which begins lensing in Moscow in June.
Timur Bekmambetov is producing alongside Tom Jacobson.
Summit will distribute domestic and New Regency and Fox International has foreign. Les Bohem and Jon Spaihts penned the screenplay.
Voice of Disney’s Jiminy Cricket Has Passed Away
![Jiminy-and-Eddie[1]](http://wiscreenwritersforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Jiminy-and-Eddie1.jpg "Jiminy-and-Eddie[1]")
Eddie Carroll, who played the voice of Disney’s Jiminy Cricket, died April 6 in Woodland Hills, Calif., of a brain tumor, according to Variety. He was 76.
Carroll was the second thesp to voice the cricket, and held the record for voicing the same character for the longest time, according to the Los Angeles Times. As Jiminy Cricket, he appeared in dozens of Disney shows from 1977’s “Disneyland” to “Villains’ Revenge” and “House of Mouse.”
Born Edward Eleniak in Smoky Lake, Alberta, near Edmonton, he immigrated to Hollywood as part of an NBC talent program in the mid-1950s. He was drafted into the Army and wrote and produced shows for Armed Forces Radio and Television.
Later he formed a production company with Jamie Farr called Carroll-Farr Prods., which made shows such as “Man to Man.” He also impersonated Jack Benny, touring frequently in his solo show “Jack Benny: Laughter in Bloom.”
Carroll also guested on “The Andy Griffith Show,” “The Don Knotts Show,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Frasier.”
Fox Hunts for Young Outlaw
Fox is on the trail of the most wanted 18-year-old in the country, buying feature rights to “Taking Flight: The Hunt for a Young Outlaw,” for Rough House Pictures to produce, according to Variety.
Story centers on Colton Harris-Moore — the teenager who’s stolen cars, boats and planes and taught himself how to fly in order to evade local police, Homeland Security and the FBI. He’s still at large and has a massive Facebook following.
The feature is based on a book proposal by Bob Friel (pictured), who profiled Harris-Moore in the January edition of adventure magazine Outside.
Harris-Moore is a suspect in more than 100 crimes, mostly felonies, in the Pacific Northwest since escaping from a juvenile facility in 2008. Harris-Moore was dubbed the Barefoot Burglar after having been seen running barefoot from the scene of a crime. Rough House is seeking writers for the project, picked up as a possible directing vehicle for Rough House principal David Gordon Green (”Pineapple Express”).
Deal for “Taking Flight” comes four months after Mandate Pictures set up Rough House, headed by Danny McBride, Green, Jody Hill and Matt Reilly.
Rough House is co-producing “Eastbound and Down” for HBO, which begins filming its second season in May.
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