sign in sign up
<<
Home , Chris Sparling, Dana Brunetti, Debora Cahn, Eric Heisserer, Glenn Ficarra, Grace Van Pelt

Linda Woolverton dives down the Rabbit Hole!

Character-Driven Writing by Vaughn, Goldman & Millar

2010 Sundance Coverage + Know Your Show:

MARCH/APRIL 2010 Volume 17 Number 2

Allan Loeb writes the stimulus Beacham, Hay & Manfredi stresses us out $6.95 package for Wall Street: get Kracken on Clash of the Titans in Greenberg Money Never Sleeps "My head is spinning... my writing career is taking off...and I owe it all to entering my script in the Creative Screenwriting AAA Contest last fall!"

— Robert Lugibihl, February 2009

OPEN NOW! DEADLINE APRIL 11, 2010

sponsored by

Welcome to Creative Screenwriting’s annual screenplay competition. The AAA Contest is looking for the best and most talented writers from around the world. If you have written a great screenplay, please allow us to bring your work to the attention of the industry. The winner of the AAA contest will be profiled in Creative Screenwriting magazine and the names of the top ten finalists will be published in CS Weekly. Finalists and their screenplays will also be publicized in press releases and ads placed in industry publications. GRAND PRIZE — $7,500 CASH additional prizes, plus Acclaim and Access: • $7,500 cash • Winning script mailed to over 300 agents, managers, and development executives. • Free Gold Pass registration to the 2010 Screenwriting Expo ($300+ value) • Air fare up to $300 and lodging at the 2010 Screenwriting Expo headquarters hotel • Five free Golden Pitch Festival pitch tickets ($125 value, plus selection priority). Second Prize: $2,500 cash plus script sent to producers, agents, and managers, plus other prizes. Third Prize: $1,000 and script sent to producers, agents, and managers Other prizes listed at the contest site.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT OUR WEBSITE http://creativescreenwriting.com/aaa/index.html ROBERT McKEE’S

L.A. Story N.Y. Story Paris Story Story Paris Genre Chili Genre Brazil Story March 11-14 March 18-21 April 7-10 April 15-18 April 22-25 May 6-9 May 15-18

Former McKee Students have Written or Co-Written: UP, Damages, Iron Man, CSI, Hancock, A Beautiful Mind, The Simpsons Movie, Lord of the Rings I-III, Law & Order, Grey’s Anatomy, The Daily Show and more! quotes agenda Featured in... DAY 1 "McKee is Hollywood's Most Wanted Screenwriting Teacher... - The writer and the art of story Empowering...Inspiring...Enthralling..." – Movieline - The decline of story in contemporary film, TV, theatre and literature “McKee's…approach to storytelling was a revelation for [Peter] - Story design: the meaning of story, the substance of story, Jackson.” – The New Zealand Edge, "The Cinema of " the limitations and inspirations of story structure and genre, the debate between character versus story design. "McKee's Story Seminar is a phenomenal tool." - Premise Idea, Counter Idea, Controlling Idea – Toby Emmerich, Exec. Prod. of Wedding Crashers, Rendition - Story Structure: beat, scene, sequence, act, story - Mapping the Story universe: Archplot, Miniplot, Antiplot “Universally acclaimed.” – The Times - Shaping the source of story energy and creation “Legendary.” – The Washington Post Author of... DAY 2 “McKee’s teachings [are] the law of the land at .” - Act design: the great sweep and body of story – The Pixar Touch - The first major story event (the inciting incident) - Scene design in Story: turning points, emotional dynamics, “Insightful...Concise...I’m a huge believer...” – , setup/payoff, the nature of choice Oscar-winning screenwriter, A Beautiful Mind, Angels & Demons - Ordering and linking scenes - Exposition: dramatizing your characters, the story setting, creating back story - The principles of antagonism - Crisis, climax and resolution

DAY 3 register today - Putting the elements of story together - The principles of character dimension and design www.McKeeStory.com - The composition of scenes -Titles 888.676.2533 - Irony; Melodrama - False endings - The text: description, dialogue, and poetics - The spectrum of story genres

DAY 4 - Story adaptations - Scene analysis: text and sub-text; design through dialogue versus design through action - The writer’s method: working from the inside out; the creative process from inspiration to final draft - How it all works: the principles of the previous 3-1/2 days applied in a 6-hour, scene-by-scene screening and analysis of Casablanca

PLEASE NOTE: The upcoming seminars in (March 11-14) and New York (March 18-21) will be Robert McKee's only Story Seminars in North America in 2010 due to his writing deadlines and commitment to . 21Kick-Ass 28 Alice in Wonderland

Brooklyn’s Finest Features

Ass-Kicking Pages At first the studios couldn’t handle it. Then they couldn’t get enough of it. Co-writers , and comic book creator kick in their thoughts on Kick-Ass. BY JEFF GOLDSMITH 21 Down the Rabbit Hole 64 The screenwriter of and follows the white rabbit to a surreal — and fiercely loyal — sequel to ’s stories about a girl named Alice. I Love You Phillip Morris BY PETER CLINES 28 Know Your Show A step-by-step guide to writing one of TV’s hottest shows, The Mentalist. BY PAULA HENDRICKSON 32 Rewriting the Decade: A Look Back on TV Viewers experienced the best of TV – a golden age of drama – and the worst of TV (via sleazy reality formats) at the dawn of the 21st century. BY MICHAEL SCHNEIDER 36 66 Sundance Stories Watching 40 films in eight days would have been exhausting if the writing The Losers wasn’t so damn good! Check out this guide to the indie cinema that should be on your radar in 2010. BY JEFF GOLDSMITH 40 Sundance Award Winner: Winter’s Bone Winner of Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic competition and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini’s script has got the goods. BY JEFF GOLDSMITH 48 Sundance Diaries 50 74 Fit Your Niche: Gotta Have Faith Believe your spec follows a higher calling? What you need to know about the faith-based market before you submit your script. Cover Photos Credit: Marv Films/ and Marvel Comics BY JOHN FOLSOM 52

2 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 32 The Mentalist Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

PEOPLE & NEWS PEOPLE & NEWS NOW PLAYING The Buzz Why I Write I Love You Phillip Morris How do you get busy executives and agents For scribe Erin Cressida Wilson Before Bad Santa, screenwriters John to read your latest masterpiece? How about (Secretary, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait Requa and stumbled a free audio reading in a convenient MP3 of Diane Arbus), writing is more across the outrageous true story of an format that they can listen to while sitting than just words on a page. It’s a incorrigible con man, his cell-mate/soul in traffic or working out at the gym? That passionate relationship. 18 mate and the unlikeliest romance of was the idea behind TriggerStreet.com’s the year. Last Words latest idea – The Trigger Readers BY PETER DEBRUGE 66 Theatre Project. 8 Linda Woolverton takes us down the rabbit hole once again A Nightmare on Elm Street Breaking In: Riley LaShea in Alice in Wonderland. 76 moves into one of the horror Riley LaShea’s writes a prize-winning genre’s best-known neighborhoods and romantic comedy with Love Letters. 10 COLUMNS has a few thoughts about its famous Breaking In: Brooks Branch Agent’s Hot Sheet resident, that other guy known for wearing Though his indie feature Multiple Sarcasms How to REALLY Break Into TV only one glove. may seem like a new venture for rookie Forget what you think you know about breaking BY PETER CLINES 68 director Brooks Branch, it’s actually into TV. The paradigm has changed. Before Greenberg the culmination of a career filled with you waste six months working on a Dexter Writer-director Noah Baumbach journeys writing and creative collaboration. 12 spec, read this article! through a midlife crisis-riddled L.A. Breaking In: Nayan Padrai BY JIM CIRILE 56 where being one’s own worse enemy & Ralph Stein is a way of life for his lead character, Two friends finally get to make their NOW PLAYING Greenberg. dream film on their own terms. 14 Clash of the Titans BY ADAM STOVALL 70 People: Brian Pollack Screenwriters Travis Beacham, Phil Hay Season of the Witch Sitcom vet Brian Pollack takes to the and Matt Manfredi tackle an ancient Screenwriter Bragi Schut finally gets his Internet to re-start his career. 16 legend and a classic movie by retelling Bergman-inspired, Nicholl-winning Anatomy of a Spec Sale the story of Perseus in their updated screenplay up on the big screen. How do you find a great spec idea? version of Clash of the Titans. BY PETER CLINES 72 BY DAVID MICHAEL WHARTON 62 All it takes, according to Dave Lease The Losers and Megan Hinds, is a long roadtrip Brooklyn’s Finest Writer James Vanderbilt picks up where to Montana and a very dark sense of A fledgling screenwriter reveals how he Peter Berg left off in adapting Andy Diggle’s humor – something that became the balanced the stories of three police officers revenge comic book. nucleus for their double-crossing with the idea of “gooder and badder.” BY DANNY MUNSO 74 hitman story, The Black Phantom. 17 BY PETER CLINES 64 Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps Allan Loeb pulled off the tough job of writing Podcast Alert! Creative Screenwriting now brings you the sequel to ’s 1987 classic podcasts of interviews with your favorite screenwriters! and impressed Stone enough to take the Go to www.creativescreenwriting.com for more info. director’s chair once again. BY DANNY MUNSO 75

creativescreenwriting | Table of Contents | March/April 2010 | Volume 17, Number 2 | www.creativescreenwriting.com

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 3 creativescreenwriting p VOLUME 17, NUMBER 2 Contributors PUBLISHER Bill Donovan

Erik N. Bauer SHARI CARPTENER’s ([email protected]) JUSTIN LOWE is a screenwriter and freelance en- Founder debut feature film, Kali’s Vibe, won both the Jury tertainment journalist based in Los Angeles, where Publisher 1993-2007 and the Audience Award at the Denver Pan African he covers independent and international film EDITOR Bill Donovan Film Festival and a Vision Award at the Los Ange- for , FilmInFocus.com and SENIOR EDITOR les Pan African Film Festival. She is currently in Filmmaker magazine, among other outlets. Jeff Goldsmith post-production on a short film, Eye Wonder, and ASSOCIATE EDITOR DANNY MUNSO (danny@creativescreenwriting) Danny Munso has just completed a new feature film script. is the associate editor and marketing manager for ADVERTISING DIRECTOR PETER CLINES is a regular contributor to Creative Screenwriting. A graduate of Loyola Michelle Earnhart ART DIRECTOR both Creative Screenwriting and CS Weekly. The Marymount University’s Film and Television pro- Derek Wood first script he ever wrote got him an open door to gram, he currently resides in San Francisco where REGULAR COLUMNS pitch at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Voy- you can regularly find him at Giants home games. Jim Cirile and Karl Iglesias ager. His first novel, “Ex-Heroes,” is currently CONTRIBUTING EDITORS TV geek MICHAEL SCHNEIDER grew up collect- Peter Clines, David Michael Wharton available. ing TV Guides and memorizing TV lineups. As TV COPY EDITOR Milla Goldenberg PETER DEBRUGE ([email protected]) grew editor for Variety since 1999, he now strives to EDITORIAL OFFICES up in Waco, Texas, but calls Hollywood home. He keep the world safe from bad scheduling moves 6404 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 415 works as a film critic and associate features edi- and sitcoms about cavemen. Schneider has ap- Los Angeles, CA 90028 Telephone: 323.957.1405 tor for Variety and also reviews for the Miami Her- peared on Good Morning America, Today, Date- Fax: 323.957.1406 ald and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. line NBC, Early Show and countless other E-mail: [email protected] Creative Screenwriting publishes articles on all aspects of writing for programs and networks discussing the industry. feature films and TV. We also publish critical reviews of books, products JOHN FOLSOM ([email protected]) is and seminars or interest to the screenwriter. Creative Screenwriting a screenwriter and freelance writer based in ADAM STOVALL ([email protected]) moved welcomes contributions from diverse perspectives. Statements of fact or opinion appearing in Creative Screenwriting are solely those of the Kansas City. He’s contributed to Writer’s Di- from Cincinnati, where he read CS since it began authors and do not imply endorsement by the editor or publisher. SUBMISSIONS: Please do not send manuscripts. To submit gest about the tricky art of adaptation and is cur- 13 years ago, to Los Angeles, where he now an article idea to Creative Screenwriting or CS Weekly, please go to this web page and follow instructions: rently adapting another novel into a script. writes for it as well as CS Weekly. He also works http://creativescreenwriting.com/pitch.an.article.idea.html in the CS Screening Series and spends his time JEFF GOLDSMITH ([email protected]) is SUBSCRIPTIONS AND CUSTOMER CARE: watching the movies that are in theaters and writ- To place a subscription order, visit us at senior editor at Creative Screenwriting. He at- www.creativescreenwriting.com/subscribe.html ing the movies he wishes were. Gift subscriptions are available tended USC for theater and film and is an award- To contact us, make address changes, or for missing issues and other inquiries, please contact us at: winning commercial, music video and DAVID MICHAEL WHARTON is a freelance writer CREATIVE SCREENWRITING, 6404 Hollywood Blvd, Suite PlayStation video game director. As producer of from Texas and managing editor of CS Weekly. 415, Los Angeles, CA 90028, (323) 957-1405, [email protected]. the CS Magazine screening series, he does on- When he’s not sweating in the Creative Screen- ADVERTISING: To inquire about rates and schedules stage interviews and creates podcasts. writing trenches, he’s writing about pop culture please contact Advertising Director Michelle Earnhardt at (323) 228-0793 or at the main office, (323) 957-1405, or send for CinemaBlend.com. an email to [email protected]. PAULA HENDRICKSON is a regular contributor to No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or Emmy and Variety, and has written for numerous by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without TV trades. She has also written several spec PHOTO CREDITS: TriggerStreet (page 8); Rafy permission in writing from the publisher. scripts and recently completed her first short film (page 18); Marv Films/Lionsgate (pages 21-27); Design by Derek Wood | Hickory Graphics © 2010 Creative Screenwriting. All rights reserved. script. Marvel Comics (page 21); Disney Enterprises, BACK ISSUE ORDERS - Contact or send payment to: Inc. (page 28-31); CBS (page 32-35); HBO (page CREATIVE SCREENWRITING, ATTN: Back Issues Dept., 6404 SEAN KENNELLY ([email protected]), a 36); ABC Studios (page 36); AMC (page 37); Hollywood Blvd., Suite # 415, Los Angeles, CA, 90028-6241, (800) Writers Boot Camp alumnus, won a regional 727-6978, www.creativescreenwriting.com. Single U.S. back issue SyFy (page 37); Sony Home Entertainment (page price is $9.95. Canadian back issues add $7 per order for shipping and Emmy his first year out of film school for his writ- handling. All other international back issues add $18 per order for 53-54); ABC Family (page 57); FX (page 57); shipping and handling. We accept U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank. ing and producing efforts in the Utah media. Since CBS (page 59); Jay Maidment (page 62); Over- CREATIVE SCREENWRITING (ISSN 1084-8665), Volume 17, #2, March/April 2010. Published bimonthly in January, March, May, July, then he has worked at several studios, including ture Films (page 64); Patti Perret (page 66); September and November by Creative Screenwriting, 6404 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 415, Los Angeles, CA, 90028-6241. Basic DreamWorks and , and is Warner Bros. Pictures (page 68); Wilson Webb U.S. subscription prices are: 1 year $29.95 (6 issues); 2 years currently working on a novel and handful of $54.95 (12 issues); 3 years $74.95 (18 issues). For Canada/Mexico (page 70); Egon Endrenyi (page 72); John Bram- and other international subscription rates, see the web page screenplays. ley (page 74); Barry Wetcher (page 75). http://creativescreenwriting.com/subscribe.html. Prices are subject to change; notice will be posted on that page. We accept U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank. Single U.S. copy price is $6.95. Periodicals Postage Paid at Los Angeles, CA and at additional mailing offices. ATTN. 4 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: CREATIVE SCREENWRITING, 6404 Hollywood Blvd, Suite 415, Los Angeles, CA 90028. Write & Shoot • Produce & Direct • Sell & Package • Finance & Distribute MAKING YOUR MOVIE Freshman Year: Produce, Budget & Schedule Learn how to prepare a feature film pack- age that you, the first timer, can make.  The Hollywood System  Hiring talent and casting  What is "low budget?"  Purchasing hot scripts  Budgeting and scheduling  Guilds and unions  Formats: HD, 35mm, DV  Indy Filmmaking A to Z  The key elements The Best Film School in America  Contracts and agreements  Hiring crew  The 1-, 2- and 3 week shoot Ideal for Screenwriters, Filmmakers, Producers and Directors  Cameras, lights & sound  Screenwriting A to Z What do , , Chris Nolan and Baz Luhrman all have in common? All are former students of Dov Simens’ famed 2-Day Film School, and have gone on to write SHOOTING YOUR FILM and direct critically and commercially successful films. Why waste 4 years and $100,000 at a Sophomore Year: Direct, Shoot & Edit pretentious film school when Dov Simens delivers the information you need to write, produce, Learn methods you’ll use to direct your finance, direct, produce, market and distribute your own feature film (HD/DV/Red/35mm), movie cost-effectively.  whether your budget is $5,000, $50,000, $500,000 or $5,000,000, in just two intense days. Hiring a production crew  Budgeting tricks  Managing Pre-Production More than 75,000 students have taken Dov’s 2-Day Film School, and the quality and success  Shooting and Directing A to Z of their films speak for themselves: The Dark Knight, Hancock, Pulp Fiction, Australia,  Getting 25-35 shots per day Returns, Sin City, Mortal Kombat, Barbershop, X-Men, Meet The Parents, Reservoir Dogs, Sin  ADR, Foley & M&E City, Memento, My Big Fat Greek Wedding plus many more.  Finishing your film  Renting the equipment  Scheduling Upcoming Seminars: Salt Lake City (March 6-7), Chicago (March 27-28), Miami (April 10-11),  Directing the crew LA (May 8-9), NY (May 15-16)  Directing post-production “AMAZING! He  Music, score & lab is...without parallel...It’s  The answer print ENDORSEMENTS  a joy to watch a man Digital Filmmaking A to Z like Dov Simens be- SELLING YOUR FILM “INSPIRATION...Why waste 4 years at a film school? cause he’s so good Junior Year: Distribution, Festivals, PR I took Dov’s 2-Day Film School and launched my at it. There’s no Learn how to attend festivals, win awards, career as a writer who controls his scripts.” baby-talk in his attract distributors and negotiate deals. – QUENTIN TARANTINO crash course  The festival circuit methods...  Marketing Do's and Don'ts  “Can you cram everything you the crowd of Attracting a distributor  Deal memo points need to know into a two-day eager people  Foreign sales film school? Hollywood-based savor every  PPV & VOD windows film instructor Dov Simens word...”  Hiring a publicist was here on the weekend, – THE LOS  Creating a buzz  anditwaspretty amazing.” Sundance & Cannes ANGELES  Which agent to hire – VANCOUVER SUN TIMES  Net vs. gross deals  Video & cable deals  Maximizing revenues  Studio Dealmaking A to Z FUNDING YOUR FILM Senior Year: Finance & Deal Making Learn how to finance projects with budg- ets ranging from $5,000 to $5,000,000 and profit.  Financing Feature Films A-Z  Forming a Production Company  Securing Investors & Offerings  Studio vs Independent Methods  SBA, Bank Guarantees & Loans  International Co-Production Deals  Pay-or-Play & Deferment Talent Deals  Negative Pick-up & Studio Deals  Split Rights & 50-50 Net Deals Register online today  Global Tax Incentive Programs  for the live classes or Monetizing Tax Credits & Grants Dov Simens’ 2-Day Film School  Product Placement Money to order the DVD set!  Get the entire 2-Day Film School program shot in Profits, Grosses & ROI Offerings Or call 818-752-3456  front of a live audience, and available in a MONSTER Movie Money A-Z NINE POUND box set!

Includes 16 hours of lessons, Producer’s Workbooks, Certificate of Completion and Diploma www.DovSimensFilmSchool.com 7 LETTER FROM THE Editor

Dear Subscriber, the experience of dreaming. If Not Now, A screenwriter responding From that thought, I developed to our survey about script ana- my own theory that the editing lysts wrote that he wanted to of shots and scenes was not a When? have his scripts reviewed by language invented by D.W. real moviegoers, not the story Griffith and several Russians, as structure/ character arc/ open- has been credited, but a univer- ings-and-endings/ recom- sal language they collectively mend-consider-pass people discovered — the language of who call themselves script an- dreams. Or maybe I read that alysts and consultants. somewhere. In any case, shut Dear writer: No, you don’t. up and put away that bright The people who do that work for a living are light and let me and everyone else have our skilled at reading scripts, which is different dreamlike experience, will you? from watching movies, and is hard to do. Un- The intelligent part of this missive is now trained moviegoers have trouble visualizing over. You have been warned. from text. Trust me — that’s what separates Very late on a very cold winter day in or the artists from the gophers in film school. about 1981, I was riding up a small red gon- Also, analysts and consultants tend to be dola from the town of Grindelwald to kind and supportive. In contrast, when one Männlichen in the Swiss Alps. It is the longest pays for a movie, one has the right to be aerial gondola ride in the world, nearly five blunt, even cruel, and feel entitled about it. miles, with a fine broadside view of the north MASTER OF ARTS IN Case in point: me. face of the Eiger, the sheer cliff featured in the SCREENWRITING I’m a moviegoer. I dislike going to screen- 1975 Clint Eastwood movie, The Eiger Sanc- Experience a Graduate MA Program ings. I sometimes think I’m the only person tion, and a well-reviewed new movie, North here in H’town who would much rather pay Face, released in February to just a few the- of discovery and growth with an for the movie and the popcorn and sit with a aters in the U.S. intense focus on professional screen- regular audience than go to a screening with In the deepening shadows during that writing, in the heart of the motion all the sharp, young professionals who think ride (in the Alps, it gets dark quite early), the picture and television industries. they know it all. gondola suddenly stopped. In this steel tomb- • Work with a faculty of And can someone tell me why so many on-a-wire with me were two German-speak- professional screenwriters people in Hollywood screening (and movie) ing Swiss women, workers at the ski area, not audiences have their cell phones out during tourist-industry people, who didn’t know six • Master the craft of cinematic the movie? Unless you’re a heart surgeon or words of English between them. As it grew storytelling the guy who carries around the nuke codes for darker, it was getting colder. We were about • Develop a personal dramatic voice the President, nothing in your life is that im- 200 feet above the ground. portant. If you are going to lose your closest The Eiger was backlit by the setting sun, • Build a bridge to the professional personal relationship because you didn’t text and above its north face, a storm was blowing world of screen and TV writing back right away, you’re better off alone. Put our way. It was quite a beautiful sight, al- Superior away the cell phone, you self-absorbed moron! though the pleasure thereof was somewhat Sorry, I digress. Had to get that off my chest, diminished by the thought that our frozen Connected though. Probably will need to again. In fact... bodies, blue at the lips, might be pried out of Affordable A woman who asked to be my personal this little round, red-painted tomb at some guest at a Creative Screenwriting screening future date. Contact: hosted by the great interviewer and editor Jeff As we sat there, watching the storm ap- Graduate Advisor Goldsmith left her cell phone on. It rang and proach, the goldola swaying a bit as the Department of Cinema she carried on a discussion about a job the wind started up and the light grew dim, we and Television Arts next day while the movie was running — glanced at each other, the women mutter- 18111 Nordhoff Street twice. So, Freida (not her real name), if you ing in German and me saying falsely reas- are wondering why I don’t answer your suring things in English to myself and the Northridge, CA 91330-8317 emails and will never invite you to another thin Alpine air. I wondered how to get across (818) 677-3192 screening, it’s because you’re the kind of self- the idea that if we remained here, we might www.csun.edu/~ctva/ absorbed moron who thinks it’s OK to talk need to make this a three-dog night to sur- on your cell phone during a movie you asked vive. Their baleful looks seemed to commu- me to get you a seat for — with the writer in nicate the answer: It would be a two-dog the house. night and I could damned well stay on my No, I’m not a curmudgeon. To the con- side and freeze. The Donner Party probably trary, I’m a disciple of the theory (I think this knew about such decisions. was Marsha Kinder’s originally) that seeing a It occurred to me then that the situation movie in a darkened theater is very near to might have made a movie premise, if one

6 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 could figure out where to take it. (The gon- logue are convincing enough that one buys dola eventually started again, of course.) into its reality without the requisite suspen- Flash forward 30 years. A few weeks ago, sion of disbelief we’re understood to accept with airline and hotel miles to burn, I took in a . I suppose that skill partially my snowboard to the same hill and rode the explains why someone would finance such same gondola. It wasn’t as eventful a trip an audience-torturing work. (that is, if you don’t count my wrist), I know you have all asked this next ques- but it did call to mind again the difficult tion about movies which, unlike this one, premise of building a plot around being stuck are merely insipid rather than so painful to in a ski lift. watch: Why the hell do they make movies By chance, when I returned to L.A., a new like this? Or worse, once made, why do they movie, Frozen, with a remarkably similar put them on the big screen? In this case, it premise, hit my local theater. The blurb for could not possibly have been with big box- the film, by writer-director Adam Green, was, office receipts in mind (the weekend gross “A typical day on the slopes turns into a chill- makes my point: $100K in 106 theaters, ing nightmare for three snowboarders when which works out to about nine tickets per they get stranded on the chairlift before their showing). North Face, which presumably last run.” (Not to belabor a fine point, but also includes deaths on the slopes and is in one was a skier, which figures into the plot.) German, grossed the same total in only I went to see it opening weekend. Me eight theaters. and six other people. I don’t mean six other The answer, I think, lies in what Holly- people went with me. I mean we were the wood thinks it knows. But doesn’t know. entire audience. The audience, we are told, is getting In the movie, the resort ominously turns younger. Teenagers, who typically have no off its lights, workers go home, and the resort concept of the realities of disfiguration, suf- is to be closed for five days, with the two fering and death, tend to be the biggest buy- young guys and girl stuck on the lift. After a ers of movies that offer vicarious gore. I sufficiently long interval of whining and suppose that teenagers can emotionally shake angry dialogue — punctuated by shivering, off such a vivid, wrenching piece of audience snowfall and icicles — we’re convinced that torture as this movie. (Or think they can.) they are going to freeze to death. Then, one However, the fact that the audience is get- guy plays hero, jumps and breaks both legs, ting younger is, in large measure, a function which are shown in graphic detail, in grue- of the fact that more movies are being made somely disfigured positions, bones sticking for that demographic. An older-audience out and lots of blood. Later, wolves come by comedy such as It’s Complicated, or even more and save us from having to listen to his cater- to the point, a drama such as Shutter Island, its wauling by eating him alive before our eyes. release delayed nearly a year, but which is get- The other guy, equally inclined to the ting raves from more than 80% of critics and heroic (yet more resourceful), hand-walks the audience voters alike — struggle to make the cable to the post and climbs down. He starts big screen these days. down the hill sitting on a snowboard and, The trouble with this trend is that it’s a self- mercifully off-screen (at least for the time fulfilling, self-destructive prophesy. It is chas- being), is eaten by wolves. ing away audiences. Somewhere, someone The girl, with one hand and a good bit of turned down production money for a far - her face wrecked by frostbite, makes it down ter movie aimed at a more mature demo- from the chair through a series of mishaps graphic for this piece of visual torture. Surely, rather than initiative, injures her leg, body- almost anything reasonably decent for an surfs down the hill past the wolves who are older demographic would have drawn in more chomping on the bloody carcass of hero #2 than nine tickets per showing. It would be my while the wolves watch — What? Chick meat wish, if I had any influence, that the industry isn’t as tasty? — and out to a road, where a would learn something from the box-office car nearly runs her over. The movie ends with showing of Frozen and put its production and this soon-to-be-one-handed-and-lipless marketing money behind scripts that emo- young woman slumped in a car on the way tionally developed people will pay to see. to the hospital, looking as if there were no Nah. purpose left to her life. So writer, don’t be reluctant to listen to a Oops. Did I forget to say “spoiler alert”? good script analyst or consultant. An audi- That was intentional, of course. You need ence is likely to be a bit more harsh. to be fully warned if you’re thinking of seeing Bill Donovan, Editor and Publisher this movie. Its direction, characters and dia- Creative Screenwriting March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 7 ] THEBUZZ BY SEAN KENNELLY Trigger Readers Theatre Project Wanna get your script heard all over town? If you get selected for script of the month on TriggerStreet.com, you just might get the chance.

IF YOU’VE EVER peeked into the offices of project, the list narrowed down to Jonathan bit of a performance so it’s much more en- development executives and story depart- Coder (or “Robin Hood” as he’s known on joyable than just a table read.” ments in the entertainment industry, you the site). Coder, an active member of Trig- “To my knowledge,” Brown states, “our might have seen something depressing. gerStreet who directs a theater group in first project, Operation Atomic Blitz (by There are towering stacks of scripts every- Northern California, felt he could find the member Mickey Lee Bukowski), is the first where and more coming in the door every talent and expertise necessary to make such screenplay using the Internet to be simul- day. And these are the ones that have gotten a project work. He posted a casting call for taneously performed by artists from across a “recommend” rating from the executive’s readers on the site and the response was the country, broadcast live, recorded, then reader or friend. tremendous. “What I ended up doing was edited and mixed to MP3 for replay.” Recognizing the aspiring writer’s challenge creating a talent pool,” Coder recalls. “I To hear the results, you need to log in of getting read and recognized, producer started auditioning people through Skype or create a membership on Trigger- Dana Brunetti (21, Fanboys) and Oscar-win- conferencing and got some actors and Street.com and go to http://www.Trigger- ning actor (American Beauty, The brought them into a general council so what- Street.com/gyrobase/TriggerDigest?oid=oid Men Who Stare at Goats) formed Trigger- ever the screenplay was that came up, I’d %3A2802268. And while another project Street.com, a place where even the most un- have talent available to pull from.” is already in the works — which will be se- known writers have a level playing field to Coder found more than just voice talent. lected from among TriggerStreet’s Script of show their craft and, ultimately, find a way In a unique twist of fate, he found Scott the Month winners — there is no rush to inside the halls of Hollywood. But even if a Brown, a site member who happened to have push the next audio reading out the door screenplay manages to land prematurely. “We’ve at the top of TriggerStreet’s been really slow in virtual script pile, there’s rolling out because we still the challenge of find- want to make sure we ing an industry insider who have everything right is passionate enough to before we start to push take the script to the next traffic to these,” Brunetti level… if only he had time says. “If the first few to read it. aren’t so great, we’re So one day while wait- going to shoot ourselves ing in traffic, Brunetti had in the foot. No one will a brainstorm. “I thought, come back and listen to I’m a producer and I listen the others.” to a lot of podcasts while So what drives Coder I’m sitting in traffic to and and Brown to continue from the office every day,” he explains. the technical know-how to execute the proj- such exhaustive, time-intensive volunteer “Well, what if some of the better screenplays ect. “Jon had posted a request for interested efforts? “We are all just insane enough to be were audio and people like myself — pro- voice artists on the TriggerStreet forums,” happy giving a voice to our peers’ work,” ducers, directors, studio execs — could actu- Brown says. “I thought it was amazing tim- Brown exclaims. “We are really having a lot ally listen to a screenplay reading?” ing, as I had been looking to work with other of fun experimenting and inventing new Not sure if the idea would fly, Brunetti voice artists to help test a system I’d been en- ways of capturing and delivering perform- tested the waters by posting the idea on the gineering for recording and broadcasting col- ance audio.” But he’s quick to add that there site with the caveat that the execution of laborative, audio performances.” is always room for more volunteers to share such an audio script reading would have to Brown and Coder hashed out the details in the fun. To learn more, log in to Trigger- be done by the members of the site on a vol- and soon found themselves recording ac- Street.com or follow the venture on unteer basis since TriggerStreet doesn’t tors from all over the country via Skype, http://twitter.com/triggerreaders. charge for content and operates on a slim with Coder directing the talent. And the ac- budget from site sponsors. tors were very good, admits founder The response was an overwhelmingly yes, Brunetti. “Jonathan has done a great job at What’s the buzz? Send questions, news, observations and points of view but when it came down to actually doing the finding really good voice talent. They do a to [email protected].

8 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010

] BREAKINGINBY SHARI CARPENTER

Riley LaShea writes a prize-winning romantic comedy with Love Letters.

LOVE STINKS! Or so thinks Angela, the les- What makes a good love story in LaShea’s cash award, Suzanne’s Prize, a special jury bian protagonist of Love Letters, Riley eyes, first and foremost, is believability. Never prize of the Screenwriting Expo’s Screen- LaShea’s prize-winning screenplay. And a fan of the our eyes met across a crowded room play competition, provides direct industry here’s the rub: This cynic has a access as well as screenwriting thriving business writing love tools, writing software and letters for other people, a fact expo passes. that infuriates Wynne, a Winning Suzanne’s Prize spurned woman in the midst of caught LaShea by surprise as a messy divorce, who thinks An- she had submitted two scripts gela’s entire business is a sham. to the screenplay competition A heated debate between An- and felt the other script was gela and Wynne leads to an un- stronger. She also admits she expected friendship. As Angela had some reservations about inadvertently begins playing how her lesbian protagonist, matchmaker for Wynne, an- whose sexuality is front and other client uses Angela’s writ- center, would be received. Al- ing skills to secretly pursue the though she can’t write to other object of his affection. The people’s wants, she says, she unique scent of Angela’s hand- does believe that Wynne’s par- made perfume, a case of mis- allel straight love story and the taken identity and a couple of fact that Angela doesn’t find meddling friends set the stage love until the end of the script for both Wynne and Angela to may make it more palatable to have their own happy endings mainstream audiences. Riley LaShea in this charming, character-dri- Winning Suzanne’s Prize has ven script. yet to produce results, but A self-taught screenwriter, LaShea wrote and we knew we couldn’t live without each other LaShea remains optimistic. She’s heard the first draft of Lover Letters in three weeks in school of romance, LaShea says that this kind through the contest’s sponsor, Creative Screen- 2007. Not one to outline, LaShea says she of introduction to love is explosive, fiery and writing, that there have been requests for the usually starts with the one idea that inspires beautiful, but it’s not going to last. She script. Of course she’d love to have the script her. With Love Letters, it was the idea of some- prefers on-screen relationships that develop produced, but she’d also be happy to land an one who writes love letters for a living but over time and are not without their conflicts, agent or manager out of the deal. doesn’t really believe the things she’s saying. which ultimately lead to the characters’ real- A prolific writer, she has three new ro- From there, LaShea says, a scene emerged — ization that they are made for one another. mantic comedies, a superhero comedy, a Angela and Wynne’s fraught first meeting at And Love Letters is chockfull of love sto- sci-fi conspiracy theory project and an ac- a coffee shop. She liked the idea of a friend- ries, LaShea points out. And not just the ro- tion-thriller currently in the works. She has ship evolving out of bickering. That first mantic kind. even published a novel. No pigeon holes scene was all it took for LaShea to craft the “[Besides the two central love stories], for her. entire script. there’s the friendship between Wynne and And what are some of the favorite love After completing the first draft, LaShea Angela; that’s a kind of love story. The love stories of a love story contest winner? handed the script to a couple of gentle read- between Angela and Wynne’s kids, as well as “Moonstruck is probably one of the great- ers — a friend who, according to LaShea, is Jett (Wynne’s love interest) and Wynne’s est romantic comedies of all time. I also really always encouraging and LaShea’s girlfriend kids,” she says. like all of the different definitions of love — who is generally more critical — to offer feed- Now in its second year, Suzanne’s Prize for friendship, unrequited, new, young and old back before going back for the rewrite. Their Best Love Story is named in loving tribute to — in Love Actually. And Imagine Me & You: I positive input, coupled with LaShea’s minor Suzanne Corrales, the late wife of Creative am a freaking sap for that movie,” LaShea tweaks, which were made during the second Screenwriting’s editor and publisher, Bill says with a laugh. With any luck, Love Letters pass, led LaShea to think she might have Donovan, who says his wife inspired love in may find its way onto moviegoers’ own lists something good. everyone around her. In addition to a $2,000 sometime in the near future.

10 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 scriptapalooza 12th Annual screenplay competition

WE GOT THE CONNECTIONS. WE JUST NEED YOUR SCRIPT. $10,000 first place prize

regular deadline March 5 FINAL deadline April 15

Over 90 production companies reading all entered scripts Considered the best screenplay competition by producers, agents and managers As seen on CNN and called 'one of the best' by Magazine Scriptapalooza pushes the TOP 100 scripts for a full year Endorsed by Write Brothers, the leading software company for screenwriters

"Despite its frivolous name, Scriptapalooza is the best screenwriting competition I know."

- Robert McKee Author of STORY

323.654.5809 office www.scriptapalooza.com [email protected] ] BREAKINGINBY SEAN KENNELLY

Brooks Branch writes his way into Multiple Sarcasms.

THOUGH COMMON WISDOM says that a and consulting company in partnership neurial background, but despite his wealth jack-of-all-trades is a master of none, some- with NBC. Before long, word got out and of contacts in and out of the industry, it one forgot to account for Brooks Branch. he ended up working with a variety of stu- was just plain difficult. “I got more turn Branch, whose freshman effort, Multiple dios and networks, including Turner Clas- downs on this project than probably any- Sarcasms — starring Timothy Hutton, Dana sic Movies, Discovery Channel, Warner body on the planet,” Branch admits. Delany, Mira Sorvino and He also often re- Stockard Channing — ceived negative feedback hits big screens across the on his script, which is country on March 26, tough for any writer to never expected he’d one hear. But Branch took it day write and direct a in stride. “You have to movie. But he’d also tell learn to not take any- you that it’s not a com- thing too personally,” he plete surprise either. says. “When anybody Being a multi-hyphenate would give feedback on is just a way of life for the script, I listened. Branch, who began his Even if that was with a career in publishing. ‘no’ [in regards to] put- “I was the creative di- ting in money. Don’t get rector who’d be paired me wrong. I’m not say- with writers and editors,” ing to make changes be- Branch recalls. “I was writ- cause people have an ing different things in a opinion. I think you variety of styles of writing need to hold strong to — from a business plan to your vision. But if a writing a novel and every- number of people are Brooks Branch on Set thing in between.” saying the same thing, it Still, Branch admits can at least give you a that he was “all over the place” creatively, Bros., MGM and Virgin as well as non- signal to look at that.” something that served him well as he entertainment companies such as Target The resulting rewrites helped Branch hatched a project about a jazz club in 1940s and Ralph Lauren. not only secure funding, but landed him a post-war Paris called Aerobleu. The project But there was a nagging seed of story stellar cast that was willing to take a chance synergistically crossed over from writing that was begging to . Years before on the new director. “Whenever I got to an into merchandising with hundreds of prod- Branch moved to Los Angeles, he had an actor who felt like the right fit,” he says, “it ucts, ranging from art to furniture, effec- idea born from regular trips to the theater. was the script that had their interest, noth- tively setting the stage for Branch’s next “Whenever I’d see theater, it felt like there ing more, because for a film of this size, it’s career move, in which he would try his was such a [theatrical] tone to the acting,” certainly not the paycheck because they’re brand of ancillary magic on Hollywood. Branch relates. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be working for less than their quote.” Landing a position at Paramount Pic- cool to have some theater that mirrors the And while production wasn’t easy ei- tures, Branch was put in charge of a unique way people really talk in relationships?’” ther, Branch saw his vision come to division of the company that allowed him That idea took hold and Branch got to fruition with the help of a lot of supportive to be a creative maverick. “I was a bit of a work on a script. Though he admits he’d people. “A lot of directing is a confidence cowboy over there,” Branch admits. “I often shelf it for long periods of time, the thing, so when other people believe in oversaw a creative division where I was able script gradually took shape and before long you, it tends to make you believe in your- to work on films and even television shows he found himself completing a screenplay. self even more,” he says. “All the collabo- that had ancillary possibilities. So I’d basi- Branch originally had intended to write the rations — with the actors to my writing cally milk films and TV shows like cows, project as a stage play, but was also con- partner, Linda Morris, to even the produc- but I’d figure out creatively how to package vinced it would make a great film. ers — all of that has been, at times, ex- them.” Then Viacom bought the company Of course, film is a very expensive hausting but mostly really a blast. My and quickly reigned in the cowboy. medium so Branch set out to raise the entire career is based on a zillion collabo- Not enjoying the new corporate cul- funds necessary to bring his vision to the rations, so that’s the part that really gets ture, Branch left to form his own branding big screen. He tapped into his entrepre- me off. That’s the fun part.”

12 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010

] BREAKINGINBY JUSTIN LOWE

Nayan Padrai & Ralph Stein—Two friends finally get to make their dream film on their own terms.

JUST A FEW DAYS before the Sundance scenes and notes before sending the final sally loved and always asked us, ‘What hap- Film Festival, writer-director Nayan Padrai draft off to contests, where the script won pened to Harry?’” Padrai says. was prepping to leave — several awards. “We decided early on that we weren’t where he was completing post-production Although Stein and Padrai ultimately going to try to sell the script. It was almost on his feature directing debut, When Harry completed more than a dozen screenplays like an unspoken thing between us that this Tries to Marry — for Park City, where he was a film that we would make one way or would catch a few screenings and hold some the other,” Padrai continues, explaining that informal industry meetings. he relinquished his desire to play the lead in If this New York-set indie romantic com- favor of directing the film. The project ad- edy sounds similar to another movie with vanced to the financing stage in 2004, but Harry in the title, they’re actually generations that deal ultimately fell apart, causing the apart, even though they share the same fam- pair to put the script aside for a while. ily tree. As written by Padrai and co-scripter In January 2009, Padrai quit his full-time Ralph Stein, this Harry is a contemporary, job, newly determined to complete the film. college-aged Indian-American with his mind “I decided that by next year [2010], when I set on an arranged marriage, Old World-style. turn 35, I’m going to make the movie,” he Spooked by his parents’ divorce following affirms. Padrai contacted Stein to discuss the their Western-style “love marriage,” Harry production and his friend came aboard as a plans to opt for the traditional route and co-producer. “I thought it would be a very marry a girl from India, even though his universal character that everyone could fall friends and family offer little support. His cal- in love with,” is how Stein describes Harry culated plans begin to go awry when his and his decision to return to the project. American close friend develops more than Nayan Padrai Padrai completed the film through his just friendly feelings for Harry. 108 Productions company, casting new- Padrai and Stein wrote the script in 1998 comer Rahul Rai as Harry, bringing the shoot when they were studying acting in New York in under schedule and under budget. “I took and workshopping Harry, with the expecta- license and liberty to adlib, and I took license tion that Padrai would play the lead. At that and liberty to not be a writer while I was di- point, the pair had already been collaborat- recting,” Padrai observes. “During the pro- ing for several years after meeting at the duction, if anything needed to be rewritten Austin Film Festival in 1996. “Harry was writ- or if I had to change anything, I would go to ten in a way for me to act in,” Padrai says, re- Ralph for that.” calling that, as a screenwriter, he was On his role as co-writer and co-producer, pursuing acting “to learn better dialogue and Stein says, “The only reason I even got in- learn what works as motivation for actors. So volved with Harry was I knew that this was most of the workshopping I did was our going to be a universal, everyman character, a script in the acting classes.” universal theme.” As he works on editing the Although work commitments have kept first cut of the movie, Padrai is optimistic about the two from writing together in recent the filmmakers’ plans to secure distribution. times, at one point they were working seven “I’m not worried at all,” he says, citing Harry’s days a week with one another and complet- potentially broad appeal. “It has a multicul- ing two or three scripts per year. They tried Ralph Stein tural backdrop, but it’s basically a movie about their collective hand at thrillers, horror, ac- love. It has a very wide universal audience.” tion/adventure, rom-coms and even a gang- together, Harry had the most momentum. Meanwhile, Padrai is focused on com- ster musical. Harry was written with the same While Padrai went on to co-found CineMaya pleting Harry in the near-term: “For now I’m collaborative method they used on many Media Group — one of the largest South not thinking about anything other than this other scripts, which begins with one of the Asian media, entertainment and marketing film and getting it [to be] the best I can, fin- writers drafting the initial idea. With Harry, companies in the — and Stein ishing it and taking it to the next level. Be- Bombay-born Padrai set the outline. Then launched a successful career in sales, “It was cause once that happens, if the film is the pair co-wrote several drafts, exchanging one of those scripts that everybody univer- successful, doors open up.”

14 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 vPEOPLE BY PAULA HENDRICKSON FAUX REALITY, FOR REAL BRIAN POLLACK WHY WOULD A FORMER writer-producer of cause it’s culturally devoid of anything,” he plains. “And I say, ‘No, no. She’s playing Cheers create an online series? After all, would- continues. “It’s a sad time for television. It’s dif- the woman who owns the café.’ ‘Oh, re- n’t he have an “in” with the TV Powers That ferent. And now everything is going toward ally? But you say it’s a reality show?’ ‘Well, Be? Maybe not, especially considering that he the Internet. With broadband and it is because you’re here, aren’t you?’” took a self-imposed break from the industry to buying NBC, it’s all changing.” Not only has new media allowed Pollack open a café. It was a perfect storm of concept, technol- to create an online series that promotes his Brian Pollack got his WGA card in 1975 ogy and timing. In fact, two reality shows were real-life café, it’s given him — and all writ- while working as a joke writer on the original already shooting near Caffé Etc. “If they’re ers — a new way of drawing attention to Hollywood Squares. Later, on the strength of a doing reality shows here, then we should do their work. spec, Pollack and his writing partner Mert Rich, one, too,” Pollack thought. If nothing else, he “It’s a lot more efficient than having to began writing for sitcoms. Episodes of The Jef- figured it would be a unique way to promote go into a network or a production company fersons and The Facts of Life led the pair to staff the café. and pitch your idea where they all have to jobs on Sledge Hammer! and eventually Cheers. vote on it and say, ‘Go write a script’ and “I did that for several years, then went into take it to the next level,” Pollack says. development at Warner Bros. and Paramount “Something like this you can shoot for very and did a lot of pilots and worked on other little money, put it up on YouTube or your shows,” Pollack says. His last jobs were serving own website, and people can see it. It makes as an associate producer on the 2002 Cuba it a lot more accessible and available.” Gooding Jr. film Boat Trip and writing an episode Pollack is not the only pro experimenting of The Simpsons that aired the same year. with online series. had great suc- “After that, I decided I needed a break,” he cess in 2008 with his three-part online series, says. “I felt burnt out on the half-hour genre. Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, actress Illeana In a way I think it was burnt out on me also. Douglas has an online series called Easy to As- The older you get, the harder it is to get work. semble, and several soap stars have also Brian Pollack That’s the way it is in this business,” he says. launched popular online series. An onslaught of reality shows didn’t make While he’s pleased with the results, Pollack finding work any easier. The sitcom at that “The project has grown very organically,” is already thinking ahead. time was dying a rather painful death. “Rather he says. “I didn’t think this out, it sort of pre- “If it does get to that next level where we than to hate getting up in the morning to go sented itself [and I thought], Why not? It’s ex- have sponsors, we could integrate them into look for work, I decided to try something else.” perimental.” the show in a real way,” he explains. “Because Pollack and his wife decided to start a busi- The neighborhood also proved convenient it’s a real place, we can embrace the fact that ness. “We saw this place in Hollywood that we when casting the show. “Right up the street we have sponsors and use them within the thought would make a perfect location for a from the café is Improv Olympic,” Pollack says. context of the narrative. We take Visa. We sell coffee-and-good-food lunch place.” So they “I thought, Why don’t we see if we can put to- Coca-Cola. We sell Ghirardelli chocolate. So opened Caffé Etc. in 2004. gether a group of people to act as the cast? we’re not just sticking it in there; it belongs As much as he enjoys the entrepreneurial Since they all work together already, it fit to- there. I think that appeals to advertisers, too, life, Pollack is still a writer at heart and, after a gether perfectly.” because it’s a natural environment where they few years of running the café, the writing bug Last fall, Pollack gave the cast only a loose can showcase their products constantly with- bit again. outline of the show’s first 10-minute install- out it looking like you’re shoving it at them.” “I was at the point where I said, ‘I want to ment. No scripts. The stories and beats were all If you’re wondering why he hasn’t write something. I want to create something, drawn from actual experiences at the café. Pol- shopped the show around like he would but I don’t want to do it the old way and start lack had it edited and posted online within have back in the old days, Pollack, who’s pitching. I don’t want to do somebody else’s two weeks. “I’m very happy with how it came also working on a spec, says, “It’s just idea. I want to do my idea,’” Pollack says. out,” he says. “We don’t rehearse because it’s all that I don’t know that world well enough One day, a guy he used to work with at improv. We shoot when the café is open — now, but I’m trying to figure it out.” Warner Bros. stopped by the café and suggested those are real people in the café, which is an- In the meantime, he’d like to make more that Pollack pitch a show about a sitcom writer other element that’s part of the reality.” episodes of Caffé Etc. “I’m hoping that maybe who opens up a Hollywood café. “Like Cheers So, in essence, Caffé Etc. is a fake reality I can attract some people who might like to in a coffee house,” Pollack says. “That didn’t show about a real café, with actors playing fund the next five or six [episodes], if we can seem very original, but I thought about how re- fictional versions of the real owners and put their products in it — or whatever they can ality shows are so dominant in the TV land- employees, and actual customers playing, get out of it.” Without missing a beat, his scape — and were pretty much why my writing well, the customers. It’s hard to get more comic timing rears its head: “Any way I can ex- partner and I and a lot of our other colleagues meta than that. ploit it commercially, I will do it!” weren’t getting our shows picked up.” “People who’ve watched the show on He decided a spoof might be fun. YouTube come in and say, ‘Where’s the To view Caffé Etc., go to: “I wanted to throw mud at the genre be- woman who’s on the show?’” Pollack ex- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_OhdWetLZM

16 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 ] Anatomy of aSPECSALEby Sean Kennelly As an aspiring stand-up comic, Dave Lease never thought he’d have a shot at selling a spec until he met his writing partner, Megan Hinds. Together, they cracked the stingy Hollywood spec market.

DAVE LEASE AND MEGAN HINDS will be might be better if the two characters were… And while it was grueling at times, their hard the first people to tell you how tough it is to hitmen. “I wanted to do the hitman route work finally began to take shape. break into the Hollywood screenwriting club. with two guys, both extremely good at their After floating the script to a few trusted Though both attended college to study film, craft, who are forced to work together,” Lease non-industry friends who gave it a thumbs- they each tried different approaches that got says. “It started with these two interesting up, the duo handed the script to Hinds’ con- them no closer to selling their first script. characters and then the story developed.” tacts within the industry. “I basically gave it Lease spent his days as a middle-school sub- Still, a stand-up comic doesn’t typically to everyone I knew,” Hinds states. “I told stitute teacher and his nights as a stand-up co- have a lot of opportunities to pitch a script to them, ‘If you like this, please pass it to some- median, writing spec scripts and comedy a Hollywood exec, so Lease continued to de- body who can help us.’ And it turned into a sketches in between. Hinds, on the other velop the story while continuing to work full- sort of chain letter.” hand, worked in the development department time. And it’s a good thing he did, because his Yet, as everyone knows, Hollywood is a of an entertainment company, where she mas- soon-to-be co-writer, Megan Hinds, found small town and it wasn’t long before agents and saged other people’s screenplays and built a herself at a comedy club one evening staring managers began to take notice. Manager Brit- network of contacts she hoped would one day at a name she recognized. Or did she? ton Rizzio at Circle of Confusion was an instant pay off as she labored over her fan. “They have a very sharp voice. own off-hours writing. Their dialogue is hilarious. It’s like a And like so many aspiring Hol- throwback to Quentin Tarantino,” lywood players, they both also Rizzio says about Black Phantom. “It’s a worked part-time for a restaurant fun, fun ride and it’s not something you that happened to sit outside the see a lot of these days.” gates of one of the big studios. Sold on her enthusiasm, the “We actually met each other scribes signed with Rizzio who then back when we were both working passed it along to producer William at a restaurant called Gladstone’s at Packer (Obsessed, Stomp the Yard) Universal City,” Hinds recalls. “We who then gave it to newbie director got to be friends there and then the Doug Aarniokoski, who had just restaurant went out of business like signed on to direct Red Sonja. The film- Dave Lease Megan Hinds everything at Universal City making duo arranged for a lunch with does after a couple of years. And the writers, and Lease and Hinds were everyone kind of went their separate ways.” “So I’m thinking, ‘Well it’s gotta be some- more than impressed. The duo continued their individual efforts body that I hate,’ because I can never remem- “We asked them what they would like to to break into the entertainment business, all ber the names of comedians that I like, only change, knowing how it works in Holly- but forgetting their brief friendship at the remember the ones that really annoy me,” wood,” Hinds recalls. “Everything has notes restaurant. Lease focused even more on his Hinds says. “Then he comes on stage and it’s and everything needs to be changed. Doug stand-up comedy, writing sketches for a pre- like, ‘Oh, it’s that dude from Gladstones,’ and looked at us and said, ‘Change? What do you dominantly African-American sketch comedy he was hysterical.” Not only that, but after vis- mean change?’ We were like, ‘All right! You’re group (Lease is white), The Edgeucation, and iting with him after the show, she found out in!’” Lease is quick to point out that the lack participating in its NAACP award-nominated that Lease was also a writer. Figuring that by of changes had a lot to do with the hard work play, “History of the Black Man.” pooling their resources they might have a bet- and energy they poured into their screenplay, Soon, Lease found himself on the road ter chance at success, the duo decided to try something that is sometimes overlooked in traveling to distant comedy clubs. “My best writing together. Their first collaborations were the hustle that is the spec screenplay market. friend, Kyle Erby, and I would go on the road on a few TV scripts, but it wasn’t long before For Lease and Hinds, breaking in was all together,” he says. “On one trip, we had to Lease brought up his idea for a story about a about writing their passion. drive to Montana. Kyle’s a black guy and we’d white hitman forced to team up with an “I’m not going to write something because have these long conversations about every- African-American hitman who was hired to kill that’s what’s selling,” Lease declares. “I’m not thing from politics to race to [sexuality] — him, an idea that became The Black Phantom. going to write a vampire movie just because everything you could think of.” After a while, Armed with creative story kernel, the everyone’s doing vampire movies. If it’s hot the two friends felt their conversations were scribes spent every spare minute away from right now, by the time I sit down and write entertaining enough to warrant inclusion their jobs writing the script. During the week- it, get it finished, completed, it’s going to be into a movie or TV show. So Lease began to days, they would stew over the current sec- old news. I think any writer should just write develop the idea. At first, he wanted to do a tion of the script. Then, on the weekends, what they think is a good story. Otherwise story about two cops, but feeling that that they’d collaborate in marathon 12-hour writ- you’re just a spec in a big pile of vampire genre was well-covered ground, he decided it ing sessions to knock out the actual pages. specs.” And that would really bite.

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 17 WHYI WRITE EDITED BY SEAN KENNELLY

Erin Cressida Wilson received an Independent Spirit Award for her Indie-hit, Secretary, starring and James Spader. She also wrote Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey Jr. Though she is the daughter of English professors, Wilson was never inspired to write until poet Carolyn Forché spoke at her high school and showed her the power of a sensual, feminist voice — sparking a relationship with writing she still carries today. Her latest project, Chloe, is the tale of a woman who hires an escort to test her husband’s loyalty.

IN MANY WAYS I feel more comfortable from the very beginning I saw filmmaking with writing than with talking or interacting and viewing not as an activity of just the in the “real world.” I can control the story, the brain, but of the whole body, psyche and characters, the tone and even the costumes. I spirit — because these films felt as though can daydream as a profession, and for that I they hit my whole body. Of course, my feel very lucky. mother would whisper for me to look down at I grew up in San Francisco during the ‘60s the floor at certain sexy sections, which made and the ‘70s, a very charged time that influ- it all the more exciting and forbidden, since I enced me quite a bit. At an early age, my par- peeked up anyway. Watching films became ents took me to see such films as Last Tango in voyeuristic and naughty for me, which influ- Paris, The Mother and the Whore, , ences my work to this day. Barry Lyndon and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ex- Weirdly, after this San Francisco environ- periencing those films as a small child was ex- ment, I ended up at Smith College, a pretty re- tremely visceral, upsetting and explosive. So Chloe markable all women’s college in New England

18 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 that was a complete culture shock for me. There But I found that it was better not to reinvent was a certain political correctness that was so much as to simply make it more American emerging in the ‘80s that I found confusing, by creating a cause-and-effect motor that told given the place I had grown up. I remember a story about the complexities of a marriage there was a T-shirt at Smith that read, “A Cen- and the sustainability of an erotic connection tury of Women on Top.” I remember thinking with a life partner over the course of many — quite literally in my head — “You mean in years. When director Atom Egoyan came on- order to be a feminist, you have to be a sexual board, he wanted to move the setting from ‘top’?” and I thought, “That’s not true.” That, San Francisco to Toronto. I had no problem in some ways, was the seed of what ended up with that, because I feel that when I hand a being the theme for Secretary: “Why do I have script to a director, it’s time for him to jump in to behave a certain way to be considered a and make it his own, just as I do during the feminist?” And I feel the same way about writ- writing process. ing, “Why do I have to behave a certain way I was talking to a friend of mine the other to be a screenwriter?” day; she had a boyfriend who recently broke Naturally, I wanted to break the rules on up with her. She said, “How am I going to Secretary, but director Steven Shainberg was spend Christmas? It’s so depressing.” I said, strict about not breaking the boundaries of the “Well, spend it with your writing. Treat your well-made screenplay. This was tough because writing like your lover or your boyfriend. The I have a strong impulse to be quite wild in my relationship is that exciting. Give yourself writing and yet, when I was forced to bring time for it. Give yourself dates with it. Give Erin Cressida Wilson rules in, it opened up the story to a wider au- yourself meals with it.” And she found that dience. So I found that if I could stay within creating that romantic relationship with her the parameters of this almost Syd Field-like With Chloe, I wanted to do my usual thing writing was a lifesaver. It also tricked her into structure, I was free to be myself as much as I with adaptation, which is to crawl inside a very good work ethic since “work” had now wanted, in terms of theme and story. someone else’s work and turn it into my own. become playtime.

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 19 ROBERT McKEE’S

An ongoing, online community for writers.

Author of... Featured in... content • Robert McKeeʼs Weekly Lessons • Robert McKeeʼs Weekly Interviews • Robert McKeeʼs Daily Q & A • Networking Rooms •AndMore

Please visit www. .com

about robert mckee

Robert McKee is the author of STORY, and regularly teaches his Story Seminar to sold-out audiences around the world. From LA to NY to London, Sydney, Singa- pore, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Vancouver and 15 other film capitals around the world, more than 50,000 students have taken the course over the last 20 years. Attracting everyone from first-time writers to Hollywood’s biggest stars, the course is a source of knowledge and inspira- tion to screenwriters, TV writers, novelists, producers, directors, playwrights, journalists and fiction writers.

Phone: 888.676.2533 E-mail: [email protected] : www.facebook.com/mckeestory BY JEFF GOLDSMITH

A SK HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVES WHAT THEY’RE SEARCHING FOR AND they’ll tell you a screenplay imbued with an original voice, crackling dialogue and enough of an edge to stand out while drawing broad audience appeal. Put that script in front of them and they’ll generally toss it in the trash, because for as open to new material as they claim to be, it’s a rarity for them to back such ideals with their wallets.

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 21 Ass-Kicking Pages Origin Stories Like all good tales in the comic book uni- That was exactly the case when co-writers Matthew verse, this one began with geek love. As a Vaughn (also directed) and Jane Goldman’s made the teenage Scottish fanboy, Mark Millar had the life-changing experience of meeting iconic rounds with their stellar adaptation of comic book comic book writer Alan Moore (Watchmen). The act of meeting his hero inspired Millar’s creator Mark Millar’s Kick-Ass. Their script went out true calling, which, up until that point, had on a Friday and Vaughn’s agent, Ari Emanuel, pre- been medical school. “I suddenly realized that this guy was doing full-time what I’d always dicted a frenzied bidding war. Yet, by the following dreamed of doing even as a hobby,” Millar says. “And it crystallized for me — the fact that Wednesday, the entire town had unanimously you could be a writer full-time as a job. And it rejected it. “The thing that was upsetting was that didn’t have to be something you just did over the weekends or in the evenings. You could nobody had faith in me,” Vaughn says. “My movies have a family, have a house and have a life and just write the things you always wanted to all made money and I’ve been a pretty good judge write. And that’s really the best life a comic of material. That was a bit of a kick in the head.” book writer will ever really have.” After his parents passed away, Millar dropped out of college and threw himself into

22 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 Jane Goldman (screenwriter) and Matthew Vaughn (director, screenwriter, producer) on the set of Kick-Ass. PHOTO COURTESY OF MARV FILMS / LIONSGATE PHOTO COURTESY

his career. “My original plan was to get a degree For Jane Goldman, writing has always been a script, he made a second copy for himself, and then go off and try to be a writer and give a part of her life. From a very young age she which is how he learned about screenwriting that a couple of years to try and see if it would wrote pop-skewed articles, the popular teen and development. “I read screenplays and work,” Millar says. “But through necessity I had book Thirteen-Something and even wound up watched how what I thought was a good to start writing just to pay off my debts. I was penning a book about The X-Files. Over the screenplay get absolutely ruined by the devel- very lucky. I went to the university library, used years, she became friends with comic book opment process,” Vaughn says. “Most devel- their free computer and just typed up proposal writer who introduced her to opment executives have never made a movie after proposal. And within a few months, I Vaughn when Gaiman realized he wasn’t going in their lives. So how are they going to even seemed to have some kind of regular work.” to be able to adapt his own novel, Stardust. In- think of translating a script from the page to Millar went on to become a prolific comic stead, Goldman and Vaughn made it their the screen? It’s laughable.” Although he was book writer, penning Marvel’s Ultimates and screenwriting debut. While she had written for learning a lot, Vaughn was falling into a rut Civil-War. In fact, Millar is regarded as some- the U.K. TV show Jane Goldman Investigates,her and decided to change his situation. “I was what of an architect for Marvel’s upcoming other previous experience prior to Stardust was hanging out with a bunch of guys all wanting Avengers film franchise in which his influence being part of the writing staff for the TV com- to be producers, directors, writers, actors, and can already be seen after he “cast” Samuel L. edy Baddiel’s Syndrome. As for what she learned we were all ex-waiters!” Vaughn recalls. “So I Jackson on the page by instructing the artists from writing her first full-length script, Stardust, thought, Jesus, none of us is going anywhere. to model the character Nick Fury after him in Goldman says it was the importance of know- I’ll try it in England where the competition is The Ultimates comic. Avengers and Captain ing when to condense her dialogue and scene less fierce.” America screenwriter Zak Penn has also ac- length: “I’d rather just write the scenes the right Vaughn moved back to his birthplace and, knowledged that Millar’s comics had definitely length to begin with. If given the choice be- at the ripe age of 23, energetically produced influenced his scripts. Yet, Millar isn’t always tween sacrificing my babies myself or having his first film, , a low-budget on the clock for Marvel because he splits his someone else do it, I’d rather do it myself.” thriller that made his investors their money time by making sure he’s still able to create his Vaughn admits that he wasn’t too punctual back. Soon after, he began working with di- own original characters and content through during his twenties, which is what got him in rector Guy Ritchie and wound up producing his label, which has thus far seen trouble at the music video/commercial house Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and all of two of his original creations, Wanted and now Limelight Productions, where he worked as a Ritchie’s subsequent films. Vaughn’s sense of Kick-Ass, make it to the big screen. gopher. Every time he was asked to photocopy story continued to grow as he gave copious March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 23 Ass-Kicking Pages notes on the Lock script when it was still two time with my family, which was true because like Adam West when he’s in costume. As Big and half acts — but without an actual ending! I thought this wasn’t worth being apart from Daddy sets his sites on the local mobster who He collaborated with Ritchie to bring the film my family for eight months.” ruined his life, they encounter yet another a conclusion (even though it’s an open-ended In the case of Hancock, Vaughn loved the teenage vigilante, Red Mist (Christopher one), with his skills as a collaborator continu- script when it was called Tonight He Comes. As Mintz-Plasse), who seems to be the perfect ally ing to grow ever since. In fact, Vaughn says he he recalls, his initial reaction to it was, “My God, to join their team. Or is he? wants to always work with a writing partner this is the first sort of postmodern look at a su- “Tragically, it’s massively autobiographi- rather than by himself. perhero-era film.” But as the project became a cal,” Millar says. “When I was 14, one of my Although Vaughn can also play well with reality, the script also changed. “As a movie, it friends and I were secretly into comic books others, comic book fans have watched him fall got homogenized way too much,” Vaughn and we wanted to not only write and draw off of three projects he was supposed to direct: says. “Hancock, as successful as it was, was nei- comics, but we actually thought, ‘Wouldn’t it X-Men: The Last Stand, Hancock and . “For ther fish nor fowl.” As for Thor, after a series of be cool if we were actually able to play that?’ me, it was a little bit of naivety in the sense delays and creative roadblocks, Vaughn real- Because it was almost embarrassing to say that that I’d come from a very disciplined low-bud- ized he could go make Kick-Ass instead. out loud. We went to the gym every day for, get film skill set and the schedule scared the like, six months, we went to karate and Taek- hell out of me,” Vaughn says. “I didn’t realize Sidekicks wondo, and we just wanted to be Batman? We the horrid ways that they will throw money at Kick-Ass tells of teenage comic book nerd, designed costumes and thank fuck we didn’t problems to solve them. I just got paranoid be- Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), who ques- do it, but we came very close. Kick-Ass is basi- cause I couldn’t understand how we could tions why people without superpowers can’t cally what would have happened if I had been make it for the budget I was being told. I knew be superheroes and decides to don a cheap cos- stupid enough to put on a costume and go out if the film goes over budget, I’d get the blame tume (a wetsuit, actually) to fight crime. Dave at night and try and be a superhero. In reality, and then that would be the end of my direct- turns out to not be very good at crime-fighting I would have been stabbed the first night and ing career. I wanted to make sure if I was going and after defending a thug from an angry gang ended up in the hospital like Dave.” to do an X-Men, it had to be as good as the first at his body’s expense, the moniker Kick-Ass Millar says he’s had the Hit-Girl and Big two, and I was just worried that with the tim- stuck. Copycat superheroes emerge and Dave Daddy characters in mind for years, but felt ing, I wouldn’t be able to make the film as I has his hide saved by the duo Hit-Girl (Chloe they were too cartoonish and couldn’t find the hoped it should be. The official reason given Moretz), an 11-year-old assassin, and Big right place for them. “Issue six of Kick-Ass, [for leaving was] about me wanting to spend Daddy (Nicolas Cage), her father who swaggers where you get Big Daddy and Hit-Girl’s origins,

24 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 I actually wrote five years before issue one,” he says. “That was really just an old comic that I never used, and Kick-Ass one through four I wrote in a frenzy because I really got into it when the whole thing came to me. I just started writing feverishly.” Goldman, who was friendly with Millar, put Vaughn in touch with him when he began searching for a new project after Stardust. At first Vaughn was interested in Millar’s Ameri- can Jesus comic, but as the two began chatting on the phone, Vaughn heard the idea of Kick- Ass and went for it. After reading the comic scripts of the first two issues, Vaughn eagerly wanted to read issues three and four, which weren’t yet fully written. Vaughn invited Mil- lar to the Stardust premiere, where both admit they had little time to chat, and so over lunch the next day, he told Millar that he wanted Kick-Ass to be his next film. With only half- page plots outlining where the other four comics would lead, Millar and Goldman got cracking on their script and finished it before Millar finished writing his comics.

Writing Powers “I’m highly dyslexic,” Vaughn says. “I would always get high marks because the teachers would say to me, ‘You know what? Your syntax and your grammar are awful, but the story was fantastic.’” For this reason, out- lining has a different meaning for Vaughn than it does for Goldman and Millar. “I card out the whole film because I have to look at it,” Vaughn says. His preference is to set up the three acts vertically on the wall and then card out the scenes horizontally. His outlining came in handy when he embarked on his directorial debut, Layer Cake, and worked with novelist J.J. Connolly (on his first screenplay based on and go for a coffee and go meet friends. That’s Once writing commenced, Vaughn wrote a his novel). When Connolly hit a wall by put- when I think you go from being professional script that he considered a blueprint for Gold- ting too much of his book into the script, to amateur. Because when you’ve got bills to man to build on. The two worked separately Vaughn helped whittle things down by card- pay and deadlines to meet, you just keep work- with plenty of meetings and phone conversa- ing their way around it. ing. I mean, I’ve never met a neurosurgeon tions, with Goldman continuing to update the As for crafting the films’ excellent dialogue, who has neurosurgeons’ block, you know?” piece from Vaughn’s notes. During production Vaughn recalls what a writer friend suggested While some would find the fact that Millar’s Goldman was often on set or a phone call away to him, “The biggest mistake about writing di- comic hadn’t been finished a daunting chal- when tweaks were needed as Vaughn con- alogue is to read it.” Vaughn recalls. “I said, lenge when writing an adaptation, Goldman cerned himself more with the task of directing. ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘Don’t read it. and Vaughn embraced the freedom. In fact, all “The difference in Jane and I,” Vaughn says, “is It’s meant to be spoken. Read it out. Act it out.’ three writers helped each other out creatively. that I would struggle to write a proper screen- So I always do.” This is another example of “[Millar] initially said, ‘Look, as long as you play without Jane; Jane wouldn’t struggle to what made Vaughn and Goldman’s collabora- don’t kill anyone off that I want to be alive at write a screenplay without me.” When all was tion click — they were comfortable enough the end of the series so I can start the second se- said and done, their script was ready to make with each other to trade lines out loud. ries, I don’t mind what you do,’” Goldman says. the rounds about four months after they began. As for writer’s block, all three writers agree “Obviously, we kept things and updated things, that they’ve been far too busy in their careers so sometimes the comic fell into step with the Bloody Consequences to consider allowing it to slow them down. “I script and other times we’d fall in step with the Kick-Ass, just like its comic predecessor, is just keep writing,” Millar says. “The worst comic.” Millar also notes that due to his print- relentless with its violence. The film features thing you can do with writers’ block is stop ing schedule he had less leeway for changes. the kind of wild moments you would expect March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 25 Ass-Kicking Pages in a great John Woo flick or samurai off roofs and flies. This guy jumps off film intermixed with enough smart a roof and dies. At least I’m showing comedy to give the film a unique tone. that jumping off a roof dressed as a Interestingly, the exact details behind superhero is a really stupid idea.” some of the film’s finer action mo- ments were nowhere to be found in Hit-Girl Hits Back the film’s 8/28/08 production draft. As Similar to Millar’s comic, a single Vaughn and Goldman explain, many viewing of any of the “red-band” ma- of these moments were born during terial online for Hit-Girl will give the process of working with stunt co- viewers a sense that this trash-talking ordinators and storyboard artists. Thus 11-year-old assassin, while funny, the reader has a sense of what is hap- isn’t meant to be a role-model for pening with the characters, first and ‘tween-aged girls. Almost like Natalie foremost, but the film’s visual action Portman’s character in Luc Besson’s dynamics aren’t on the page. Léon (The Professional), Hit-Girl is a “I can’t stand the way most modern calculated killer who has a good action is filmed,” Vaughn says. “You heart and spunky personality. While have all these closeups and shaky cam humor helps soften the blow, the and quick edits. You have no fucking character was one of the reasons idea of what anyone is doing and who is most studios passed on the project. against whom. That’s why I always try As Vaughn recalls, “A few people to do as many wide shots as possible to said, ‘Get rid of Hit-Girl, get rid of the keep the geography. The difficult thing violence, get rid of the swearing. Let’s of Kick-Ass and other action movies is do The Goonies version of it.’” that I make sure that you care and un- Vaughn refused and by the time he derstand who the characters are and had a finished film to show the stu- what their motivations are. So when dios that initially passed, their one they start getting into action sequences, note was that they all wished there you’re really worrying if something is was more of Hit-Girl. So why does going to happen to them or you’re en- Hit-Girl work? Sure, she decapitates joying watching them pull off a plan.” make it look like it can really hurt,” Vaughn people, but she’s a giggly three-dimensional While the film’s action is wild and crazy, it says. “I’ve gotten into big arguments with the character who’s had a very strange upbring- was important to Vaughn and Goldman to censors in England about one of the trailers ing and approaches her violent acts with a keep a certain amount of realism in play since because there’s one scene where a guy jumps professional air, simply because she’s never these characters have no actual superpowers. off the roof, because there are kids who might experienced any sort of normal life. Simply “The responsible way of handling violence is copy that. I’m like, they’ve actually got more put, she’s fascinating on almost every level that if somebody gets hurt or beaten up, you chance of copying Batman because he jumps and practically steals the show.

26 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 Fighting the Marketplace during 2009’s San Diego Comic-Con. While some may regard the film as The reception would be crucial to the controversial, the studios couldn’t fig- film’s distribution as it was one of the ure out who its intended audience few films showcased at Comic-Con would be. As Vaughn recalls, “Every- without a distributor. All the studios one said, ‘Well, what is this? It’s for 20- were watching. Needless to say, the year-olds. It’s not for adults and it’s not crowd went crazy and gave Kick-Ass a for kids.’ I was like, ‘Well, it’s sort of standing ovation. “It was like being 16- to 25-year-old males for sure, and in a scene from a cheesy movie,” what I would call the 25- to 40-year- Goldman recalls. “I honestly thought old group, which is all of us who I was going to cry.” haven’t really grown up since we were Kick-Ass sold within weeks of its 25.” The lesson for screenwriters is that debut. Vaughn refused to buckle to even if your material doesn’t exactly fit low-ball studio offers and made a into an identifiable demographic, as deal with Lionsgate that not only long as you’re telling a sound story made the studio happy, but also re- with engaging characters, chances are couped the film’s full budget, with a it’ll find a home. profit for Vaughn and his investors. After being rejected, Vaughn re- Beyond the financials, one of the members hearing the same type of dis- reasons Vaughn went with Lions- sention when looking to fund Lock, gate was that after watching the stu- Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. So he re- dio release six Saw films, he knew turned to his private equity sources there was little chance it would get and secured a budget estimated to be cold feet due to the film’s adult- somewhere between $30 million to natured violence. $50 million. The budget was in place In this age, where the formulaic months before the recent financial col- status quo is often what’s strived for, lapse, which worked out well for Kick-Ass remains an example that Vaughn and his investors, who were daring risks on the page truly can pay relieved to know their capital was safe off. As Goldman says, “Never shy from the eroding markets. enough for you? That’s my rule.” With pri- away from doing something because of how Vaughn also decided to break vate equity behind him, Vaughn enjoyed a it might be received. That’s generally a good rule of film financing by investing his own mostly smooth shoot devoid of outside in- guideline in all creative endeavors. If you do money into the project. “People say there’s terference and even pulled it off without what pleases you rather than what you think a golden rule,” Vaughn chuckles. “Don’t put using a bond company. will please a focus group, you will genuinely your own money in your movies, but why The moment of truth came when they end up making something that’s of higher the fuck should anyone else if it’s not good premiered footage before 5,000 excited fans value and of higher quality.”

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 27 DOWN the Rabbit Hole The screenwriter of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King follows the white rabbit to a surreal — and fiercely loyal — sequel to Lewis Carroll’s stories about a girl named Alice. BY PETER CLINES

urious thoughts of Alice in Wonderland Rather than re-imagining the tales written running around in some field — I think she had been tickling Linda Woolverton (The by Lewis Carroll (the well-known pseudonym was chasing a rabbit — and she stood there CLion King) for quite a long while without of the true author, mathematician Charles and suddenly this little white paw came up being used. So long, in fact, that when her agent Lutwidge Dodgson), Woolverton constructed and jerked her. Grabbed her ankle and pulled asked her about the project they’d almost faded a unique revisiting of Wonderland. “I thought, her down the rabbit hole. So it was that she back to nothingness. The ideas hadn’t been lost, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if she was older and went went reluctantly. This is a reluctant return.” though, and when she impressed producer sis- back?’” the writer explains. She envisioned an ters Suzanne and with her pitch, older Alice, one on the cusp of adulthood but FOLLOW THE WHITE RABBIT they took her idea to Disney. In late 2006, the not sure of what to do with her life. “It isn’t in Despite having written a sizable number screenwriter was hired to write the script. the movie now, but my image was she was of scripts for award-winning animated films,

28 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 Woolverton has never seen herself as an an- imation writer. In fact, it annoys her when people insist it must require a different skill set. “I wrote Beauty and the Beast,” she recalls. “I wanted to use it as a spec script after I wrote it, and people in the live-action world were like, ‘Well, we don’t know how to read an animated script.’” She pauses to grind her teeth in frustration. “Look at the script. There’s absolutely no difference whatsoever, except for that it’s a teapot instead of a cook. It doesn’t look any different on the page.” She’s willing to concede animated scripts are a bit shorter, but makes it clear this is only because animated films tend to be shorter. “But if you looked at the script it doesn’t look any different — at least mine don’t.” Woolverton prefers outlines over note cards (“They confuse me,” she explains with a grin), and while she used to write very detailed out- lines, experience has taught her to be a little more flexible. “I’m not so much a slave to the outline as I used to be,” she says. “What I learned over the years is to leave room for my- self for something magical to happen. I just trust that it will.” She’s quick to note that this doesn’t mean tives of such a place would call their home, came a base for many elements in the story, she starts directionless on page one. “I need since it would not be as wondrous to them. and the screenwriter began to play with the to know where I’m going,” Woolverton Then she came upon the idea that the idea that while some things in Underland have stresses. “I can’t just go wandering off into younger, more innocent Alice had simply changed over the years, more than a few of the woods. I need to know where the act misheard the name of this world on her first them, like the world’s name, are just things breaks are. I’m very much about structure. It visit. “It’s really ‘Underland’ and she thought Alice is seeing clearer now that she’s a has to be a well-told tale, a good three-act they said ‘Wonderland,’” the screenwriter ex- grownup. “You perceive things differently structure, which the books don’t follow.” As plains. This also gave her another tie-back to when you’re older,” Woolverton points out. To she sees it, a good outline of about 10 pages Carroll’s stories, which were originally titled a child, a game of croquet that uses live ani- gives her a set of landmarks to keep in sight Alice’s Adventures Underground. mals for the mallets and balls is comical, but as she writes so that she knows where she’s The concept of Alice’s youthful naiveté be- an adult just sees terrified creatures, bound and going. “It’s never open-ended. I always helpless, smacked across the palace grounds. know how it’s going to end.” “It isn’t cute, it’s horrible!” the writer says. To get started, the screenwriter re-read “[The Red Queen’s] tied up little hedgehogs both of Carroll’s books, “Alice’s Adventures and used them as balls.” in Wonderland” and “Through the Look- In fact, Alice’s new stage in life as a 19-year- ing Glass,” to refresh herself with the story. old girl in Victorian England, helped shape the What caught her attention, though, was theme of the story. “In the beginning, she’s of- the famous poem in the first chapter of fered all these possibilities of who she could Looking Glass. “I was as influenced by ‘The be,” the screenwriter explains. “She could be Jabberwocky’ as I was by both books,” the the wife of this aristocrat. She could turn into screenwriter says. “That really inspired me, a spinster. She’s on the threshold of making tonally, for the language that I made up and huge changes in her life. So who is she going the idea of the Jabberwocky, slaying the Jab- to be? What is the choice she’s going to berwocky and the vorpal sword.” She make?” This theme of personal identity also plucked ideas from the poem and began to tied back to the original stories and Alice’s first play with the concept of its words as a conversation with the Caterpillar. “It’s when prophesy of this other world’s future. she accepts who she is and takes charge of her While re-reading, another idea pre- own destiny that the whole thing can unfold,” sented itself, this one by its absence. “No Woolverton says. one ever says, ‘This is Wonderland,’” she points out. “It’s not the specific name of CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER the place. It’s just a place where this girl Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is still recovering goes and it’s a wonder land.” This led Linda Woolverton from the death of her beloved father when she Woolverton to muse about what the na- discovers she’s being pressured into marriage.

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 29 Down the Rabbit Hole

As luck would have it, on the night of her en- says, “you shouldn’t be able to tell the differ- they speak in the Outlands. gagement party, the young woman spots a ence between anything I created in some adap- most bizarre sight — an oversized white rabbit tation and what was in the original.” One of The Tweedles yawn from boredom. wearing a waistcoat and pocket watch — and the standards of Alice in Wonderland is Lewis uses it as an excuse to flee. Following the ani- Carroll’s imaginative language and clever TWEEDLEDEE mal, Alice slips into an unusually large, im- wordplay, so Woolverton was especially careful Hurry on to the bloody bit. possibly deep rabbit hole and finds herself in to make sure her dialogue and vocabulary Underland, a place she half-remembers from a meshed with the original. Another well-known standard in the tale is childhood dream. Her first visit to Underland Alice’s shifting size as different foods and was no dream, though, and in the years since, TWEEDLEDEE drinks cause her to shrink or grow. The screen- much of the wonder has gone out of this im- (to the Dodo) writer reached the first instance of this in her possible land. The maniacal Red Queen (He- Tell the part about the script and stumbled over a point of logic: “She lena Bonham Carter) now rules the land with Jabberwocky. drank the potion,” Woolverton reasons. “Her an iron fist, enforcing her power by threaten- body’s shrinking; why would her clothes ing to unleash the nightmarish Jabberwocky TWEEDLEDUM shrink? I realized her clothes are going to stay (voiced by Christopher Lee) on anyone who That being on the Frabjous Day. the same size they were, and she’s going to do opposes her. A quiet resistance, led by the Mad all the changing.” So throughout the story, Hatter (Johnny Depp), has been searching for The Dodo turns the scroll further. Alice’s clothes are either enveloping her as she “the right Alice” to save them, because, ac- The Oraculum SPEAKS in a voice that shrinks within them or stretched to near-burst- cording to the legendary and prophetic Orac- resonates with wisdom and age. The ing as she grows to giant proportions. “It was- ulum, only Alice can wield the vorpal blade to Voice of Destiny. n’t about making her sexy at all,” the slay the Jabberwocky. screenwriter chuckles at the mention of pop- Getting the tone of the story right was one THE ORACULUM ping buttons. “It was pure logic, which I think of the most important things for Woolverton, ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves worked out great.” who thinks honoring the original work must did gypre and gimble in the wabe... On top of merging her own style and ideas be a top priority “If I was going to adapt or do All mimsy were the borogoves, with Carroll’s, Woolverton also had to balance anything with the works of Lewis Carroll,” she And the mome raths outgrabe. a key element of her plot — that the conclu- says, “that was a huge, totally brazen thing to sion of this adventure has been foretold. The do. How dare I?” ALICE film is not even two dozen pages into the script She suggests that the biggest challenge a What language is that? when Alice (and the audience) are told that she screenwriter faces when adapting another per- is destined to defeat the Jabberwocky. Like any son’s work is being able to be creative within THE DODO good prophesy tale, the screenwriter sees the an established world. “In other words,” she Outlandish. It’s an old tongue enjoyment comes not from knowing the end-

30 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 ing, but from seeing how this seemingly im- says. “You have to kind of glean what he means some of his thoughts. It was very cool.” possible ending might come to pass. “Here’s a lot, which is great. He has a really great way By the time production began, the script this girl,” Woolverton explains. “She wears a of working without being demanding. Not had gone through a mere four drafts. “It kept blue dress, little shoes; she’s this little thing. being so generic that you don’t know what he’s getting shorter and shorter,” Woolverton re- And by the end of this tale I’m going to make talking about, but really able to get what he calls. “I did a whole draft just to get pages out.” you believe that this girl will put on a suit of needs out of you.” She adds that almost all of One thing she’s still unsure of, however, is why armor, pick up a sword and kill a beast.” The the film’s major characters are better developed the final story has the same name as its pred- story then becomes about seeing how such a because of Burton’s gentle guidance, while the ecessor. “I kept putting in other drafts that said metamorphosis actually happens. “I don’t plot was left almost unchanged. Alice,” she says. “Finally I just put Alice in Won- think that’s giving [away] the ending,” she says. The character who grew and developed the derland because that’s what everybody was call- “I think that’s enticing the [audience].” most was arguably Carroll’s second best- ing it anyway.” known creation after Alice. “When you think SNICKER-SNACK about Wonderland,” Woolverton says, “the OFF WITH THIER HEADS! The first draft of the script, originally called most iconic character is the Hatter.” She saw The final film may not quite be what some Alice, took the veteran screenwriter a little over Tarrant Hightop, the Mad Hatter, as the obvi- audiences are expecting, but this was never a three months to finish. “I’m slow,” Woolver- ous leader of the underground resistance and, concern for Woolverton. “I worry about not ton says with a laugh. “A lot of writers can as such, he would be working hand in hand cheapening the works of this great genius,” she whip things out in six weeks. I never can. with Alice for most of the story. With Alice as says. “I don’t care about people’s perception of When I see that in a contract I laugh.” She fin- a grown woman, naturally the seeds of a bud- Alice in Wonderland versus the Disney version. ished the screenplay in early 2007 and, almost ding romance between her and the Hatter That doesn’t bother me at all. What would re- immediately, it attracted the attention of di- were planted in the first draft. “It isn’t played ally bother me is if I had somehow cheapened rector . out as much now,” the screenwriter admits. Lewis Carroll’s work.” Woolverton has nothing but good things to The other person who helped shape the In retrospect, it turns out that this determi- say about Burton. “He’s very, very respectful of character of the Hatter was Depp. The actor nation to be true to the original work almost the writer’s process,” she says. “Never de- had done his own research into “mad hatter’s stopped the screenwriter right at the start. Just manding. Never, ‘Do this! Do that!’” The two disease,” a form of mercury poisoning that was as she was starting the project, Woolverton sat down and went over the script a few times common in hat makers who treated their felt took a trip to England where she walked in early pre-production. The director had a few with the dangerous element. Woolverton and through a park and came upon a statue of Car- ideas about specific jokes, though Woolverton Depp had a meeting where he shared several roll. She confesses that the sight drove home explains that Burton’s usual method of giving of his ideas, including the idea that the Hatter the popularity of the material she was work- notes is to offer suggestions about alternate would be (ironically enough) mercurial. ing with and the gravity of what she contem- takes on the material and the characters. “You “[Depp] called him a human mood ring,” the plating doing with it. “I was completely and have to listen hard with Tim when he talks be- screenwriter recalls. “I went through the char- utterly freaked out,” she laughs. “This guy’s a cause he’s not really verbose,” the screenwriter acter and sort of re-vamped it according to literary fixture! It was very intimidating.”

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 31 BY PAULA HENDRICKSON LAST SEASON, CBS’ The Mentalist became the breakout hit of the sea- son. Before it even debuted, some people called it a rip-off of USA’s Psych. Other than featuring pseudo psychics working with the police, both shows have little in common. In creating The Mentalist, executive producer merged ele- ments of crime procedurals from the CSI and Law & Order franchises with the quirkiness of such classic detec- tive series as Colombo and Murder, She Wrote. The result was an episodic, character-driven procedural. “It certainly was my sense that crime procedurals had gone to a very Know Your Show: PREMISE Five years before we first meet (Simon Baker), he is making a good liv- ing as a fake psychic who communicates with the dead. His well-honed powers of ob- servation and empathy lull unsuspecting people into revealing more information than they realize, allowing him to easily convince them he knew what had happened in their pasts and what was yet to come. He also occasionally consulted with the police about murder cases, and after goading the vicious serial killer during a live television appearance, Jane returned home to find his wife and young daughter slain by the serial killer. Jane is now a special consultant with the Serious Crimes Unit of the California Bureau of Investigation (think FBI, but relegated only to the state). He doesn’t carry a gun. He uses his psychic trickery and boyish charm not only to circumvent CBI protocol, but to hide his inner turmoil from those around him. He reports to Senior Agent (Robin Tunney). Always several steps ahead of the rest

32 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 procedural, functional place,” Heller says. “The more you perfect that, the less quirky they become and the more genuinely procedural they become. So it seemed there was room for a more old-style, character-based show about someone you’d enjoy watching. It felt like it would be making it fresh by making it old-school in that way.” “The science is the mind of the character,” says Madeline DiMaggio, writer, producer and author of “How to Write for Television.” “What he does is observe, and what they do so brilliantly is they let us in on what he’s observing. It’s like a game of Clue.” The Mentalist of the unit — which includes agents Cho (Tim Kang), Rigsby (Owain Yeoman) and Van Pelt (Amanda Righetti) — Jane frequently mean- ders off on his own without their consent or backup to set up suspects. “There are good twists and it’s always a sur- prise,” DiMaggio says. “He gets an idea but we never know what the setup is going to be until it’s actually happening. He was a former con artist and he has so much fun at what he does, calling people on what they’ve done.” Jane intentionally provokes people, in- cluding his co-workers. “He says things that are so utterly shocking that it’s fun,” DiMag- gio says. “Bold, brash things. And we wonder, ‘How did he reach these conclusions?’” His superiors might not like Jane’s un- orthodox techniques, but they like that he solves cases. PRIMARY LOCATIONS The CBI detectives can be assigned to crimes anywhere within the state of Califor- nia, so sets vary with each crime, but generally include the crime scene and suspects’ homes or workplaces, and occasionally temporary of-

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 33 Know Your Show fices. Regular sets include the CBI’s main head- Footsteps,” in which Jane suspects Red John’s the box, to act out of the box, so whatever quarters and interview rooms. involvement in a new case. A series of leads happens in the writing of it or the performing brings them to the serial killer’s lone friend. of it — whatever happens — we know we can’t THE STORY THUS FAR Jane knows it’s a setup, yet risks his life for a rely on what a detective would usually do. In season one, Jane came painfully close to chance to lure Red John. When the serial That’s what we’ve seen before, and that’s what finding Red John a couple of times. In episode killer’s friend attacks Jane, Lisbon steps in. Mo- he won’t do.” 11, “Red John’s Friends,” a prisoner claiming ments later, in order to save Lisbon, Jane grabs Occasional flashbacks reveal bits of Jane’s to know Red John promises Jane that if he a shotgun and shoots the one person who past. In those glimpses of his life as a phony psy- proves the prisoner was wrongly convicted of might lead him to Red John. chic, Jane isn’t the same man we see today. He’s murder, he will reveal what he knows. Jane A would-be romance between Rigsby and slicker, more arrogant and never wears a vest. finds the real killer, but as they escort the now Van Pelt appears throughout season one. In Past or present, Jane constantly studies his ex-prisoner out of the prison, they’re caught the pilot, Jane notices Rigsby’s attraction to surroundings. “What they do brilliantly is let newbie agent Van Pelt, us in on what he’s observing,” DiMaggio ex- catching them off-guard plains. “They do that through the camera.” by saying, “OK, later She points to the opening sequence of the tonight, when Rigsby asks pilot episode when the camera follows the you to come back to his body language of a couple whose missing hotel room, say yes.” daughter has been found dead. The man Rigsby never asks. In sub- reaches for his wife’s hand and she lets go. Jane sequent episodes, Rigsby wanders into the couple’s kitchen, makes tea dislikes Van Pelt’s new and glances at family photos. When the wife boyfriend, who ends up discovers him, he says he knows all about her being a killer who’s after and lists obscure details he gleaned from the Jane. On another case, photos. She asks if he’s psychic, he says, “No, they wind up on a fake just paying attention.” Jane paints a re- date as decoys. When spectable picture of her husband and then Rigsby is hypnotized and drops the bombshell: “So why do you suspect told to do the one thing him of murdering your daughter?” Two and a he most wants to do, he half pages later, she shoots her husband in kisses Van Pelt. front of Jane. The second season be- gins with Lisbon and crew RULES pulled from the Red John The Mentalist is a four-act drama with a case, though Red John teaser. The pilot script opens with a three-scene continues to permeate teaser that runs for eight pages, the bulk of Jane’s life. “That’s the dark which is one extended scene. part of Jane that we’re Act one – begins page 9, 18 scenes, ends never forgetting,” DiMag- page 23. gio says. “Red John is a Act two – begins page 24, 12 scenes, ends monumental antagonist page 39. for him, because Jane can’t Act three – begins page 40, 16 scenes, ends reach the guy.” page 50. Act four – begins page 51, 16 scenes, ends CHEAT SHEET page 62. In homage to the elu- Flashbacks to Jane’s past appear in italics, sive Red John, each separating them from the scenes that trigger in a protest. The former prisoner bolts and dis- episode title includes some variant of the color his memories. appears into the crowd. He calls later, saying red. Heller feels that constraint aids creativity. he had to make sure Red John didn’t think he “I do like creating those kinds of limitations TONE was ratting him out, but promises to tell Jane on things,” Heller says. “It helps, like having to The show incorporates a good deal of everything after he’s had a taste of freedom. write poetry that rhymes.” humor — especially in scenes between Cho Jane deduces from the background noise and “The whole Red John thing is hanging there and Rigsby, and in some of Lisbon and Jane’s the ex-con’s known proclivities that he’s in a throughout the entire season,” DiMaggio says. banter. Casual viewers might even mistake The Tijuana hotel, calling from a hooker’s cell “Even if he’s not in it, there’s a red theme — Mentalist for light entertainment. Jane’s dis- phone. By the time Jane, Lisbon and Mexican red hair, red in the title. It’s never forgotten.” arming smile and naughty schoolboy charm authorities arrive, the would-be source and the There’s a reason Jane is a trained observer is often misleading. He enjoys deception. hooker are dead, with Red John’s signature and not a cop or detective bound by conven- While Psych plays the fake-psychic aspects smiley face on the hotel wall. tion. “It gives you a lot of freedom,” Heller for laughs, Heller wanted to explore the inner The first season ended with “Red John’s says, “because his role in life is to think out of workings of someone with no qualms about

34 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 deceiving others for money. “It’s the moral am- bivalence of those guys who are essentially lying, yet helping people by performing sort of a therapeutic function or a priestly function even, via spiritualist or psychic, but neverthe- less they’re doing something good. It requires a great deal of skill and empathy to do that job. So it seemed like an interesting place to start.”

OPPORTUNITY If a writer really knows this series and characters well, this is a great show for specs. DiMaggio says the key is developing a story that shows all sides of Jane while fully using the secondary characters. “On this particular show, leave Red John hanging there. Keep the theme of red going, but don’t progress the Red John plot for- ward because you don’t know where that plot is going,” DiMaggio says. “Write a tight little story using this character to the max, knowing that character. If you can give some new insights into Jane and [make] the creator or writers go, ‘Whoa! Why didn’t we think of that?’ They would probably invite you in to pitch.”

THE MENTALIST CHARACTER GUIDE

Patrick Jane (Simon Baker, The Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney, Kimball Cho (Tim Kang, Third Guardian): Earned a living as a Prison Break): As a senior Watch): Not easily ruffled, Cho phony psychic until his public agent of the CBI’s Serious is the CBI agent whose dead- taunting of Red John led the se- Crimes Unit, Lisbon is Jane’s pan sense of humor and calm rial killer to make Jane’s wife boss. She allows Jane some demeanor keeps the squad on and young daughter his next limited free reign, yet he fre- an even keel. Cho revels in an- victims. Carrying tremendous quently tests her no-nonsense noying his partner, Rigsby, guilt over the slayings, Jane approach to police work. Hav- once even hinting he spent now uses his skills for good, ing been raised by an alco- time in juvenile detention, then consulting with the CBI to solve crimes, a position that holic father after her mother died, Lisbon likes to be not disclosing why. allows him to keep tabs on Red John. Often disarm- in control of whatever situation she’s in. Where Jane ingly charming, nearly everything Jane says and does wants vengeance, Lisbon wants justice. is calculated to provoke a reaction. He masks his darker side and his hunger for vengeance – which may Unseen character: be his biggest motivator. Red John: The serial killer, known for leav- Grace Van Pelt (Amanda ing a smiley face Righetti, The O.C.): The most Wayne Rigsby (Owain Yeo- made of his victims’ junior agent at the CBI, Van man, The Nine): Rigsby har- blood at each crime Pelt is the believer of the bors feelings for fellow CBI scene, is always one bunch and doesn’t believe agent, Grace Van Pelt, but is step ahead of Jane. He doesn’t need to be seen to Jane when he says all psy- afraid to act on those feel- wreak havoc on Jane’s life, since he’s always in chics are frauds. After her ings. The most gullible agent Jane’s mind. He knows Jane’s strengths and weak- would-be boyfriend hurt in the unit, Ribsgy was once nesses better than even Jane does. The one person of Rigsby in a botched kidnap- hypnotized into kissing Van equal brilliance to Jane, Red John toys with him and ping of Jane, Van Pelt started softening on Rigsby. Pelt and nearly killing Jane manipulates him into chasing false leads. Red John’s and a former suspect. true identity remains unknown.

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 35 REWRITING THE DECADE

A Look Back on TV BY MICHAEL SCHNEIDER

TV’S MOST CREATIVE DECADE began in classic anti-hero, alongside complicated, such as The Sopranos hadn’t manifested in the 1999, when The Sopranos premiered on sometimes dark but always layered story- broadcast world. Hilariously, the short answer HBO. At that moment, the balance of power telling. A show’s protagonist anointing a mur- was that it had: The Sopranos was originally de- between the broadcast networks and cable derous mob chief was truly unheard of until veloped at Fox until the network got cold feet finally began to shift. The Sopranos, which broke the cardinal TV rule and pulled out. But had the show stayed at Cable, of course, had been encroaching that lead characters had to be likable — or at the networks, chances are that it would have upon the traditional networks — ABC, NBC, least redeemable. Shows like NYPD Blue came wound up merely a diluted version of Chase’s CBS and Fox — for years. But for a long close to breaking that rule but, at the end of HBO masterpiece. time, cable’s diet of theatricals, specials and the day, actor Dennis Franz’s, Sipowicz, re- Along with Sopranos, HBO continued mak- low-budget original series (sorry, La Femme mained a very sympathetic character. ing waves with shows such as ’s Six Nikita) weren’t seen as a viable threat to the In the process, cable gave the networks Feet Under and David Milch’s Deadwood while old guard. reason to worry for the first time. Unlike the reinforcing already popular shows such as That is until The Sopranos came along and broadcasters, HBO didn’t have to answer to 1998’s Sex and the City. Tony Soprano whacked primetime TV as we angry advertisers and furthermore ratings The folks at FX took note after the chan- knew it. Creator David Chase’s mob drama are irrelevant in the world of commercial- nel underwent a radical transformation to be- was different than the first-run cable fare we free pay TV. Pay cable could also afford big come basic cable’s equivalent of pay-cable’s were used to seeing. In the years before The marketing campaigns, decent-sized budgets HBO. First up at FX was The Shield, a gritty, vi- Sopranos, cable dramas often looked like and short episodic orders – and as a result, olent, verite-styled cop drama that proved pre- cheap syndicated product that featured HBO became Emmy bait, stealing the awards mium cable didn’t hold a monopoly in functional narratives and characters, with thunder from its broadcast rivals. cutting-edge programming. writing that rarely rose above the low ex- Before you could say “bada bing,” The So- FX’s success then expanded to dramas such pectations. The Sopranos took an important pranos became a mega-hit, the likes of which as Nip/Tuck and Damages, as well as the com- first step to breaking down the tried and true HBO — or any cabler — had never seen be- edy, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In the conventions by captivating audiences with fore. It was around that time that HBO coined process, FX inspired other basic cablers to ex- fresh characters and gritty stories that could- a new slogan: “It’s not TV, it’s HBO.” pand into original scripted fare as well. n’t find a place on a network. It didn’t take long for the dominoes to AMC came up with and Breaking And no, we’re not referring to the show’s continue falling. Then-NBC head Bob Wright Bad. TNT hit it big with The Closer. Syfy (for- topless dancers. circulated an infamous internal memo at the merly Sci Fi Channel) proved that remakes The Sopranos introduced TV viewers to a Peacock network, wondering why a show could work, as Battlestar Galactica scored a cult

36 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 audience. It’s also important to note that And it isn’t hard to see why. While fea- became a solid accomplishment even while Galactica’s special effects dazzled audi- tures chase big-budget franchises and often though they remain a few pay levels below ences, the show featured a truly stellar char- sacrifice story or three-dimensional charac- their scripted cousins. acter-driven narrative that mirrored America’s ters, TV boasts more sophisticated story- Also, writers with deals with the studios post-9/11 identity crisis as space-bound telling, memorable characters and unique are now being put to work on series, which refugees struggled not just against cylons but twists on old genres. Some would argue limits their ability to go off and create the also among themselves under both military that these big-budget bets made by studios next big hit. and democratic leaders. And USA — with on their tent-pole films minimized those While TV experienced its golden age of shows such as the long-running Monk, Psych films’ lasting effect since studio executives drama, the comedy genre found itself chal- and Burn Notice — proved that populist fare often filter out original brushstrokes to in- lenged for much of the decade. As megahits still had a place so long as the writing re- stead venture down tried-and-true paths, such as Friends and Frasier went off the air, mained above par. with the hope of capturing the broadest au- the networks had trouble developing the Pay cabler Showtime, saw opportunity as dience appeal. next generation of mass-appeal hits. Instead, a few HBO series started to fade and hit it big TV was also assisted by the decade’s tech- a new wave of critically acclaimed but low- with edgy, smartly written shows such as nological advances, as the rise of DVRs, rated series moved the sitcom forward — Queer as Folk, Dexter, Weeds and The Tudors. iTunes and video streaming sites such as even though viewers didn’t follow. Interestingly, The Sopranos proved that if gave viewers more opportunities to Arrested Development was arguably one of you spent more money, the viewers would catch small-screen fare on their own sched- the best shows of the decade, but couldn’t come. Prior to the show, cable dramas had ules. This trend led to new revenue streams last beyond three seasons (and the fact that been notoriously cheap: around $1 million an in ancillary markets, as TV shows’ DVD box it lasted that long was a miracle). The Office episode. While they still don’t cost as much sets initially reaped sizeable gains — only to and 30 Rock get plenty of kudos, but aren’t as broadcast shows (some premium cable se- slip with DVD sales, which have slumped in quite the smash hits that their 1990s prede- ries excepted), there’s more money to play recent years. Despite the qualitative leap cessors were. with now. that TV shows took in the dawn of the 21st The decade ended with some promise, Meanwhile, the drama halo effect eventu- century, the medium had yet to be hit by its however, thanks to the well-crafted family ally spread back to broadcast as well, as risks biggest challenges. comedy Modern Family, among others. were taken with shows such as Fox’s 24, CBS’ The networks — both broadcast and Cable, which has spent most of the last nine CSI and ABC’s Alias — which all brought chal- cable — began chasing after smaller pieces years centered on drama, seems to be search- lenging, well-written characters and concepts of the audience pie, as viewers were pro- ing for new laughs as well. FX — home to to the masses. Another wave of high-quality vided with more viewing options than ever It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — continues entries, such as ABC’s Lost and Desperate before. And with viewership continuing to to look for more half-hour laughers. HBO, Housewives, followed. head to DVRs and the Internet, that audi- the longtime home of Curb Your Enthusiasm, More recently, while many of those shows ence is tough to monetize. has also been busy launching the refresh- have seen erosion in their quality or left the The end result: Lower ratings, which lead ingly funny series such as Bored to Death and air altogether, the pipeline has been replen- to lower ad sales and less money to develop Eastbound and Down. ished with new intriguing entries such as V the next generation of hits. Thus, just as TV continues to enjoy a and the reworking of the film Parenthood. One of the biggest blows to writers came gilded age of drama, it appears that comedy Interestingly, the surplus of high-quality in the form of the rise in reality and un- has finally begun its renaissance — and just dramas continues to be so elevated that sev- scripted TV, which meant fewer timeslots as Tony Soprano set the tone for the 2000s, eral publications have decreed that television and jobs for scripted TV. While the WGA a comedy icon could very well emerge as a is now better than feature films. was late in unionizing the reality TV staffs it beacon of the 2010s.

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 37 The Best Movie and TV Script Consultants

Hiring The Right Script Of all writers who had their scripts reviewed by Consultant Vastly Improves professional analysts: • 11% subsequently sold or op- Your Chances of Selling, tioned that script (at least 20 times the average for all scripts) Optioning, Landing An Agent, • 10% got hired for other writing Getting Other Writing Work work • 30% won or placed in a contest To order the report now and receive the pre-publication with that script (an amazing sta- discount price of $24.95 ($5 off), go to this web page only: tistic, considering that contests http://creativescreenwriting.com/consultant.study.html Save $5 by ordering at the pre-publication price now! We reserve the right to end this discount price offer at any time without notice.

38 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 As Rated By Screenwriters

receive between a few hundred Who’s Your Best Bet: A • Which high-end consultants are and several thousand entries!) Working Writer-Analyst Who rated best by writers • 10% landed agents with that Has Won An Emmy And • Which analysts and consultants script. Charges Only $225 Or The were rated best for dramatic fea- $3,000+ Consultant Who tures, comedies, horror, action, TV Those numbers are a sitcoms, TV dramatic scripts resounding endorsement Has Never Sold A Script? • Which analysts and consultants of the value of script The answer will surprise you. This re- were rated best at helping with plot analysis/consulting – port identifies and scores individual overall, character development, if you choose the right script analysts/consultants by name. dialogue, openings, the second act, analyst or consultant It tells how much writers spent for endings their services. It also reveals: for you. • Which analysts and consultants • The names of many highly-rated were rated best at helping writers analysts and consultants you’ve with markets, marketability, and never heard of marketing strategy

• Which consultants and analysts This report is based on nearly 1,000 were top-rated overall regardless writers’ responses to the only in- of price depth survey of its kind. All the re- • Which are the top-rated at bare- sults are in. We are compiling the bones (under $100) and median statistics and formatting this report. (about $300) price ranges Once it is ready for publication (about March 31), the price will be fixed at $29.95. However, for a brief time, you can obtain a copy for the low pre-publication price of $24.95 at the URL below.

We reserve the right to end this discount price offer at any time without notice – so buy now!

To order the report now and receive the pre-publication discount price of $24.95 ($5 off), go to this web page only: http://creativescreenwriting.com/ consultant.study.html

What format is it published in? Initially the report on individual con- sultants and analysts is published in print magazine or directory format. Later, depending on how much data we receive, we may convert it into an online database.

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 39 SUNDANCE STORIES By JEFF GOLDSMITH THE BESTOF THE 2010 FEST

IGHT BEFORE the lights dimmed for a 2010 Sundance of year. In past years, the fest has juggled bigger budget indies, Film Festival screening of Buried, director Rodrigo Cortés such as ($6.5 million), with lower budget fare, R informed the sold-out crowd, “If you like the film, I’m such as The Station Agent ($500K), along with studio premieres. the director. So I’m the one responsible for your happiness. If you While the New Frontier section sometimes got the low budget don’t like it — I will tell you what… I didn’t write this shit!” Funny films that didn’t fit into the U.S. Dramatic Competition category, and brash, sure, but there’s a truism at hand that not enough the section overall leaned toward experimental fare. Under the moviegoers are aware of: Entire productions, regardless of budget, guidance of the new festival head, John Cooper, the newly cre- are generally only as good or as bad as their screenplays. ated NEXT section featured films that, according to Sundance, In the eight days I spent at the 2010 Sundance Film Festi- were “stretching a low budget to create big art. NEXT films em- val, I broke my previous record by five and managed to see a body the true spirit of indie filmmaking.” It’s an apt description, total of 40 films. To complete this task, my first screening as the eight films slotted for this section were low budget jewels started at around 8:30am, with my last at midnight. Wash, that deserved big-screen receptions. rinse, repeat. Rushing between theaters means it’s difficult to The kings of JDIY filmmaking this year were unquestion- sit down and eat a meal, something I only managed to do three ably brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, who began screening their times — all other meals were eaten on the go in theater lobbies. work as shorts at Sundance before making a name for them- While I’m usually able to function on a small amount of sleep, selves with their 2005 feature debut, The Puffy Chair. They were I found it interesting that the three or four times I began to involved with four films at this year’s festival, as they wrote nod off during a film occurred during the three or four worst and directed Cyrus (which had its worldwide premiere at the films I saw. I won’t mention the films I didn’t like, because festival), and produced the U.S. Dramatic Competition film there are too many exciting films to discuss instead. Lovers of Hate as well as two NEXT section films, Bass Ackwards It’s important to remember that you can see an indie film year and The Freebie. The brothers have enthusiastically created a round, and I hope you’ll continue to support such films in theaters niche audience that enjoys features shot in a low-budget ver- and not just on DVD. What’s great about Sundance is that it’s a show- ité style on digital video, similar to what the Danish Dogme 95 case for talented writers, filmmakers and actors to prove that one can collective did with Hi-8 films. make a great movie without the help of a big studio. I’m happy to re- In the case of The Freebie, actress Katie Aselton (Mark Du- port that 2010 marked an excellent year for screenwriting at the fes- plass’ wife) found that after taking time off to have a child, her tival, showing that independent film is still alive and well! phone stopped ringing for auditions. Clearly inspired by her hus- band’s JDIY attitude, she created an outline for a film that be- JDIY Filmmaking came her writing-directing debut. The film portrays a married Do-it-yourself filmmaking is imbued in the spirit of the Sun- couple who can’t remember the last time they had sex and, after dance Institute, and 2010 felt like a Just-Do-It-Yourself (JDIY) kind discussing it, decide to take one night for a “freebie” allowing

40 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 SUNDANCE STORIES them to sleep with someone else. What begins as a light comedy escalates into a very mature and engaging drama. While it’s a risky notion to shoot even a low-budget film with just an outline, the Duplass brand of filmmaking calls for heavy involvement and improvisation from the cast and crew as they collectively create the film’s ultimate narrative. The Freebie works and Phase 4 film picked up the U.S. distribution rights, with release slated for the summer. One Too Many Mornings, another NEXT selection, features co-writers Anthony Deptula and Stephen Hale co-starring in the film directed by co-writer Michael Mohan. The film is a coming- of-age story between two friends — Hale’s character, Fischer, is an alcoholic partier and Deptula’s, Peter, is recovering from hav- The Freebie ing his girlfriend cheat on him. Shot over a series of weekends by a group of friends, not only does the film utilize JDIY filmmak- ing but it also embraces a new distribution model. It was one of clusion when G-Tech/Hitachi awarded a $10,000 prize (which the first films available for rent on YouTube, while also being si- was originally intended for one winner) that was split by all 851 multaneously available for viewing in theaters at Sundance, pur- contributors in the project in order to once again reinforce the chase on DVD and digital download from the film’s website. On importance of the emerging community. the day of the screening, Deptula told me he’d mailed out pur- chased DVDs from Park City that morning. In the online store for Midnight Madness the film, the U.S. theatrical rights are available for purchase for The Park City at Midnight section brings some of the wilder the low sum of $100K. and crazier films to the geek-infested crowds who love a good midnight movie. Among the usual genre-filled offerings were sev- eral comedies this year. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil was co-written by Eli Craig (also directed) and Morgan Jurgenson, who took the horror cliché of the scary hillbillies who terrorize innocent urban college kids and hilariously flipped it on its head. Here, Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are the nicest hillbillies you’ve ever met who, through a series of misunderstandings, find themselves pitted against a vigilant group of frat boys and soror- ity girls. The film produced plenty of big laughs, with one scene featuring the kids freaking out when they hear a chainsaw run- Daddy Longlegs was written and directed by brothers Benny ning as they spy on Tucker and Dale’s summer home. Out of and Josh Safdie and was in the Spotlight section, which high- sight, Tucker lazily cuts firewood with said chainsaw. When he lights films that have played elsewhere but Sundance loves chops through a beehive and is attacked by bees, all the kids see nonetheless. Loosely based on their own upbringing, the Safdies’ is a wild-eyed Tucker running toward them, screaming his head film follows a loving father who has too little time and too much off, chainsaw flailing in the air. As the misunderstandings mul- on his plate to raise his sons properly, but refuses to give up. At tiply, so does the hilariously macabre body count. As of presstime, times, his child-rearing tactics are outright criminal — when he the film hasn’t sold, but based on how well films can’t find a babysitter, he drugs his kids with sleeping pills, which such as Shaun of the Dead or, more recently, fared, one puts them into a low-level coma. Funny, sad, personal and some- would think it’s an easy acquisition. times surreal, it has all the things you’d want from a Sundance film. A day after it premiered, it became one of three films avail- able to 40 million households as video-on-demand through the Sundance Selects VOD label. I would be remiss not to mention that the JDIY attitude was also fully embraced by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who con- ducted an ongoing multimedia project which tasked filmmakers and attendees to make, mix and remix projects through his hitRECord project. (See more at www.hitrecord.org.) The site of- fers free membership to anyone and allows members to con- tribute in whichever multimedia fashion they desire. Uploaded films are intended to be re-mixed, re-worked and re-created, with each artist adding his or her own new meaning. During the fes- tival, G-Tech drives, which are great for handling video, music and effects files, were used to keep the project going until its con- Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 41 SUNDANCE STORIES

Meanwhile, The Grudge screenwriter Stephen Susco took a break from horror and co-wrote a zany comedy with Erik Linthorst and director John Stalberg. High School’s story utilizes a ticking clock to hilarious effect when a would-be valedictorian, who just smoked his first joint, finds out the entire school is about to get drug tested. With his scholarship money and future on the line, he teams up with his stoner friend to get the entire school high so that everyone fails the test. The script is outra- geous, so it’s no surprise that Michael Chiklis and Oscar winner signed on to make the strangest cameos of their ca- reers. Given the tough time for independent distribution, no stu- dio has yet stepped forward to back this stoner movie, even though the niche traditionally fares well in theaters. Buried’s setup is simple: a man wakes up in a coffin at the High School sound of his ringing cell phone. He has no idea who or what put him there and races against the clock to escape. To the film’s credit, it takes place entirely in the box, and every minute is cap- implode in front of their innocent teenage cousin. Tension looms tivating due to Chris Sparling’s sharp screenplay. throughout the tale, which finds the criminals doing their best turns in an excellent performance and director Rodrigo Cortés to act innocently while under constant police surveillance. finds unique ways to keep both the camera moving and the film Strong character writing leads to disturbing performances from interesting. While the conceit is scary, it’s not a horror film — it’s this talented yet doomed ensemble cast. a Hitchcockian-style drama and, at the festival, it sold to Lions- Writer-director (Eagle vs. Shark) delivered possi- gate for $3.2 million! (For more details, see Sparling’s Sundance bly the strangest homage to with Boy. Set in Diary on page 51.) 1980s New Zealand, it’s a coming-of-age story of a young teen An interesting horror/sci-fi hybrid came in the form of Splice. obsessed with Jackson and looking for a way to be cool in his Creative Screenwriting Podcast fan Vincenzo Natali (Cube) directed mundane rural surroundings. The film ends with a full cast redux and co-wrote the film with Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug of Jackson’s Thriller video and was originally inspired by Waititi’s Taylor and once again proved that a serious genre film can be 2003 Oscar-winning short, Two Cars, One Night. made with a low budget. The film stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Me Too (Yo, también) is an excellent film about how main- Polley as married geneticists who create a new life form using stream society accepts (or doesn’t accept) Down Syndrome adults. human DNA. At first they try to raise it as their own child until Co-written and directed by Antonio Naharro and Álvaro Pastor, the human-like creature matures into a dangerous teen. The it stars Pablo Pineda as a talented actor who becomes one of the script keeps tensions high and even manages to push the bound- first Downs students to graduate college in Europe. The film ex- ary of sexuality in a way that made audiences squirm. Appari- amines what happens when Pineda tries to break free of the tion will distribute the film. childlike status society usually pins on Down Syndrome adults. Great character writing about this usually hidden world makes Globetrotting the film quite memorable. The World Dramatic competition featured solid films this year Rarely, if ever, do audiences find comedy and Islamic ex- as well, beginning with Grand Jury Prize winner Animal King- tremists intermixed — but those are just the ingredients that dom. Written and directed by David Michôd, the Melbourne- made the raciest film at the fest. British comedy phe- set drama follows a family of career criminals whose lives nomenon Christopher Morris directed and co-wrote this explo-

Animal Kingdom Four Lions

42 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 SUNDANCE STORIES

sive script with and , which follows a group of bumbling Jihad wannabes on their quest for both ac- ceptance and destruction. The script is a scathing and smart com- edy that perfectly blends witty dialogue with physical comedy as these purveyors of pointless destruction prove just how hollow the ideals behind terrorism are. Hopefully, no harm will come to anyone involved with this controversial film, which is worth see- ing should it get its much-deserved American release.

Under a Watchful Eye Ever since the Sundance documentary Hoop Dreams blew au- diences and critics away, the fest has continued to feature an in- credible crop of docs. Now that the WGA provides writing credits for documentaries, the format remains an important one for writ- ers. Just as digital filmmaking evolved, so has the DIY attitude of the films themselves. Me Too Restrepo (which I missed due to a travel delay) won the Grand Jury prize for documenting a year in the lives of the U.S. Second Platoon in Afghanistan. As for American history, Free- lem, so regardless of your political affiliation, make sure to check dom Riders did a fantastic job detailing the daring journey of out www.gaslandthemovie.com for more information. a group of civil rights activists in 1961 who traveled by Grey- Jason Spingarn-Koff’s documentary Life 2.0 also deserves hound bus through the segregated south with the intention of mention as it takes an entertainingly damming look into the real defying segregation laws, one city at a time. lives of players of the popular online video game Second Life. The Arguably one of the most important films at Sundance this film invites audiences into a virtual world filled with computer year was GasLand, a documentary written and directed by Josh avatars that cater to those with addictive personalities who strive Fox that exposes the human and environmental costs of mining to enrich their online lives at the expense of their real lives. Even natural gas. After a 2005 congressional deregulation exempted for those unfamiliar with the game, this accessible doc is a fasci- drillers from observing parts of the Clean Water Act, energy com- nating study for screenwriters interested in the ever-evolving psy- panies across the country made offers to farmers and landown- chiatric problems of regular people attempting to live vicariously ers for the right to drill for natural gas on their properties. through their online personas. Promises of safety quickly vanished in favor of hydraulic The Oscar-winning filmmaker of An Inconvenient Truth, Davis fracturing, which poisoned local drinking water and dimin- Guggenheim returns to form with Waiting for Superman,a ished air quality. When citizens begin their difficult fight against film I did not see but heard is a must-see. Guggenheim and co- these companies, Fox helps their cause by illustrating real-life sce- writer Billy Kimball shine a light on the underbelly of public ed- narios in which homeowners can literally light gas fires out of their ucation in America and question union tactics while highlighting water-running faucets. Adding insult to injury, the Bush-Cheney- the reformers who are making progress outside of the system. backed deregulation dictates that the citizens, not the government, The film won the audience award for best documentary. must prove wrongdoing by these large corporations, so it’s no sur- I also did not see Catfish, but the film carried plenty of buzz prise that Fox won a Special Jury Prize for this film, which em- for examining the sometimes shady nature behind seemingly in- braces the classic political documentary formula of everyman vs. nocent online relationships where people aren’t who they appear the corporate machine. Tainted drinking water is everyone’s prob- to be. A debate that has split critics and audiences still rages on whether the filmmakers have taken liberties by staging footage and critical scenes within the film. When the issue was pressed at a Q&A, co-director Ariel Schulman joked, “So my brother is the best actor and we’re the best writers in Hollywood? Thanks!”

The Premieres In addition, Sundance features premieres of independent films that sometimes have distribution or larger budgets and stars be- hind them. Although some regard these films as too big for the fest, they’re still among the smaller indies that will be released throughout the year, so where better to premiere than at Sun- dance? Considering that many will be covered in future issues of CS, here’s a brief rundown of some others. ER executive producer made his writing-direct- ing feature debut with a film Warner Bros. rejected years ago, The Company Men. The film is about corporate layoffs, was GasLand

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 43 SUNDANCE STORIES

written at the tail end of the last eco- nomic downturn and revived due to the current one. Y tu mamá también co-star Diego Luna made his co-writing and directing debut with an excellent character study in Abel, which is about a mentally un- stable child who one day decides he’s actually the man of the house. Similar to other works Luna has been involved with, the film features a realistically earnest tragic-comic tone. The Duplass brothers premiered what’s arguably their strongest film to Abel The Killer Inside Me date with Cyrus, which features the strange love triangle between a single mom, her son and her new suitor. During the Q&A, the brothers ex- dumb enough not to realize there’s violence in a film called plained that they began the project with a 100-page script that The Killer Inside Me deserves to leave the theater upset. expanded as they shot and edited the film. Fox Searchlight re- Galt Niederhoffer adapted and directed her novel, The Ro- leases it in July. mantics, into an entertaining film about a group of almost thirty - Beatles fans will love screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh’s somethings who come together for a wedding. The film’s strong Nowhere Boy, which chronicles a year in John Lennon’s life ensemble writing and light tone could garner it broad appeal. when he was just 17. Comedy, drama and superb performances The Shock Doctrine, based on the book by Naomi Klein, make this a must-see. was also available through video on demand during and after From the team that brought us American Splendor, co-writer- the festival. It offers an insightful examination into how shock directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini teamed with tactics have been used during periods of civil and social unrest novelist Jonathan Ames to adapt his book into a hilarious film to great effect. You can download the Creative Screenwriting about the lifestyles of low-rent, high-class male escorts, or “ex- podcast featuring a Q&A with Robert Redford, Klein and co- tras,” in The Extra Man. directors Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross as a free Screenwriters Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell have podcast in iTunes. an excellent depression-era drama in Get Low, based on a Although I didn’t see either of these films, I’ve heard they’re story written by Provenzano and Scott Seeke. The writing was worth putting on the radar: the comedy The Kids Are All so strong that it attracted Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Right, written by Stuart Blumberg and , re- Murray to take starring roles. Classics will release. ceived strong reviews and was acquired by for $4.8 Jim Thompson’s 1952 novel The Killer Inside Me came to million; and Joel Schumacher’s film Twelve, written by Jordan life via screenwriter John Curran’s faithful adaptation, directed Melamed, was bought for $2 million by Hannover House. by Michael Winterbottom. This first-person look into a killer’s mind crackled on screen as strongly as it did when it was first Being Judged — A Look at the U.S. printed. During a Q&A, it was ironic to hear from an upset au- Dramatic Competition dience member who was offended by the film’s violence. In The American Dramatic Competition category was the place this day when few things actually shock audiences, anyone to be this year as the competition was fierce because of strong

Cyrus The Shock Doctrine Nowhere Boy

44 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 SUNDANCE STORIES

Blue Valentine The Dry Land Holy Rollers

screenwriting. Winter’s Bone took the Grand Jury Prize and was seemed too real. Stellar but subtle performances by also awarded the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Based on the and Michelle Williams make this film a must-see for any writer novel by Daniel Woodrell, the film sweeps audiences into the who dabbles in films about relationships. The Weinstein Co. ac- rural crystal meth-riddled landscape of the Ozarks as Ree Dolly quired it for $1 million. () searches for her missing father. In trouble While Douchebag’s title might slow its release prospects, the with the law, her father posts bail with his house and land as col- film itself is a fresh, light comedy that features two dueling broth- lateral and if he doesn’t appear in court, Ree and the rest of the ers taking a roadtrip before one of them ties the knot and how family will become homeless. The screenplay, written by Anne they hit the road with hopes of finding the other’s childhood Rosellini and co-director Debra Granik, sizzles with dialogue so lost love. Shot in an improvisational style, lead actors Lindsay well crafted that the southern gothic-styled mystery ends up feel- Stidham, Jonathan Schwartz and the douchebag himself, Andrew ing more like a film noir. The script is perfectly paced and struc- Dickler, all received screenwriting credit along with director tured, filled with surprises and never devolves into the type of Drake Doremus. This is Dickler’s first time acting and although procedural mystery preferred by TV audiences. It’s a triumph of he’s previously worked as an editor on indie films, he proves him- independent cinema deserving of recognition by the Academy self in the title role. (similar to Frozen River’s screenwriting and acting nominations) It’s not often that the writer-director of an indie film is able and shouldn’t be missed. releases the film in to work with the U.S. Army, but that was the case when Ryan June, and you can read our full interview with Granik and Piers Williams brought his honest portrait of post-traumatic Rosellini on page 48. stress disorder to the screen in The Dry Land. The result is If you’re married, make sure to leave your spouse at home an earnest portrait of a soldier struggling with his war demons. while watching Blue Valentine, a film that took over a decade Quietly paced but never boring, the script works as a great to write by scribe-director Derek Cianfrance. Structurally unique, character study that examines a problem that never seems to the film chronicles both the courtship and decay of a long-term get the attention it deserves. relationship by crosscutting the present relationship with long Josh Radnor, the star of the CBS sitcom flashbacks. The arguments are petty and nagging enough to get made a crowd-pleasing writing-directing debut with hap- under the skin of the audience’s married viewers because they pythankyoumoreplease and walked away with the audience

Douchebag The Extra Man

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 45 SUNDANCE STORIES

Skateland Lovers of Hate

award for the dramatic category. This ensemble-driven ro- peating mistakes. Distribution remains unclear, but you can mantic comedy centers on a group of friends who shed typi- learn more about Hamilton’s Sundance experience by reading cally shallow genre conventions with sincere and oddly her Sundance Diary on page 50. comedic examinations of their relationships. The Duplass-produced Lovers of Hate is a textbook ex- Without a doubt, the wildest character to grace the screen ample of everything an indie comedy could be, specifically in is Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s portrayal of the title character in the odd strain of the petty-comedy genre. Screenwriter-direc- Hesher. Co-written and directed by Spencer Susser, with Ani- tor Bryan Poyser explores two brothers who fancy themselves mal Kingdom scribe David Michôd as co-writer, the film revives as writers. Paul (Alex Karpovsky) is a successful, by-the- a strange character stuck in the 1980s, the heavy-metal anar- numbers childhood novelist, while Rudy (Chris Doubek) is an chist. This eccentric outsider helps heal a fractured family in a intellectual who can’t complete his first novel. Jealousy brews surprising way, similar to the redemption seen in Little Miss between the brothers, which Rudy tries to fix by surprising Sunshine. It was the darkest character-driven comedy at the fest Paul at his Sundance writing retreat, only to discover that Paul and combines mind-bendingly funny dialogue and surreal sit- has started an affair with Rudy’s estranged wife. Stuck in a uations against a backdrop of a great coming-of-age drama. multi-level condo, Rudy sneaks around to observe the newly acquired it for $1 million and plans a release kindled fling, while doing his best to quietly make his pres- later this year. ence known and ruin the lovebirds’ weekend. It’s childish, Based on a real story, Holy Rollers follows a hassidic pro- petty and everything a smart comedy should be, but it’s also tagonist as he leaves his religious teachings and becomes em- currently without distribution. broiled in an Ecstasy drug ring. Antonia Macia’s script spins its The last film I saw was Skateland, which was co-written audience and protagonist into a downward spiral in a drug film by Anthony Burns (also directed) and brothers Brandon and that features neither violence, addiction or the zany comedy Heath Freeman. It focuses on a high school graduate in 1983 that hassidic dealers might suggest and instead focuses on a who watches his world change around him as the skating rink young man throwing his life away for reasons he doesn’t even he’s worked for closes its doors, leaving him to ponder what he understand. As of presstime, the film remains unsold. should do with his life. Burns, who set the film in Southeast Actor makes his directorial debut with his Texas, did a stellar job of showing how his protagonist Ritchie’s friend, Christopher Thorton’s script, Sympathy for Deli- (Shiloh Fernandez) nonstop partying needs to come to an end cious. Many years ago, Thornton became paralyzed from the without being preachy or melodramatic. Filled with wall-to- waist down as a result of a climbing accident, which inspired wall ‘80s music and forgotten period locales such as the Music- the now wheelchair-bound scribe to take over nine years to land mall stores, Skateland is a smart and entertaining film that write and star in this tale of redemption. As of presstime, the deserves a release. film remains unsold. With this, I end my account of the most memorable films Night Catches Us, written by Tanya Hamilton (also di- from the 2010 . Each benefited from a rected), is an astute period piece that chronicles the failure of smart but accessible script that was brought to life through a a black panther group to make good on its promise of change variety of budgets. In this harsh economic climate, it was in- and the void it leaves in a family. During the summer of 1976, spiring to see independent film shine so brightly, and one can a teen tries to revive the spirit of this violent group that once only hope that each film will find its way to a big-screen, TV again fails to understand how to achieve its ideals through or laptop near you soon. But the real message of Sundance is nonviolent means. A sense of loss prevails in the community, that if you have the drive, determination and talent to tell the yet hope emerges in the form of Anthony Mackie’s character world a story you can’t stop thinking about — regardless of the Marcus, who tries to guide the troubled teen away from re- scale of your project — they’ll likely find a place for you.

46 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 The Filmmaker’s Database

filmtracker

Sign Up For Your 3-Month Free Trial To Access Your Trial, Mention CSFT09 by December 31, 2009 Contact Us: 310-482-3444 | [email protected]

Visit FilmTracker.com to find your next film job, gather the crew and company data you need to put together your next film project, develop your next screenplay for the marketplace, and much more. www.filmtracker.com

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 47 SUNDANCE GRAND JURY PRIZE Winter’s Bone Screenplay by Debra Granik (also directed) and Anne Rosellini Based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell by Jeff Goldsmith

As the lights came up after the first to show the feature script to Rosellini soon “The book is very concise,” Granik says. Sundance Film Festival screening of Win- after she moved to New York in 2001. “The book is terse and the actual structure ter’s Bone in the 1,200-seat Eccles theater, it Rosellini had some notes for Granik, col- is tight out of the gate, so there was never was clear to everyone that this would be the laborated with her to improve the script a huge span of time. Everything was al- film to beat, despite it being only day three and then proceded to use her background ways in the confines of her deadline.” of the fest. Such a task proved ultimately in festival programming and acquisitions The deadline Granik mentions belongs impossible as Winter’s Bone claimed the to raise the funds to film it. After coming to protagonist Ree (Jennifer Lawrence), a Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Com- up empty, Rosellini took on the fearless job teenager whose crystal-meth-cooking fa- petition and co-writers Debra Granik (also of producer and assembled a bare-bones ther has gone missing right after he put directed) and Anne Rosellini won the crew to make the film happen. That film their house and land up to post his bail. Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for their became 2004’s Down to the Bone. When it And if he fails to appear at the impending premiered at Sundance, the film won Granik a directing award and actress Vera Farmiga a Special Jury Award for her per- formance. Unfortunately, the film didn’t sell after the festival. “Even though the film didn’t make its money back,” Rosellni says, “it allowed us to be able to come into con- tact with people who could help us get ac- cess to solid material — and that’s huge.” The pair found representation with the production company Anonymous Con- tent, with whom they built a solid rela- tionship that resulted in company principals Shawn Simon and Alix Madigan forwarding them high-level material. Granik and Rosellini first came across Debra Granik Woodrell’s novel in manuscript form and Anne Rosellini were instantly taken by it. After deciding stellar adaptation of Daniel Woodrell’s 2006 that it must be their next film, they got a court date, Ree, her siblings and near com- novel of the same name. Coincidentally, in group together (which included cine- atose mother will find themselves home- a roundabout way, Sundance was where matographer Michael McDonough) to help less quickly. While fighting against time the seeds were long ago planted to make donate money for the option to adapt the and the rugged terrain, Ree embarks on a this project possible. novel. After securing the option, which classic hero’s journey through neighboring In 1998, Granik’s short film Snake Feed would ultimately need to be renewed or ex- counties, where she challenges estranged took top honors at Sundance and, later that ecuted into a produced film, Granik and family members and her father’s past ac- year, Rosellini and Granik met when Rosellini worked posthaste. quaintances to give her clues about where Rosellini programmed Snake Feed into her Woodrell’s rich, character-driven novel he might be. The film is an excellent south- One Reel Short Festival in Seattle, which served as the outline for the scribes, who ern gothic mystery that never plays like a was part of its city-wide cultural festival, went through the book, page-by-page, formulaic procedural. In fact, its raw ur- Bumpershoot. The film won a Break- and typed only the most filmic scenes gency and gritty feel make it more like a through Award in Seattle, and Rosellini into their script. Rosellini explains that hard-boiled film noir starring a never-take- urged Granik to turn it into a feature. they excluded passages that were either no-for-an-answer teen. Granik did just that by expanding the story not visual or too internal. Though it Granik and Rosellini completed their bringing it to the Sundance Screenwriting would seem that this process might yield first draft in roughly two weeks by working Lab in 1999 and then the Sundance Di- a script as lengthy as a novel, due to the together four to six hours a day. Then they recting Lab in 2000. She was finally ready pair’s careful editing, that wasn’t the case. shared with colleagues, who gave them

48 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 WALDO SALT SCREENWRITING AWARD notes, leading them to complete another the feeling that they’re actually there, so five drafts before they finally put their does the film’s unique dialogue. Much of it script into the marketplace. “When you’ve was taken straight from the book. “As out- got a great story to work with, it’s a dream,” siders, we felt complete awe and respect for Rosellini says, “I mean, there is no writers’ the dialogue,” Rosellini says. “That’s what block.” Granik admits that the team has we felt we couldn’t touch.” After working sometimes encountered writers’ block with and interviewing locals, new dialogue while working on their original scripts, entered their script. “It almost becomes a “Massively, all the time,” she says, “but in marriage between the blueprint that you’re this sense, it was artificial relief. We had this crafting and then massaging and tweaking great book to work from.” it so it can be spoken by the people you’ve As Rosellini hails from Seattle and chosen to collaborate with in front of the Granik from Washington, D.C., the pair camera,” Granik says. The writers estimate decided it was important to meet that once all was said and done, they went Woodrell to find out what his influences through 12 drafts of the script during the Winter’s Bone were and to get a better sense of the land- nearly four years that they optioned scape described in his book. They spent a Woodrell’s novel. week with the novelist, who took them on Mart, they integrated a similar concept into After such a long, insular process, the tours of his town and the locations that their script. “She had a hill life and she had writers naturally came to Sundance with jit- inspired scenes in the book. After location a town life,” Granik says. This inspired the ters. “We knew we had a great story because scouting, the co-writers realized that scribes to consider opening up Ree’s tight of Daniel, and we knew we had amazing Woodrell’s hometown was too remote to universe in the film. “In the book, it’s ex- performances because of the actors,” film in and worked with location scout tremely, as they call it, ‘close to the wil- Granik says. “We knew that we captured a Richard Michael for over a year and a half lows,’ as she went from house to house,” place, a region in a way that we felt really to find a more filmable Ozarks location. Granik says. “We had actually contem- strongly about. What we weren’t sure about “You try to find amazing locations and get plated showing her in the outside world was whether our story held together. We excited about them and then you adapt more. We had a scene that didn’t make it were so desensitized that we weren’t sure the script for them — not the other way into the film that showed Ree doing some- the suspense was there and if we did right around,” Rosellni says. thing very mundane like procuring gro- by Daniel’s book.” Aside from the strong The team also forged relationships with ceries.” Ultimately, the scene was scrapped audience response, true validation came on Ozarks residents by giving them copies of because the writers didn’t want to take the day the film took both top honors and the book and screenplay, so that they away from the strength of Woodrell’s book, also sold to Roadside Attractions for a June would feel involved with the production. which transported readers to a practically 2010 release. “It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Ultimately, no one had a problem with unknown world. Granik says. “To have toiled for a very long their hometowns and homes being used in During production, most of the rewrit- time and to be recognized and warmly wel- a film about a rural crystal-meth drug ring ing focused on keeping the dialogue au- comed, there’s no feeling like it. We are because the film’s protagonist was fighting thentic. Just as the landscape gives viewers very humble and grateful.” against that lifestyle. “Ree’s a person who’s committed to not using meth,” Granik says. “Ree’s a person who is suffering by watching her dad and her uncle be in the life and is making a distinct choice not to model herself after that.” Even after finding the perfect locations, they realized that, given their $2 million budget, they simply could not afford to shoot this film with “winter” in its title during the actual wintertime. “I remember we had to make a global adjustment in the script and take out the word ‘snow,’” Granik says. “It was confusing our produc- tion colleagues, and we had to actually eradicate the copious references to snow.” Even after such a major change, the film’s compelling story, as shot, still has a win- tery look to it. Upon learning that one of the families they were working with was led by a ma- triarch who would skin squirrels at home for a meal and work as a greeter at Wal- Winter’s Bone

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 49 SUNDANCE DIARY

weren’t quite right; several music cues were too high or low; one music fade made no sense at all. But I looked around and people Night Catches Us were engaged. They didn’t appear dis- tracted or mired in sound-level hell; they by Tanya Hamilton looked compelled by the story. Indeed, no one moved and I saw no one in the audi- ence texting. And — thank God — no one Night Catches Us is my first feature. Rights Movement and the politics of the walked out. It was shot in Philadelphia, where I live, ‘60s, Freedom Riders. Monday morning brought the first of and it’s about a group of former Black Pan- Friday morning I received the list of our many reviews: The Hollywood Reporter thers who are trying to reconstruct their press appointments for the week, and I was loved it; Variety hated it. My husband read lives in the aftermath of the movement in shocked to see that I was booked solid for the reviews first and only passed ones that 1976. Premiering at Sundance was a great five days. Saturday’s schedule, in fact, in- were worth reading — the good ones as honor for us and I really looked forward to cluded a wakeup call at 6:15am. Two of the well as tough ones that presented an inter- the trip and to see what audiences would days included neither lunch nor dinner. I esting insight into the film. think about our small movie. had never done press before so I was nerv- By Tuesday, it was all becoming old hat. ous. As I paged through the schedule, I felt I could handle the press appointments, sit glad to have this unique opportunity to through the screenings and do the Q&As promote my film and honored to present with relative ease. But something didn’t feel it to so many outlets, but I also realized the right. I felt down. I called a friend, a Sun- festival would be very different from what dance veteran, just to give an update and I envisioned. The idea that I’d be watching for some perspective. He warned me that a a bunch of films soon passed. depression would sometimes ensue, and Saturday was filled with back-to-back in- there’s nothing to do except ride it out. “Al- terviews. The television interviews were the ready here,” I told him. Still, I was surprised worst because I felt terribly self-conscious. to be feeling so depressed when I should Answering questions about your film is dif- have felt elated. Knowing it was a common ficult enough, but in front of a camera symptom that would pass made it easier. every foible and stammer seemed to haunt By Wednesday, I’d seen only one movie, the overall presentation in my mind. In- Freedom Riders, which I liked a lot. After terviews with print journalists were much meeting writer-actor Christopher Thornton better for me. I met some really in- teresting people, all of whom were very engaging. Time went by too quickly during these interviews and I was left wishing for more. That night was our first screen- ing at the Racquet Club. It was a Tanya Hamilton good venue — not too big, not too small — and the time of day was perfect. The theater was full, save My husband and I arrived in Park City for a few empty seats. Just before to find the temperature actually warmer the screening began, I looked at than it was in Philadelphia. The condo was the faces in the audience and felt up a steep set of stairs, a stone’s throw away my heart quicken. It was very Night Catches Us from Main Street, and our landlord had a scary to show the film to so many four-year-old son, a potential companion people. The movie started a mo- for our three-year-old daughter. ment later and I realized the sound wasn’t on Wednesday night, I was determined to I was excited about the other films in right. It was too loud and I began to see see his film Sympathy for Delicious the next festival and made a top-tier list of what I other problems as well. I was sitting one day. I bought tickets for the 8am. show and wanted to see when I arrived. Sympathy for row away from the sound mixer who set my alarm, but I still overslept and woke Delicious, Obselidia, Winter’s Bone and Blue looked deathly unhappy. In rushing the up just as the film would have finished. As Valentine were a few. Later that day at a film to the festival, we opted for a temp mix it happened, I’d slept so late that I barely filmmaker’s luncheon, I met the director of because our soundtrack wasn’t ready until made the van to the airport. I felt terrible Respeto. He was really smart and I liked the last moment. So we only mixed for as I passed the theater on the way out. But hearing about the film, so that went onto three days instead of seven. (We finished the idea that other filmmakers had tried my list as well. Other must-sees included up the mix after we returned from the fes- and failed to see other films, mine in- Casino Jack and, after meeting its producer tival.) The mixer and I noticed each flaw, cluded, no doubt, made it comforting. At and chatting at length about the Civil which caused us great pain. The ADR levels least a little bit.

50 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 SUNDANCE DIARY

Do you know someone who seems to with updates on how the shoot was going. win their dollar back (if not 20 bucks) A week into production, my wife and I flew whenever they buy a scratcher ticket? Or to Barcelona to visit the set. I was blown invariably wins a bottle of top-shelf booze Buried away by the size and scope of the produc- during a bachelor party raffle? Or some- tion as well as Ryan’s performance. I did a how even manages to bury a half-court by Chris Sparling last-minute change to a line of the script shot to beat you at HORSE even though while on set. he sucks at basketball? September 2009 Well, let me be the first to tell you that May 2009 Three scenes of the film were screened I have never been that person. After a few email exchanges, I received a for acquisitions executives at the American I’m fortunate in more ways than I can 15-page director’s statement from Rodrigo, Film Market in Santa Monica, Calif. I re- count, but luck is something I can say, with which thoroughly explained his artistic vi- ceived a call from , telling me at least some degree of certainty, I’ve never sion for Buried, as well as how he intends to that Buried has pre-sold to over 30 foreign reaped the benefits of. Until I wrote a script shoot it. I’m sold on this guy by page one. territories. called Buried. I was actually sold on him before that, December 2009 Now the folks at Creative Screenwriting when during an email exchange he wrote: My manager and agent tried calling me have asked me to write a brief diary entry “Hitchcock wouldn’t about 10 times each, but highlighting my recent experience at the leave the box.” it’s one in the morning Sundance Film Festival. And while it’s my “He gets it,” I remem- East Coast time and I’m absolute pleasure to oblige, I’d be remiss if ber thinking. It was ob- asleep. I finally woke up, I didn’t also tell the true tale of how I got vious that Rodrigo saw whereupon I learned there — in record time — in the first place. both the challenges and that the film had been And yes, luck is a big part of the story. opportunities of doing accepted to Sundance! I March 2009 something that’s truly woke up my wife to tell The script for Buried goes out wide. The never been done before, her; our excitement kept response is solid across the board, but most and he clearly was crazy us up for another two people question how a 90-minute movie enough to still want to hours. can take place with one guy, buried alive in do it. My kind of guy. January 23, 2010 a coffin, without ever cutting away or re- June 2009 Buried premiered to a sorting to flashbacks. It seems that the Rodrigo and I con- capacity crowd at the Li- script will ultimately serve as a writing sam- nected by Skype on sev- brary Center Theater at ple, one that will hopefully help land me eral occasions to work the Sundance Film Festi- some meetings and assignments. I’m ec- Chris Sparling through some minor val. I saw the film in its static at the thought of even making this script adjustments. We entirety for the first time, kind of progress. continued in this fashion for hours at a truly amazed at what Rodrigo was able to April 2009 time, with him in Spain and me in the U.S. do with my script. The audience response I met with producer Peter Safran of The Despite the fact that we come from differ- was fantastic. Ryan, Rodrigo and I con- Safran Company, who told me he loves the ent countries, it’s obvious we share a simi- ducted a Q&A afterwards. I’m absolutely script and amazingly wants to put it into lar worldview. beside myself. production right away. To my astonish- July 2009 January 24, 2010 ment, he also wants the film to be shot ex- The momentum has really started The Broadway Theater in Salt Lake City picking up. Peter Safran emailed me, stat- screened the film. Among the many film- ing that several well-known, talented ac- goers in attendance were 15 of my family tors are potentially interested in the lead members and close friends. Even my 70- (and only on-screen) role of Paul Conroy. year-old grandmother was there! The audi- Rodrigo flew to L.A. to take meetings with ence response was great once again. Later each of them, one of whom is Ryan that day, we learned that Lionsgate and Fox Reynolds. Rodrigo gave him a copy of his Searchlight have entered into a bidding war director’s statement and explained how for the film’s North American rights, with he planned on pulling off this cinematic Lionsgate ultimately coming out on top. sleight-of-hand. Forty minutes later, January 25-31, 2010 Ryan’s in. Days later, the project was an- More screenings, more Q&As and the nounced in Variety. I asked my agent to chance to watch some other great films. By Buried send me two copies — one for my mother the last day of the festival, I was absolutely and one for my grandmother. spent. After operating purely on adrenaline actly as written: in the box for the duration August 2009 for over a week, I finally ran out of gas. My of the film. He further explained that he Production began in Barcelona. I can’t wife and I made it to the airport with only wants to shoot it in Spain in the summer believe this is actually happening! I emailed minutes to spare. I fell asleep thinking and that he knows the perfect director (Ro- back and forth with Spanish producer about how crazy the past year has been, drigo Cortés). Adrián Guerra, who kindly provided me feeling like one lucky son of a bitch.

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 51 FIT YOUR NICHE

Gotta Have FaithBY JOHN FOLSOM

Editor’s Note: There are several niche markets films), Fireproof tells the story of a firefighter guaranteeing a faithful audience (no pun in- for scripts. These are small markets for big who learns to love his wife through a program tended). Other sales came from DVDs, some dreams. Your chances of selling your first script that introduces him to Christ. of which were through the church’s own on- improve vastly if you know where and how to So what makes a screenplay a “faith-based” line bookstore. sell it. This series, which began with an film as opposed to a morality tale aimed at a overview in the January-February 2010 issue, wider audience such as Amazing Grace (2006)? What Would Jesus View? investigates niche markets and discusses how Despite involving major players such as Where does that leave larger fare with to sell to them, market by market. In this issue: (producers of Amazing Grace) spiritual themes such as the recently released the Christian Market. and (The Nativity Story), The Book of Eli or movies that are purportedly most faith-based films continue to be made by inspired by scripture like Legion (released the A Matter of Faith not-for-profit church organizations, individual same week)? The answer is all a matter of After Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ churches or small, straight-to-DVD and cable your perspective. (2004) grossed more than $370 million at the production companies. Despite being a story about angels and the box office worldwide, the faithful hoped it Fireproof, which Dr. Baehr offers as an ex- wrath of God, in its online review of Legion, would lead to a resurrection of faith-based ample, was produced by Sherwood Pictures, Dr. Baehr’s Movieguide wrote, “This ridiculous, films at theaters nationwide. Given inane story not only has an ex- Passion’s success, many studios and tremely aberrant, unbiblical view of production companies raced to While no faith-based film has the nature of angels (angels are jump into the faith-based market spiritual beings, not physical beings by starting divisions devoted to yet repeated the success of who can be killed or mutilated), it films for the faithful. Fox Studios also has a false view of the divine created Fox Faith films. Even The The Passion of the Christ, nature of God, not to mention Asylum, a production company human beings.” known for making low-budget sci- In contrast, Movieguide wrote ence fiction and horror films for hope remains everlasting that The Book of Eli contains, “[A] DVD and the SyFi Channel, very strong Christian worldview, branched out with Faith Films (not for this niche market. including themes of sacrifice, to be confused with Fox Faith). where the protagonist constantly And while no faith-based film has yet re- an offshoot of Sherwood Baptist church in prays, shows others how to pray, quotes peated the success of Passion, hope remains Atlanta, Georgia, and was written by two of Scripture and, though he is not perfect, con- everlasting for this niche market. Dr. Ted its associate pastors, brothers Stephen and stantly tries to live what he believes and con- Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide Alex Kendrick. Sherwood Pictures also re- sistently walks by faith in God, not by what and chairman of the Christian Film and Tele- leased two other high-profile faith pictures he can see, and evil antagonist tells his vision Commission, believes Hollywood needs with Flywheel (2003) and Facing the Giants henchmen to burn all of the books that they to move away from The Dark Knight and to- (2006). And although Fireproof starred a rela- bring him (one of which is ‘The Da Vinci ward the more heavenly angels. He points to tively big-name actor, most of the parts were Code’) because they are not the book he the box office success of Fireproof as evidence. handled by church staff and members. With wants and knows holds power, plus strong Made for a mere $500,000, Fireproof grossed an army of volunteers, this allowed Sher- moral themes of hope, love and justice.” more than $33 million in 2008. It did so in wood to produce a successful picture for a Screenwriter Gary Whitta agrees that The only 905 theaters at its widest release. Starring low cost. Even distribution was niche be- Book of Eli carries spiritual themes. However, Kirk Cameron (who has carved out a niche for cause Sherwood worked with other churches he’s not inclined to classify it as a “faith- himself playing the lead in several faith-based to book the theaters that showed the film, based” film. “Certainly faith is one of the

52 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 film’s central themes; it’s about the power of the mind. The Christian filmmaker’s job is to not get caught up in all the mechanics and faith and how it can be utilized in either in- begin the dialogue that will eventually lead rules of how plot must unfold. When I was credibly positive or incredibly destructive people to their savior.” writing Eli, I had very little mapped out in ways, depending on how we choose to em- Other common threads found in faith- terms of plot, just a one-page beat sheet listing ploy it. So yes, the story is built around the based films are tales of redemption, an in- a dozen or so major story waypoints, but I had idea of faith, but I would not classify it as it troduction or re-introduction to God and a pages and pages of very detailed essays I’d writ- a ‘faith-based’ film. I think that can be a dan- message of hope. Beyond that, faith-based ten about the character of Eli and what the gerous term. It leads audiences to think the scripts should aspire to the same qualities of theme of the film was. A lot of writers get stuck film has a religious agenda and that they’re any good screenplay: a good story. and they think it’s a plot problem, but it’s re- going to be preached to, and with The Book of Screenwriter Alan McElroy (Spawn, The Ma- ally because they didn’t do enough homework Eli we worked very hard to avoid that.” rine and Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever), who penned a on their characters or on the big idea that the And while it can be argued that both films draft of Left Behind, based on the apocalyptic- film is really about. If you know those things put on their Sunday best with similar reli- themed bestseller by Jerry Jenkins and Tim La- intimately before you start writing, you’ll gious themes of sacrifice, belief and redemp- Haye, says, “All screenplays — faith-based or never get stuck.” tion, each falls short of the dress code for otherwise — start with a question of character. faith-based films. What question are you asking [and] what an- I See the Doorway to According to Brian Brinkman, a develop- swers will be found in the journey the charac- a Thousand Churches ment executive at Faith Films (makers of Sun- ter takes? A faith-based film asks questions If devout filmmaking appeals to you or day School Musical), “In general, faith-based about our relationship with God, Christ, each you have a story that speaks to this audience, screenplays should be parables. Jesus told para- other and ultimately ourselves. In most films then you might want to try writing a faith- bles, metaphors and allegories using everyday there is a question of faith. The main charac- based screenplay. Just be aware that because and fantastical situations to illustrate impor- ter is in conflict or crisis, forced to dig for it’s still a small niche market, there aren’t tant spiritual concepts. Every faith-based something deep within themselves, something that many production companies to market screenplay should be like a parable, making an greater than the sum of their parts, and rise to to since most films are developed in-house effort to reach out to a culture that has a sense meet a challenge.” (or in-church, as it were). but not clarity of some of these metaphysical Whitta agrees, “I would encourage writers That’s why insiders such as Dr. Baehr ask truths. Tell stories that speak to the soul and to think a lot about character and theme and screenwriters to think hard before they try

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 53 Fit Your Niche: Gotta Have Faith writing a faith-based film. This market re- at a local movie theater. There’s no price I Movieguide’s website http://kairosprize.com) quires a dedication to the message. Trying to could ever put on that.” seeks to “further the influence of moral and write a faith-based script simply as a way to spiritual values within the film and televi- crack the market or get on a prod- Know Thy Denomination sion industries. Seeking to promote a spiri- uct will fall flat if the voice rings hollow. And While many faith-based films are consid- tually uplifting worldview.” the voice in faith-based films is essential to ered nondenominational (they don’t promote For now, the KAIROS Prize represents a their makeup. For it is the message that mat- any specific branch of Christianity), there are screenwriter’s best opportunity to break into ters most in faith-based films. production companies geared toward partic- the faith-based market, short of belonging to ular denominations. For example, LDS (Lat- a megachurch willing to fund your project as Keeping the Faith ter-Day Saints) Cinemas, as a branch of the another way of spreading The Word. For would-be scribes drawn to the faith- Mormon Church, produces or releases films Also, Brian Brinkman of Faith Films be- based market as a means of entry into film- featuring the Latter-Day point of view. Sher- lieves that in the coming years, the faith- making or as a way to earn a living as a wood Pictures gear their stories toward the based market will continue to expand. “For dramatist, keep in mind that it is a small niche Baptist faith. There’s even a niche within the now the market is just starting to take off. market with limited opportunities and even faith-based niche aimed at the African-Amer- There are a lot of niches even within this smaller paychecks. Some screenwriters con- ican faithful. Jesus Is the Answer (JITA) church niche market that are unoccupied. Simulta- sider writing faith-based films as a calling or produces films such as Auto Recovery, Flossin neously, I see a growing desire for defining obligation more than an economic or career and Public Transportation, which all feature the purpose in the generations to come. As our move. Alan McElroy thought this way while African-American evangelical experience. youth becomes less and less connected with penning Left Behind. “I can’t speak to what all And while the market for screenwriters identity, our films and art will reach higher writers can expect to be paid for working on might seem impossible to crack, new av- and higher for a sense of personal definition faith-based films. They can make scale or they enues are opening up. Movieguide and the within the meta narrative.” can make whatever the company is willing to Christian Film and Television Commission However, Whitta sees a different path, “I negotiate. My work was something I felt com- sponsor the KAIROS Prize, an annual don’t think the way forward is to think of so- pelled to do. In other words, I wasn’t in it for screenwriting competition aimed at foster- called faith-based films as their own genre or the money. My greatest reward was a hug I re- ing new talent for faith-based films. Set up niche, but rather to look at spirituality and ceived from a tearful woman after a screening in 2005, the contest (according to faith-related ideas as themes that can gain a greater foothold in main- stream movies as a whole if handled correctly. The Blind Side did incredible business in large part because it tapped into positive themes of kindness and charity that faith-based au- diences responded to, but it did it without preaching so it didn’t alienate the rest of the audience. These are powerful ideas, universal ideas, and films should not be afraid to embrace them. The trick is to do it in an el- egant enough way so as not to come off as somehow schmaltzy or cheesy — or even worse, preachy — in a critical environment that has become increasingly defined by cynicism and self-conscious irony. I ad- mire films that try to be earnest in their beliefs, that wear their heart on their sleeve unapologetically and sincerely, but to do so in a way that appeals to all au- diences can be a delicate high-wire act.”

54 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 Who’s Who in Faith-Based Films

Faith Films Credits: Baptists at Our Barbecue, Christian themes into his writing. Brian Brinkman, Development Against a Crooked Sky, Church Ball Studio Deal: Recently parted ways Executive Description: HaleStorm specializes with Disney for the third 72 E. Palm Avenue in the development, production installment of Narnia: The Voyage of Burbank, CA 91502 and distribution of feature films, the Dawn Treader, which will be 877-377-8707 children’s television programming released instead by Fox. www.faithfilms.cc and family friendly entertainment Genre: Drama, family, fantasy Credits: Countdown: Jerusalem, geared toward followers of the Sunday School Musical, 2012: Mormon faith. Dean River Productions Doomsday, The Apocalypse Genres: Open to all genres Jim Schmidt, Producer Description: Part of , 5721 West Slauson Avenue Faith Films releases Christian- Cloud Ten Pictures Suite 110 themed or faith-based films straight Andre van Heerden, CEO, Producer, Culver City, CA 90230 to DVD. Faith Films are available Director 310-410-9405 through Family Christian Stores, 11 Export Avenue http://deanriver.net Christian Book Distributors, VPD, St. Catharines, Ontario Credits: Bobby Jones: Stroke of Baker and Taylor and Ingram L2M 5V8 Canada Genius, Road to Redemption, Hermie: Entertainment. www.cloudtenpictures.com An Uncommon Caterpillar, Something Genres or types of productions Credits: Left Behind, Waterproof, to Sing About sought: Seeking smart writing and Tribulation Description: Dean River Produc- intelligent ideas in all genres Description: Utilizing what they tions often collaborates with big- Note: While currently developing term “church cinemas,” Cloud Ten name ministers such as Billy Graham projects in-house, in the future they produces feature films to be shown or Max Lucado to develop and dis- hope to open their doors to outside in churches along with being tribute their films straight to DVD. screenwriters. Check website or distributed on DVD. Cloud Ten is Genre: Drama, family, animation contact the company for more perhaps best known for filming the JITA Films information. Left Behind series based on the bestselling novels by Jerry Jenkins Ernest Johnson, Producer Gener8Xion and Tim LaHaye. P.O. Box 5651 Stephen Blinn, Vice President of Genre: Drama Compton, CA 90224 Production and Creative Affairs 310-637-7086 7095 Hollywood Blvd #1260 Walden Media http://jitaministries.com Hollywood, CA 90028 Evan Turner, VP of Development Credits: Auto Recovery, Flossin, Foster 323-874-9888 and Production Babies [email protected] 1888 Century Park East, 14th floor Description: Part of Jesus Is the www.8x.com Los Angeles, CA 90067 Answer ministries, JITA Films Credits: One Night with the King, 310-887-1000 produces faith-based films aimed at The Cross: The Arthur Blessitt Story www.walden.com an African-American audience. Description: Part of the Trinity Credits: The Chronicles of Narnia: Genre: Drama, comedy Broadcasting Network, Gener8Xion The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe, Sherwood Films produces faith-based films for Nims Island, The Chronicles of Narnia: Alex Kendrick, Associate Pastor and theatrical and straight-to-DVD Prince Caspian, Bridge to Terabithia, Screenwriter release. Amazing Grace, City of Ember, Sherwood Baptist Church Genres: Drama Charlotte’s Web Description: Best known for The 2201 Whispering Pines Road HaleStorm Entertainment Chronicles of Narnia series, Walden Albany, GA 31707 Kurt Hale, President, Creative Media produces what it calls “quality 229-883-1910 Director entertainment for the whole family.” www.sherwoodpictures.com 5132 North 300 West And while the company is not Credits: Fireproof, Flywheel, Facing Provo, Utah 84604 strictly a producer of faith-based the Giants 801-655-5180 films, it is favored by the faithful Description: Part of Sherwood Halestormentertainment@ for movies such as Amazing Grace Baptist Church, most of the films stonefive.com and the Narnia series based on the were developed by church staff. www.halestormentertainment.com work of C.S. Lewis, who wove Genre: Drama

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 55 AGENT’SHOTsheet JIM CIRILE ([email protected]) is a WGA writer, artist and musician from New York now living in Los Angeles. He has sold, optioned or written for hire dozens of screenplays. He is of the low-cost script analysis service www.coverageink.com and the Writers on the Storm screenplay competition.

BY JIM CIRILE

How to REALLY Break Into TV Forget what you think you know about breaking into TV. The paradigm has changed. Before you waste six months working on a Dexter spec, read this article!

TV OR NOT TV? That is the question, and walked into a position at a fiery hot TV pro- He finally nabbed his first freelance writing with all due respect to the Bard, the answer is duction company as an office temp! Grant ad- gig for the short-lived series Raines, thanks to a no-brainer. Alas, poor Yorick, the simple fact mits he totally lucked into the gig, but, “It producers Graham Yost and Peter Noah. is that while it’s becoming harder and harder wasn’t luck that I kept it,” he says. “They’d “Right when that show was canceled on a Fri- to get into feature writing due to the ever- had a few people who didn’t work out as as- day, literally Monday I found out I got into shrinking marketplace, TV remains robust. sistants, but I know an opportunity when I see the Disney Fellowship.” Verily, ‘tis a great path into the business for one. I knew jack when I got there, but it new writers. If old Bill Shakespeare were alive dawned on me real fast that this was the place today, I’d wager he’d be the showrunner on where it was going down.” CSI: Stratford-on-Avon. So sally forth with us, That job led directly to Grant becoming a as Agent’s Hot Sheet talks to representatives writer’s assistant on . Despite working the TV side to find out the best ways three years in the trenches, an opportunity to break in circa 2010. We’ll also meet three never arose for him to pen an episode. “My writers working on series and learn how they boss, Debora Cahn, was so good to me. There landed their gigs. Forsooth, it shall not be just weren’t opportunities for the kids on the sound and fury signifying nothing! payroll. Directors and actors were getting those freelance scripts.” In the meantime, Part One: THE TALENT Grant had been applying for the Disney Fel- Get With the Program lowship program every year (and striking out). Meet Roger Grant, executive story editor on Greek. Propelled by Internet sites such as “More and more execu- AintItCool.com and Cinescape, Grant moved to Los Angeles to pursue screenwriting. In an tives and showrunners amazing bit of luck, he quickly scored an ad- want to read something Roger Grant ministrative assistant gig at John Wells Pro- ductions (The West Wing, ER). Nepotism? original and the vast The Disney|ABC Fellowship Program is, of Nope. “I was placed there by a temp agency,” course, the holy grail when it comes to break- Grant says. “I had some office knowledge majority don’t want to ing into TV (sadly, Disney ended its feature from my one and only job before this out of read a spec episode.” fellowship program last year). Pretty much college; I actually knew how to open Word everyone who comes out of there goes on to and use it.” Yep, newcomer Grant simply —Tim Phillips, UTA a successful career in the business. Despite

56 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 wife and got to know Sagal and her husband, producer Kurt Sutter (The Shield). As Dahl’s fi- ancée’s grad school schedule became more de- manding, Dahl stepped into the breach. “For a school year, I drove [Sagal and Sutter’s] daughter to school every day.” Fortunately for Dahl, Sutter took a shine to him. “He had read my stuff and he knew that I wanted to be a writer,” Dahl says, “and I think he knew that I was a good guy. [He asked if I wanted] to work in television and said he might be able to give me the writers’ Greek assistant gig on his new show [if it was green- lit]. So I just bided my time, did all this writ- working on a TV megahit, it was the Fellow- an affront to your writing. It’s only going to ing and kept meeting with [my writing ship, not West Wing, that finally launched make you better.” One last bit of advice from group]. And he did get the show.” Sons of An- Grant’s career. “I was staffed within a month Grant: “You need to know how to write a archy is now in its second season on USA. [after graduation],” Grant says. “I’d heard good outline even before you know how to So what exactly does a writers’ assistant about Greek, and I’d been in a fraternity in col- write a good script. It’s as important if not do? “Be in the room at all times with the writ- lege, and I was like, oh, my God, this could be more important. Even the biggest TV writers a match made in heaven.” have to turn in an outline and get it through UTA television agent Tim Phillips says that studio and network. If you’re on staff trying programs such as the Disney Fellowship are a to get a story credit as a baby writer or a surefire way into network TV — for a select few. writer’s assistant, you’re probably going to get “A lot of the networks have writers programs, a story before you get a whole script. You have some of which are diversity-oriented, some of to be able to write a great outline.” Sorry for which aren’t,” he notes. “The vast majority of the bad news, all you outline haters! the time, that job on a Warner Bros. show is going to someone out of the Warner Bros. pro- Dahl “C” for Connex gram, the same way it is at ABC (Disney), the Brady Dahl came out from Minnesota to same way it is on a Paramount/CBS show.” attend the UCLA Professional Program in Manager A.B. Fischer from The Shuman Com- Screenwriting a few years back, and a lot has Brady Dahl with Charlie Hunam pany elaborates, “There are all these programs happened to him since. The talented former that will pay for staff writers. So if you are not house painter transformed into a TV writers’ in one of these programs or are not diverse, it assistant in a very short amount of time. ers and takes notes,” Dahl says. “Write down becomes exponentially harder because How? Dahl’s fiancée, who moved to L.A. with everything and try to organize it in a fashion showrunners know, ‘Well, I could hire a staff him, became a part-time nanny for actress that’s understandable. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, writer who’s diverse and not have to pay for it, Katey Sagal (Married With Children) through here’s what we said before’ and reminding so I could use that money on the upper levels her cousin, who used to be Sagal’s vocal them of what we’ve done.” Dahl also man- as opposed to spending it on the lower.’” That’s coach. Dahl would occasionally sub for his aged to parlay this experience into a writers’ right, folks — if a showrunner hires someone out of the network’s program, the writer’s first- year salary comes from the program, not the show’s budget. This is obviously a big incentive for them to hire from within. But that’s mostly just the networks. “Most of the cable channels don’t have any diversity money,” Phillips says. “So those staff writer jobs are going to some- one the showrunner read and recommended for the job. A lot of times the cable shows have people from different backgrounds and are more out of the blue.” While a diversity or network writing pro- gram’s stamp of approval can open doors, Grant reminds that an upward career path is all about one’s attitude. “Learning from so many great people is a great opportunity [as Sons of Anarchy an] up-and-coming writer,” he says. “It’s not

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 57 Agent’s Hot Sheet

assistant gig on the excellent but short-lived Beck, who had moved out here the year be- Defying Gravity for ABC. And in season two, fore, also to pursue sitcom writing. So I was Dahl got his first story credit on Sons. “With- able to learn the ropes from him and learn out a doubt, [being the writers’ assistant is] a about the tried-and-true path of going from great way in,” Fischer says. “It’s a great way to PA (production assistant) to writers’ assistant learn the ins and outs of a show. You get to be to writer, which is as much of a path as there in the writers’ room, which is invaluable to a is in sitcoms.” baby writer to learn exactly how a show runs Not to be confused with a writers’ assistant, and operates and how a writers’ room is run.” a production assistant is basically a gopher Sound good? Well, work on those connex, who works either on set or in the production pal. “If you don’t know anybody, you can’t office. The nifty thing is that pretty much just apply for a writers’ assistant job — it’s im- anyone can be a PA if he or she is smart and possible,” Fischer admits. “You need some sort willing to work insane hours for very little of in.” The lesson? Though the Internet has money. PA jobs are even advertised on Mon- made relocating to L.A. less necessary for bud- ster.com and Craigslist. Rhonheimer remem- ding scribes, it’s safe to say that Dahl would Jamie Rhonheimer bers his first PA job interview for a low-budget not be where he is today had he remained in Family Channel game show well: “I walked Minnesota. So the next time you wonder Mother, which was recently renewed for a sixth in, and I’m wearing a sports coat and a shirt whether it would be beneficial to your writ- season. Rhonheimer came out of Syracuse and tie — way overdressed. And the guy looks ing career to move to Los Angeles, just re- University’s Television/Radio/Film Depart- at my résumé, looks up at me and says, ‘Do member Brady Dahl. ment with a passion for three-camera comedy. you have a car?’ And I said yes, and that was So naturally, he loaded up the truck and the entire interview. I got the job.” How I Met Your Production Assistant moved to Beverly Hills (actually, West L.A., Rhonheimer parlayed that into a string “I’m one of the very few people who’s ac- but it’s close enough). “I had a few friends of PA jobs, keeping an eye on his goal of tually writing sitcoms who has a degree in from college who were also moving out, so I writing sitcoms. “Even though you’re on the writing sitcoms,” says Jamie Rhonheimer, co- had some people to live with,” Rhonheimer production side, there often is great oppor- executive producer of CBS’ hit How I Met Your says. “I knew an aspiring writer named John tunity to interact with the writers and with

A five-day working conference to pursue theater and/or film writing under the guidance of professional Reach playwrights, screenwriters and teachers. Keynote Address by Caleb Deschanel, stage and (Burning in China, The Escape Artist, Crusoe), five-time Academy Award nominee in cinematography (The Right Stuff, Being There, Fly Away the next Home) and award-winning screen writer (Valley Forge) Faculty and guests tentatively include: Film producer Kit Golden (Chocolat, Angela’s Ashes) stage. Film producer Tom Mangan (Tumbleweeds, The Jack Bull) Screenwriter, novelist and Pulitzer nominee Clint McCown Play and screenwriter David Paterson (Bridge to Terabithia) Filmmaker and actor Peter Riegert (Animal House, Local Hero) Play and screenwriter Nina Shengold (Blind Spot, Homesteaders) Playwright Robert Vivian (multiple appearances Best American Monologues) Playwright Dana Yeaton (Redshirts, Mad River Rising)

Visit our website for a complete listing: vermontcollege.edu/stage-screen

Writing for Stage & Screen JUNE 11-17, 2010

58 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 the writing staff. Most of the shows that I’ve such as “Lucky Penny” and “Slapsgiving 2: Re- you then query TV agents and managers, sub- worked on, if you’re a PA, at some point in venge of the Slap.” Rhonheimer notes that mit your scripts to contests and hope that your average day you’re either going to be seeing the script changes every day and un- someone sparks to your writing and calls you getting lunch or dinner for the writers or derstanding how production works is vital if in. Well, guess what? The spec episode may be photocopying scripts or doing something you want to write TV. “Anybody I ever talk to going the way of the dodo. “The biggest thing that involves the writing staff.” who’s thinking about a career as a TV writer, I is having a piece of original material that’s just After PAing on shows such as Two Guys, a advise them to try and get a PA job on the outstanding,” says UTA’s Phillips. “Specs used Girl and a Pizza Place, Rhonheimer segued into kind of show they want to write on. That’s ab- to be the way to get on the hot new comedy being a writers’ assistant on Brother’s Keeper solutely, positively the best path there is.” show of the year. Over the last few years, more and Stark Raving Mad before finally landing a and more executives and showrunners want story editor gig on Yes, Dear. That led to a staff Part Two: THE REPS to read something original, and the vast ma- writing slot on Will & Grace, followed by How Forget What You Think You Know jority of the time [they] don’t want to read I Met Your Mother, penning popular episodes There you have three tried-and-true paths anything that’s a spec episode.” to breaking into TV. Are there oth- Abstract Entertainment manager Mike ers? You bet! But they’re largely Goldberg reminds us that there are many representative-dependent. So for problems with spec episodes versus original that, let’s turn to our panel. The samples. “The first is that you write the sam- first thing you should know is for- ple, and the show gets cancelled. Then you get everything you’ve been told. wrote the sample for nothing. The second Let’s take a look at the old para- risk you run is that you write this spec digm: To break into TV, you need episode, and the executive [you’re submit- some great spec episodes of popu- ting to] has never watched the show. The lar, current shows. Heck, if one third situation you can run into is that you could reclaim the paper wasted on write a spec episode of something like House Seinfeld specs back in the ‘90s, one and they’ve already read 4,000 spec could replant the rainforests. episodes, so they don’t care anymore. And How I Met Your Mother Armed with your sample episodes, the last issue is that you just did a bad job

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 59 Agent’s Hot Sheet because you thought you understood the “Original material, thing that’s 60 pages versus 120 pages, the show and you didn’t.” Goldberg recom- 60-page one gets read first. That’s why the mends that his clients have original pilots whether it’s a pilot, a short story or the little DVD reel to go along because they serve two purposes: “The first play, a one-act, even a with something — if I like that, then I will is, it’s a writing sample, and while it may not read the bigger sample.” be picked up as a new pilot, let’s say you short story showcasing wrote something that’s very elevated sci-fi your original voice, is No Contest — it could be a good sample for getting One last thing. What about contests? Are staffed on a show like Fringe. And then, the the one thing that’s they of any value for breaking into TV? Ac- other upside to doing an original pilot is cording to Phillips, the answer is not so much. that the pilot itself could lead to selling and going to set you apart.” “Honestly, I don’t think anyone pays atten- becoming a show on its own.” —A.B. Fischer, The Shuman Company tion,” he says. “I’m sure it’s a great honor, and Fischer feels that aspiring TV writers it usually means the script is better, but I’m should have a great spec and a great original to engage and it makes them a little bit more not going to read it in a more favorable light. sample. “Original material — whether it’s a likely to actually go to pilot.” Abstract has I would respect something off the Black List pilot, a play, a one-act, even a short story recently had quite a bit of luck setting up TV more than something out of one of those showcasing your original voice — is the one pitches from unknown writers. “We’re pair- competitions.” Phillips notes that those con- thing that’s going to set you apart when ing our young writers up with young televi- test scripts are often spec episodes, not pilots. there are a million baby writers trying to get sion producers who have set up some shows, “For me to read a Dexter or House from some- into the TV business. Showing that you have who have sold some pilots or preferably one who’s out of the blue, who doesn’t have an original voice that stands out from the have an overall deal with a studio. Then we a manager whose taste I really love, to read a crowd makes all the difference.” Fischer cau- have the writer develop a pitch, like a 10- to spec episode and sign him off of it is exceed- tions that some showrunners only want to 20-page ‘pitchment,’ as we call them, with ingly rare. No matter how good it is, it’s tough read specs, “So you still need to have a great the young producer. And then the young to pull the trigger on something like that. Ver- spec in your portfolio.” And the original ma- producer takes it to the studio, gets the stu- sus the other day when I read a pilot that I terial is crucial for consideration on any of dio execs involved and if they like it, then thought was incredible and called the writer the prestigious cable series. “It’ll be harder they’ll do a deal, and then they’ll bring it to and started a dialogue with him.” to get a job on Dexter or Californication with- the network.” out having a great piece of original material. TV or not TV? Remember, moreso than fea- You really need to showcase your voice to Gimme Some Sugar, Baby tures, TV is a writer’s medium. “When you get on one of those shows.” Phillips adds, Obviously, one would have to attract the talk about the power to control what you do,” “Whether it’s short story, plays — which can attention of industry reps to get in on this Goldberg says, “and to really be in control of be tremendously valuable — or a DVD of action. That’s where once again your con- your destiny as far as writing, it’s really much shorts you made for Funny or Die, all of that nex, combined with no small amount of tal- more TV than film that brings that.” Fischer serves people. If you’re coming out of the ent, will be critical. But it’s worthwhile to concludes, “I think more and more people try blue and you’re not working on a show, and note that baby writers break in all the time. to get into TV, because you don’t have to write you haven’t been the executive producer’s It’s not unusual for a show to staff a newbie a 120-page sample and sell it in order to get assistant for three years or the network ex- off an original sample only, bypassing the into it. Just my two bits.” ecutive’s niece, original material is the quick- long slog up through the ranks so many TV est way to get noticed.” writers have to endure. Phillips says, “I’ve Wow, a short film or a play worth more gotten people jobs over the last couple of than a spec episode? Believe it. But wait, it months — in one case, a guy who flew out ADVISORY BOARD gets better. We all know that on the features to Los Angeles on Tuesday, got a job and was Richard Arlook side, it is well-nigh impossible for a baby at work the following day. He had no con- The Arlook Group writer to sell a pitch. But in TV – it’s no prob- nection to the show. He was a playwright in lem! “We’re finding right now that televi- New York. With the right piece of material, A.B. Fischer sion is counterintuitive to film,” Goldberg you can get jobs out of nowhere.” The Shuman Company says. “In film, very rarely will they buy a It’s even possible to score work in TV Emile Gladstone pitch from a young writer; they want a without having a single TV sample. Gold- script. In TV, it seems to be the opposite. berg says, “We had a couple of writers just International Creative Management They’d much rather buy a pitch than a this past pitching season that we had out Ava Jamshidi script.” Goldberg says this is because, unlike pitching shows that only had feature sam- International Creative Management film, network executives want to be hands- ples.” Seriously, using a feature sample for on in sculpting the script. “If there’s already TV? “For development, they’re absolutely of Julien Thuan a script written, it gives them a million dif- value, but for staffing much less so,” Phillips United Talent Agency ferent reasons to pass. But if it’s a pitch and adds. “Every now and then, the and Jake Wagner it’s a concept they dig, and they feel that the Showtimes and the fancier places, we Energy Entertainment they’ve invested blood, sweat, tears in de- can use those. But a pilot or a play is much veloping it, it makes them a lot more likely preferable. When people are holding some-

60 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010

NOW PLAYING BY DAVID MICHAEL WHARTON

apart, with Perseus off questing and Andromeda stuck back in the city he’s trying to save. The Wilting Girl gave Andromeda a romantic rival and shored up the notion of Perseus not wanting to allow his fate to be shaped by others. “I thought that would not only create an opportu- nity for a really interesting female character,” Beacham says. “but it would also add tension to the pri- mary relationship [between Perseus and Andromeda].” Shaping the character of Perseus proved particularly challenging. “You always see these sword-and-sandal things with the hero who’s very strong and certain of himself,” Beacham says. “I wanted Perseus to be the Spider-Man of the sword-and- sandals epic.” This meant crafting Perseus as a young hero full of doubt and fumbling to figure out who he is and what it means to be a half-god. This played well into Beacham’s ex- Clash of the Titans ploration of faith versus self-determi- nation. In many ways, the clash of the story was less about slaying monsters Screenplay by Travis Beacham and Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi and more about one man denying his fate and striving to find his own way. IF YOU GREW UP in the ‘70s or ‘80s and had Kraken. But while the structure of the story re- Beacham outlines extensively before writ- any love of the fantastic, the original Clash of mained the same, Beacham had one major ing, but his pre-writing process includes more the Titans is the very definition of an iconic fan- change in mind from the beginning. “I didn’t than just a standard outline. His passion for tasy film. After the people of Argos offend the want to do a retread of the original,” the writer world-building is evident in both Titans and Gods, they’re given a choice: Either sacrifice the says. “I was thinking about it like Battlestar Carnival Row, which is why Beacham spent king’s daughter, Andromeda (Alexa Davalos) or Galactica, how the new one interpreted the old time fleshing out the corners of the world by the monstrous Kraken will rise from the sea and one.” That meant abandoning ancient Greece drawing maps, compiling timelines and even destroy the city in 30 days. Their only hope lies in favor of a unique fantasy world cobbled to- creating a glossary of terms. “My outlines tend in a young half-human, half-god named gether with elements from Greek, Egyptian and to be on the long side,” Beacham says. “I end Perseus () who vows to find a Babylonian mythology. Zeus (Liam Neeson) up on the first page having to say, ‘In this way to slay the unkillable beast. still rules the heavens, but he shares court with world, the sky is purple, and that’s important Nearly 30 years after the , writ- Tiamat, Goddess of the Deep, and Set the Void. because...’ I put a lot of weight on the plan- ers Travis Beacham, Phil Hay and Matt Man- Beacham says his Titans world, “is based on the ning end of it and by the time I actually write fredi were given the chance to spin their own Mediterranean in the same way that Lord of the I tend to know how it’s going to go.” version of the tale. The challenge was figuring Rings was based on European mythology. I Beacham completed one full draft of the out how to honor both the classic film and the wanted it to feel cosmopolitan and mongrel.” film, along with the requisite revisions. myth that inspired it while putting a modern Another major change came in the form of then did an uncredited pol- shine on a centuries-old tale. a new love triangle between Perseus, the ish, which proved to be a huge learning expe- Beacham entered the scene in 2005 when doomed Andromeda and a dying goddess rience for Beacham and, as he puts it, “the New Line picked up his genre steampunk noir named the Wilting Girl. While the Wilting coolest fucking thing I’ve ever heard in my fantasy spec, Killing on Carnival Row. He knew Girl allowed Beacham to explore themes of life!” He says reading Kasdan’s draft was a les- from the start that there were certain elements worship and power, she also served as a prac- son in pacing. “I recognized the story and the that he must carry over from the original film. tical solution to an inherent problem. Since structure, but it was leaner and faster. Seeing The name Clash of the Titans, for one, instantly Perseus and Andromeda are betrothed to each that was this realization that sometimes all the conjures up images of the fight between other early in the story — a ploy to gain favor details I fret over actually don’t matter.” Medusa and Perseus who rides the winged Pe- with the Gods, and something the kids aren’t After Kasdan’s pass, Phil Hay and Matt gasus into the climactic battle against the happy about — they spend most of their time Manfredi were brought on alongside director

62 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 Clash of the Titans in theaters March 26 The Hero’s

Louis Leterrier. “Our mandate was to figure distinctive voice and a point of view, no out the movie as told through [Leterrier’s] matter how big that character’s role,” Man- Two Journeys eyes,” Hay says. The two clicked with Leter- fredi says. This character work also included Hero’s rier right away, and they continued their ensuring that Hades had motivations be- The rneys Two Jou10+Hours of Storytelling Instruction close collaboration through the film’s pro- yond those of a mustache-twirling cartoon on 3 DVDs and 1CD 3 DVDs duction. All agreed that the look and feel of villain. “That’s what makes a movie like Bat- the film needed to be very specific. Hay man so interesting: You’ve got characters + jokes, “The movie should feel like it’s who have a very distinct and arguable point painted on the side of a ‘70s custom van.” of view,” Manfredi explains. “We’re trying 1 CCD Manfredi adds that while their version dif- to give Hades a personal motivation. It’s not fers in many ways from the 1981 original, just, well, he’s the king of the underworld 11 Hours How to Unite the Outer Journey of Plot with the Inner Journey of Character Arc with Michael Hauge, author of Writing Screenplays That Sell and Chris they definitely overlap in tone. “What and thus inherently evil.” Vogler, author of The Writer's Journey. makes a good adventure is the characters,” Another casualty of Hay and Manfredi’s Manfredi says. “They feel real, their plight is rewrite was Beacham’s Wilting Girl. While a serious one, but the move doesn’t take it- much of her character remains in the su- Want to write a better story? self too seriously. That’s what defines an ad- pernatural Io (Gemma Arterton), the ro- Pick up a copy of this best-selling venture rather than an action movie.” mantic triangle between her, Perseus and DVD series by Michael Hauge Hay and Manfredi spent the first two Andromeda was significantly downplayed and Chris Vogler. weeks sitting in an office with Leterrier, in the final film. The relationship between “throwing out every feeling we had about worship and power is still a thematic focus, “I learned more from this DVD than Greek mythology, about the story, about but it is mostly explored in the motivations I did in two years of screenwriting Perseus, creating a depot of ideas,” Hay ex- of the Olympians, with much more “palace classes.” plains. The pair outlined meticulously, tak- intrigue” revealing insights into the psy- ing into consideration both narrative and chological makeup of the Gods. Available at screenstyle.com, budget constraints. When they were ready Filming was rapid and the schedule was The Writer’s Store, and . to begin writing, the two camped out at the tight, ensuring that Hay and Manfredi studio for six months, divided the scenes up wound up interacting with almost every as- and worked separately. “Once we have a pect of production. “So much of the writing draft, we’re sitting in the same room,” Man- of this movie was geared toward incorporat- fredi says. “One of us is typing and we edit ing all these elements of physical production together. It’s funny, in the past when we and being constantly in communication have accidentally written the same scene, with all the departments about what was they’re eerily similar.” going on so they wouldn’t be inventing stuff Beacham’s work provided a solid template in a vacuum,” Hay says. All told, the writers to build from, but the new screenwriters de- did 10 drafts of Titans, not counting smaller cided to return the story to its traditional set- work such as tweaking dialogue during film- ting in ancient Greece. “The Gods we wanted ing or putting together a character bio of to see were the Greek Gods,” Manfredi says. Hades to help get inside the That change was important, because Hay and head of the God of the Underworld. Manfredi’s scripts added much more focus on With Clash of the Titans set for release on the machinations of the Gods. While April 2, all three writers are eager to let the Beacham’s script kept the Gods fairly distant, world see their take on the legend of Hay and Manfredi brought the divine intrigues Perseus. For Hay and Manfredi, Titans was front and center. Beacham’s Set the Void and an experience that taught them just how Tiamat were out, replaced by the power valuable collaboration can be. “Even the struggle between Zeus and Hades (Ralph person with the smallest part has an idea Fiennes). “In our version, Hades is a slighted about their character,” Manfredi says. “You brother who has been nursing a grudge may think, ‘That part is really insignificant,’ against his more powerful, more successful but it’s going to make everything deeper.” brother, Zeus, for centuries,” Hay explains. Beacham once again gives credit to how While much of Beacham’s fantasy world much he learned from reading Lawrence and story structure carried over into Hay Kasdan’s polish of his draft and to the heady and Manfredi’s scripts, the duo gave special experience of working on his first big-bud- focus to fleshing out the band of adventur- get Hollywood film. “It’s hard to quantify ers who accompany Perseus on his quest. how much I learned from [Titans],” he says, The writers wanted a Dirty Dozen vibe for the “but much of the screenwriter I am today, I group, making sure each character had “a became because of it.”

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 63 NOW PLAYING BY PETER CLINES Brooklyn’s Finest in theaters March 5

dealer named Carlo (Vincent D’Onofrio) has a long discussion with Sal and explains the difference between “gooder and badder.” Ac- cording to Carlo, sometimes the wrong thing to do is actually the right thing to do, and vice versa. This new opening gave the inde- pendent stories and the audience an imme- diate thematic connection. Martin had always pictured the film as three distinct stories, but when his script moved into development the recurring ques- tion from different executives was whether the separate threads should be tied together at the end. “I like seeing lives that feel like they’re heading toward the same direction, but they don’t actually have to [meet], and I think audiences are smart enough to enjoy that,” the screenwriter says. “I don’t want it to wrap itself up in a nice, neat package be- cause it’s not a typical Hollywood movie. It’s not meant to reassure you.” At one point, director Antoine Fuqua sug- Brooklyn’s Finest gested inserting an inciting catalyst that Screenplay by Michael C. Martin would build tension across all three story- lines. The filmmakers settled on a scandal that involved a crooked cop shooting a IT’S BEEN SAID that inspiration can come precincts. Eddie (Richard Gere) is burned out young man in a Brooklyn neighbor- about in the most unusual ways. For screen- after two decades on the force and refuses to hood. This created political pressure for writer Michael C. Martin, one of those ways do anything but drink and count down the Eddie, upped the danger for Sal on several of included a car accident that left him with a remaining days until his retirement. Sal his raids and made Tango feel even more serious back injury and loads of free time on (Ethan Hawke) is a devout Catholic and fam- conflicted about whose side he was on. This his hands as he worked through physical ily man who’s come to realize that busting still kept Martin’s original vision intact, therapy. The other bit of inspiration came via drug dealers might be the way to solving his though while Eddie, Sal and Tango do cross the memory of his former roommate, a financial problems. Clarence, better known paths in the film, there’s only the thinnest gung-ho police academy cadet. “Something as Tango (Don Cheadle), has been under- interweaving as their stories play out largely happened and it just completely broke his cover for so long that he’s having serious independently of one another. momentum and spirit,” Martin recalls. doubts about where his loyalties lie, espe- Martin compares his final screenplay to “That’s probably happened to every police cially when he’s told the feds want to bust material that came out of Italian cinema’s neo- officer. It’s something I’d love to see in a his friend Caz (Wesley Snipes). As the days realism period. “There’s a great movie, Umberto movie. Not the case or [whether it] gets tick by and tensions mount across the city D., that I watched while I was in rehab for my solved, but what’s the cost of being a police over a rash of officer-related incidents, each back,” he recalls. “[It was] an entire movie officer on your soul and your morals.” Mar- man finds himself pushed into a series of about a guy who just wanted to pay his rent. It tin decided to use his recovery time to write ever-murkier moral conundrums. was just fascinating. There was no bad guy in- out the story that had been brewing in his Though Martin knew his characters and volved; it was just his situation in dealing with mind and used an upcoming festival contest the arcs they would follow, he also knew that life.” For all their efforts and achievements, the as his deadline for completion. his fledgling script was still missing some- screenwriter points out that police officers are Although Martin studied film at Brooklyn thing. After passing the 30-page mark, he felt just human beings like the rest of us. “So I de- College, this was the first time he tackled a fea- the story wouldn’t connect with the audi- liberately wanted them all to be in some moral ture script. He considers himself a devout fol- ence sitting in a movie theater. So he went dilemma,” Martin explains, “some decision lower of screenwriting professor and author back to his opening — a scene where Sal sits which wasn’t going to be clean either way. I Syd Field, but admits he learned how to write in a church confessional and tries awkwardly wanted the audience to sometimes root for the screenplay just by sitting down and doing to ask forgiveness without admitting to any- them to do something that, on the surface, it. He recalls, “As much as I plotted it out with thing he’s done — and decided to move this seems negative and it seems wrong. But be- index cards, it all happened on the page.” scene later into the story and instead start the cause you’ve seen their home lives and you’ve Brooklyn’s Finest follows the parallel sto- film by showing audiences just what sent Sal seen what they’re up against, you kind of want ries of one week in the life of three police of- to the confessional in the first place. Martin this cop to steal the drug money. To me, that’s ficers in one of New York’s most crime-ridden then created a new opening where a drug a great cinematic experience.

64 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010

NOW PLAYING BY PETER DEBRUGE

a stunt like this is simple: Long-shot pet proj- ects eat up time that could be spent working on real-world assignments and steal resources from scripts that stand a better chance at get- ting made. But the duo was determined. Though Cats & Dogs was a hit, the writers des- perately needed a challenge. “We were feeling a little stale,” Requa admits, and McVicker’s book introduced the perfect character in real- life repeat offender Steven Jay Russell. “He’s our kind of guy — completely de- luded, a pie-eyed optimist, but then it all comes crashing down and he becomes a bit of a wreck. That’s just the kind of stuff we love,” Ficarra says, comparing Carrey’s character to Bad Santa’s dark, delusional antihero. As a bonus, the project presented all sorts of challenges: They’d never adapted a story based in reality, nor had they attempted a romance or anything with genuine dramatic elements before. Writing typically comes easy to Requa and Ficarra, but not with Phillip Morris. They spent the better part of a year brainstorming, writ- ing and revising. “That’s unusual for us,” Requa claims. “When we write a script, it takes no more than two months, and this was a year I Love You Phillip Morris without pay.” In some respects, the process took longer simply because they were work- Screenplay by and Glenn Ficarra ing on spec. “We weren’t handing it in. Usu- Based on the book by Steve McVicker ally you have people who are your partners — the producer or the studio — you hand it in and get notes. We were those guys, and we FOR NEWCOMERS, it’s possible to stick your job over to the writers, taking a producer credit kept kicking it back to ourselves,” he explains. neck out and write something outrageous, instead. And though the comedy seems a McVicker had based the book on inter- knowing it will land you meetings around doozy to market, it was invited to screen at views with Russell himself, which made the Hollywood, even if the screenplay never gets both the Sundance and Cannes film festivals. character especially tricky to write. It was produced. But once your career gets going, it “Our mojo wasn’t very strong back then,” Fi- straightforward enough to catalog his cons takes a special kind of lunacy to interrupt that carra recalls, referring to that weekend eight (including a great many that weren’t especially success in order to generate a completely years ago, when the writing partners first read cinematic and, therefore, left out of the film), gonzo screenplay. journalist Steve McVicker’s stranger-than- but Russell was such a consummate shape- There are exceptions to this rule, of course, fiction book proposal. “We were well respected shifter that he was rarely ever honest with with I Love You Phillip Morris being this year’s in the industry, but Bad Santa hadn’t come out himself. “He’s Don Quixote,” Requa says. “You most obvious example. Written by John Requa yet, so if we said, ‘We want to do a gay prison es- can’t really lock down that he starts here and and Glenn Ficarra, the team behind Bad Santa cape movie,’ people were like, ‘Well, good luck.’” he ends up there. It’s not really in the mate- and Cats & Dogs, the film tells the true story of Being provocateurs by nature, the pair rial, so we thought, ‘Let’s just make the whole a Texas con man who falls in love with a fel- wanted to be in-your-face with the material: movie where you don’t know who he is at any low prisoner while behind bars and bends Think Fargo as the Farrelly brothers might tell it, given time.’ Maybe the journey of the film is every rule imaginable (from suicide attempts or an irreverent South Park-style version of The coming to the realization that he doesn’t to jail breaks to ambitious corporate fraud Informant, centered around a surprisingly sweet know who he is either.” schemes) so the odd-ball couple could live out gay love story. “We always knew there was just The other guiding idea was the book’s title, their unconventional romance. no way we could write this for money, because which pointed to a love story, although build- The idea that such a script exists in play-it- no studio was going to pay what our rate was at ing a story around a homosexual antihero did- safe Hollywood is strange enough. Even more the time to tell this unconventional story,” n’t make things easy. Since the book was due mind-boggling is the fact that Requa explains. “You can’t blame them. If we to be published by Books, Requa and agreed to play the openly gay character. It wanted to tell it our way, the one way to get Ficarra approached the company’s film divi- even attracted who initially control over our script was to write it for free.” sion about financing the adaptation. “They wanted to direct, but ultimately handed that The reason established writers seldom pull wanted Phillip to be a woman,” Requa recalls.

66 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 I Love You Phillip Morris in theaters March 26

“In so many words, it was like, ‘How can we “Oh, did I forget to mention…?” revision- normalize this because there are so many ism), the film earns its biggest laugh by rub- wild elements?’” But the pair wasn’t willing bing that revelation in audiences’ faces. to sacrifice that aspect of the story, which “We called it ‘the inoculation,’” Requa they felt was one of the details that set it says. “Early on, we thought we would inoc- apart. Instead, they latched onto the idea of ulate the audience to the overt gayness of Russell’s crazy ride as a search for self, fasci- the movie. We wanted to give people a nated especially by the character’s chance to walk out of the theater, and that chameleon-like nature. way, when we have some honest emotion, The screenplay seems to require a nar- they’re hungry for it.” rator, says Requa, who admits, “We were Striking the right tone was key and it looking at Goodfellas from the get-go be- helped that Van Sant bowed out (when the cause that’s an incredibly dense movie stars aligned for him to make Milk) and left with tons of information.” Even so, the the writers to direct the film themselves — duo had knocked out a 140-page draft be- not an easy debut. “We were walking a fore arriving at their big breakthrough: tightrope,” Ficarra acknowledges. Though Rather than showing all of Russell’s cons, neither of the writers is gay, they were de- what if the film itself was a con? Or, at the termined not to portray homosexuality as very least, constantly changing, according an affliction. Instead, they wanted to cap- to the character’s amorphous self-image? ture the spirit of their screenwriting mentor, “As filmmakers, we were like, ‘Forget the Pratt screenwriting professor, Paul Corrigan, truth. Let’s tell Steven’s story from his to whom they dedicated the film. “We want point of view,’” Ficarra says. to show that guy who loves being gay and With an unreliable narrator in place, the flourishes being gay,” Requa says. With Rus- duo was now free to wreak all sorts of havoc. sell’s character, he adds, “Part of the joke is In subsequent drafts, as the film opens, au- that he’s in this boring, horrible, middle- diences meet Russell as he narrates from his American place and, as a gay man, it’s like deathbed. (Or is it really his deathbed? prison. He’s hiding his true self in this oak- Surely the writers wouldn’t jest about some- paneled hell.” But given his criminal ten- one dying of AIDS?) They withheld the gay dencies, Russell spends plenty of time in and twist as long as possible, with a sizable out of actual prison during the film, and it chunk of the first act focused on the other is there, of all places, that he meets his soul crazy facets of Russell’s life. He’d worked in mate (played by Ewan McGregor as an aw- law enforcement and was married with chil- shucks Southern boy). dren — all of which seems to contradict the “How do you show two people falling in persona he embodies by the end of the film, love in the worst place on earth?” Requa asks. and yet, as Requa points out, “His whole life Like everything else in the film, the scribes is based on this idea that he becomes what- found film humor in the love story by play- ever he needs to be at any given time, and ing against certain expected cinematic con- he loses himself in that.” ventions — including the longstanding Russell’s marriage may have been another homophobia of prison sex. “People are used disguise, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t au- to reacting to scenes in a certain way and thentic. “If you talk to Steven, he would say, we’re using the clichés of heist movies and ‘I loved my wife and making love to her was con movies, even romantic comedies the way like for any straight man to make love to a magician uses misdirection,” Requa says. Julia Roberts,’” Ficarra explains. “There were In many respects, that misdirection was never any half measures there, and in fact, riskier than the material itself. “There’s al- his wife and daughter think of him as a fun- ways a danger that once you reveal the damentally good man who tried his best to con, the audience will be angry with you. support them. Who knows if that is true, but That’s why being a comedy comes in that’s what Steven believes.” handy,” Ficarra says. “You start putting in Political correctness was of little concern a couple of laughs. By the time you get to to the pair, with the film offering equal-op- the third laugh, they’ve forgiven you. portunity offenses to gays, Christians and a That’s something we learned from Bad variety of other groups. When Russell as a Santa: We could make a movie about the narrator first breaks the news of his homo- life of Joseph Stalin, but if the character is sexuality (doing so in a characteristic bit of funny, they forgive you.”

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 67 NOW PLAYING BY PETER CLINES

bad dreams. Their parents and teachers shrug it off as stress brought on by the ap- parent suicide of their friend Dean (Kel- lan Lutz). The teens, however, begin to suspect differently when they realize they’re all dreaming of the same person — a horribly burned man in a striped sweater who wears a monstrous, blade- fingered glove. As their friends continue dying under questionable circumstances, Nancy () and Quentin (Kyle Gallner) discover the man haunting their nightmares is Fred Krueger (), the groundskeeper from their old preschool and a suspected child molester who was hunted down and killed by the teens’ parents. Nancy and Quentin strive to stay awake as they search for a way to put Freddy’s spirit to rest before he kills them, too, but their search turns up something even worse — the possibility that Krueger may have been innocent. The idea of questioning Freddy’s guilt came from Strick and was the sole ele- ment carried over from his script. “What made it appealing,” Heisserer explains, A Nightmare on Elm Street “was it forced an investigation, some pro- cedural elements, into the story.” Once Story by the characters had these suspicions, it al- Screenplay by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer lowed the creation of several investigative beats that helped propel the story. It also Based on characters created by Wes Craven gave a greater depth to the background and the character. “Just the idea that he’s ERIC HEISSERER THOUGHT he was walking wicked comedian. During the meeting, all evil and he shows up in dreams and he’s killing into a general meeting at New Line Cinema in agreed that it was time to take the character people... there’s not a whole lot to do there the winter of 2008, so he was a bit surprised to back to the basics. “Once we were all on the story-wise,” the screenwriter laughs. find himself sitting with development execu- same page in terms of the tone of Freddy Heisserer also wanted to strip away many tive David Neustadter and executive producer Krueger,” Heisserer says. “I went off into my of the comical layers that had built up on Walter Hamada. He recalls being both con- cave and I wrote for three-and-a-half weeks in Freddy across seven films. “I’ve noticed that fused and worried. “I’m thinking to myself order to get a draft to them as fast as possible.” a lot of franchises, by the time they’re at the ‘’Why am I in the big conference room? Did I Heisserer is a big believer in note cards and third or fourth film, they bend more and say something bad about New Line? I’m in loves starting with established material. “It more toward comedy,” observes the screen- trouble, aren’t I?’” It turned out the studio puts a lot of stuff on that cork wall right writer. “I think if we start there, there isn’t needed someone to do a quick turnaround on away,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t mind much elbow room for Freddy. He can always a script for a new take on Nightmare on Elm coming in with something that already has in- become more wisecracking later on in the Street and Heisserer’s previously scheduled gredients set out for me.” His board starts as a franchise, but what makes him an icon of meeting that day was pure serendipity. “trash pile” of dialogue snippets, action se- horror is that, first and foremost, he’s scary. New Line already had a draft of the script by quences and character notes that he slowly I knew that he still needed to have some Wesley Strick (Doom), but decided to go in a dif- weeds through and organizes before commit- sense of humor, but I wanted to make it ferent direction. The meeting where Heisserer ting to an outline of 20 pages or so. “Once I’ve sadistic rather than wise-cracky.” As shown and the others hashed out what kind of movie got a decent outline, I use that as the spinal in this script excerpt, Freddy’s humor has they wanted this new Nightmare to be also in- column of the script,” he says. “And I make been replaced with a menacing wit. cluded producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form sure before I go to the script phase that every- INT. BOILER ROOM IN NIGHTMARE - of . As Heisserer points out, body else on the project has seen it and they’re CONTINUOUS there were conflicting versions of the iconic vil- happy with the skeleton of the piece.” lain Freddy Krueger who as the franchise pro- A Nightmare on Elm Street is the story of a --but sounds distant; far off gressed, evolved from a demonic killer into a handful of suburban teens who all suffer from here.

68 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 Get Your Script Read By Hollywood A Nightmare on Elm Street in theaters April 30 Query Letter Mailings To Producers & Literary Agents Hand-Picked For Your Script Freddy has hoisted Jesse’s later franchise films, Heisserer was deter- bloody frame up next to Kris’. mined to make the nightmares as close to Want to get your script read by Hollywood, reality as possible. “The scares are harder to but don’t have any contacts? Delegate it to Jesse coughs up blood, eyes deliver when the audience realizes they’re a Smart Girl. You can get your script rolling in his head. critiqued to make sure it’s ready and then in the dream world,” he explains, “because market it to specific Agents & Producers FREDDY once they’re keyed into that, the audience chosen just for your The brain keeps working for — at least [some] of them — starts to give script with our up to seven minutes after up and think, ‘’Well, they’re screwed now.’’ SmartStudio™ soft- the body dies. Because Freddy has full control there.” By ware. More than 2000 keeping the dream world grounded in re- screenwriters have used Freddy leans in close to Jesse’s ality, it allowed him to play with the mo- our services since 1992. face. ment the characters fell asleep and slipped Whether it’s your first into the nightmare. “That just hit the but- script or your tenth, we FREDDY (CONT’D) will work with you thru Melody Jackson, Ph.D. tons for me more as a horror writer than I still have four minutes the process to give it “Top 5 Script Analyst” playing with a fantastical landscape.” Keep- with you. your best shot. ing the dream imagery simple also kept it Call 818/907-6511 for your Freddy stabs Jesse again and inexpensive, which made Heisserer’s script FREE CATALOG of Services TWISTS as Jesse SCREAMS-- more appealing to the budget-mindful pro- ducers who had a number in mind for the for Writers & Lucky Pen! www.ScriptCritique.com Heisserer also sought to keep the horror film’s budget. www.QueryLetterMailing.com escalating as the script moved into the third For a remake of such an iconic slasher "Highly Recommended." act. “Looking at the original,” the screen- film, Heisserer’s script has an extremely low Creative Screenwriting (v10 #2) writer says, “there’s a long gap in the last body count. He attributes part of this to sim- half of the film between appearances of ple story dynamics. “We wanted to spend Freddy Krueger, because people have fig- more time with our characters,” he says. ured out, at that point in time, that once “Do our best to get to know them and the you go to sleep — that’s when he gets you.” relationship between their parents who are In Wes Craven’s film, which Heisserer fol- involved in covering up what happened to lowed the structure of, Nancy spends al- Krueger.” However, there was also, unusual most 20 minutes of screen time as it may sound, the matter of suspension booby-trapping her house so she can pull of disbelief. “It’s harder, I think, in the Night- Freddy into the real world and fight him. A mare on Elm Street world, to get away with a then-unknown Johnny Depp is also killed whole slew of murders in a town and not at this point, but the villain is barely draw a lot of attention.” With a wry smile, glimpsed. “So there’s this long period where Heisserer gives the example of an isolated you feel like, in this day and age, the movie summer camp far off in the woods by a lake. would drag,” he explains. “There’s a lot of “Then you can kill 10 or 12 people in one stuff that may have worked in ‘84, but it movie,” he says. “But here we are in Spring- doesn’t translate well now.” wood, a pleasant suburbia, and even one or The solution came to him while re- two [murders] is going to draw a lot of at- searching insomnia and the health issues tention — local, state, national. Even if it that come with it. Heisserer learned after looks like it’s accidental deaths, there are a someone spends about 70 hours without lot of eyebrows being raised. So you have to sleep, their mind begins to take “micron- be careful about that and not have body aps” that shut down different sections of count be the focus of the story.” the brain for brief periods. “So you are ac- But perhaps the scariest thing for Heis- tually asleep even though you’re conscious serer was the heavy responsibility of re- and you feel awake for the most part,” he launching one of his favorite film explains. “That was my doorway into al- characters. “I had to do my best to do lowing Krueger to show up at unexpected Freddy Krueger justice,” he says. “I would- times while the characters were awake and n’t have taken the job if I thought all I was screw with the idea of what is reality versus going to do was deliver something that was what is a dream.” a little bit better than what they already had. This idea also leant itself to another one I had to deliver something I felt would re- of the screenwriter’s goals: to simplify ally fit in with the mythology and restart Krueger’s dream world. While Strick had him properly.” He laughs and adds, “It was continued with the surreal imagery of the scary as hell.”

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 69 NOW PLAYING BY ADAM STOVALL Greenberg in theaters March 26

assistant, which not only gave me a way for Greenberg to meet her, but also clarified what kind of person she is. The script used to begin with Greenberg, but in a later draft I realized that starting with Florence accom- plishes so many things this movie needed. Most importantly, it doesn’t indulge Green- berg’s myopia, but it also shows that Florence exists without him, and it was a way to bring L.A. into the story.” As a fan of the L.A.-centric films of the ‘70s, Baumbach wanted to tell an L.A. story of his own. He just wasn’t sure where to start. Since his wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh (who shares story by credit on the film) grew up in Los Angeles, she heavily influenced Baum- bach’s view of the city. “We started spending time together in L.A. and seeing the city through her eyes really changed how I saw Greenberg the place,” he says. “I felt a different rela- tionship with the city [after] being here with Story by Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh her. In some ways I felt like Greenberg, in that I was an outsider in this place, but I was Screenplay by Noah Baumbach (also directed) also starting to feel more at home. I just felt that I wanted to shoot the place that I was THROW A STONE at the box office and the basic situation he was going to be in, or starting to see.” you’ll likely find a film about some man- the exact point in his life where we were Typically, Baumbach’s process begins with child struggling with arrested development. meeting him.” him writing ideas for characters, concepts Most of these protagonists seek only to laugh Although some of the best moments in and conversations into a notebook or on the at their situation and the process by which the film include conversations Greenberg has computer. As he finishes one project, he’ll go they try to mature, but Greenberg wants to with others about being in his early forties, back into these notebooks and see which understand why he ended up stunted in the the film almost existed without them. idea seems the most alive to him. While he first place. “Greenberg was much younger in early kept coming back to Greenberg, he knew the Greenberg chronicles 42-year-old Roger drafts,” Baumbach says. “But even then, it script had problems. “I was having trouble Greenberg (Ben Stiller) who comes to Los An- was always about somebody at a point in finding the movie, so I showed Jenny an geles to housesit for his brother and get back their life where they start to feel like they early draft,” he recalls. “We have different in touch with old friends. When asked what don’t know how they got there, and how strengths. I come at things more intuitively he’s doing with his life these days, he simply they would like to be seen in the world starts and she’s very clear and a very good editor answers, “I’m really trying to do nothing to contrast with how they actually are seen who knows the story and where everything right now.” It’s a great conversation piece for in the world. Sometimes there are lines or is and should be. She was instrumental in re- parties but, as the film continues, it seems subjects that I know I want to try and deal ally getting it going and helping it turn into that even the task of doing nothing is daunt- with, so even though early drafts are just ex- what it became.” ing for Greenberg. perimenting with characters and scenarios, What it became is a film about people “Greenberg is a contrarian,” says writer-di- these elements carry through.” who don’t know what they want — a film rector Noah Baumbach. “He’s one of those While Greenberg is house sitting, he not just about people in transition, but people who doesn’t feel it’s a conversation if meets Florence (), his brother’s about transition itself. “It did occur to me you’re agreeing. He has an active mind and personal assistant. She’s 25, just out of a bad that I had made my life more difficult than actually wants to do quite a lot, but when he relationship and pathologically unsure of I needed to in telling this story,” Baumbach does make an attempt, he immediately regrets what she wants. As Baumbach explains, a lot says. “But I think that’s why it took the time it and feels he didn’t do it well enough. So his of Florence was found during writing exper- it took. [With] the two movies I made before cover story is that he isn’t really trying.” iments with the character during his revising Greenberg, everything came together when As a script, Greenberg began with just that: process. “I had an idea of who this girl was those scripts were written. Greenberg was Greenberg, a character who Baumbach and I wanted to include her in the story,” he something I picked at for years. I feel it’s wanted to explore. “I wanted to write about says. “So while I’m writing scenes with something that I could still be working on. someone who couldn’t get out of his own Greenberg, I would bring her in and see how It just kept changing, but when the movie way,” he says. “The early drafts were about they communicate. It wasn’t until later drafts came together — it just felt like, ‘Let’s do it, trying to figure out the character and what that I had the idea that Florence is a personal let’s make this movie.’”

70 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 2009 SCREENWRITING Congratulations to our 2009 EXPO Screenplay E PO Competition Winners. SCREENPLAY COMPETITION Please see our website for entry details on our 2010 AAA and Expo Screenplay Contest. Grand Prize Winner – $20,000 “Freud” – Drama – Daniel Ragussis Genre Prize Winners – $2,500 each Runners Up For Genre Prizes – $250 Each “Premonition” – Thriller – David Bousquet “Karmically Correct” – Fantasy – Erin Donovan “The Phoenix Effect” – Sci–Fi/Action – Margaret M. MacDonald “Wolves in the Winter” – Horror – Sarah Del Collo “The Blue Planet” – Sci-Fi – Svet Rouskov “Roadside Assistance” – Thriller – David J. Sakmyster “Horror Comic” – Thriller – Stephen Hoover “Running Boys” – Sci-Fi – Peter Kennedy Suzanne’s Prize For Best Love Story Winner, $2,000 “Love Letters” – Riley LaShea Suzanne’s Prize Finalists A Severed Romance – Todd Rheingold Love Letters – Riley LaShea Love Letters – Riley LaShea A Different Shade of Black – Dana Congdon My Girl Daisy – Sue Yeats Strawberry Mansion – R. Scott Shields Chasing Brenda – Pauline Hayton Now You See Me – Beth Szyperski A Severed Romance – Todd Rheingold Frenching – Maire Rose Off Screen Romance – Theo Baynton A Different Shade of Black – Dana Congdon Chasing Brenda – Pauline Hayton Strawberry Mansion – R. Scott Shields My Girl Daisy – Sue Yeats Frenching – Marie Rose Sophronia L. – Tim Bridwell He’s the One – F. Leegh Lewis The One That Got Away – Ryan Belenzon Suzanne’s Prize Semifinalists Karmically Correct – Erin Donovan When Harry Tries to Marry – Ralph Stein & 5 Dates – Kyle Michel Sullivan Love & Vodka – Robert J. Fox Nayan Padrai 2009 Top 10 And Top 20 Top 10 Winners Top 20 Winners (including ties) “Ice Cold Feet” – John Fein “Book of the Missing” – Kate Douglas “Freud” – Daniel Ragussis “Rye& Rice” –Craig Rosenthal “Premonition” – Thriller – David Bousquet “Premonition” – David Bousquet “Aza’ Zyel” – Terrence Manns “The Phoenix Effect” – Sci-Fi/Action” – Margaret M. MacDonald “Bang Bang Butterflies – Amy Rider “Wither” – Evette Vargas “The Blue Planet” – Sci-Fi – Svet Rouskov “The Phoenix Effect” – Margaret M. MacDonald “When Harry Tries To Marry” – Nayan Padrai & Ralph Stein “Horror Comic” – Thriller – Stephen Hoover “The Blue Planet” – Svet Rouskov “The Svengali Effect (Thriller) – Jeremy Shipp “Book of the Missing” – Kate Douglas “Karmically Correct” – Fantasy – Erin Donovan – “Big Band Butterflies” –Amy Rider “Wolves in the Winter” – Horror” – Sarah Del Collo “Horror Comic” – Stephen Hoover “Karmically Correct” – Erin Donovan “The Underground Castle” – Jacqueline Stewart “Roadside Assistance” – Thriller – David J. Sakmyster “Wolves in the Winter” – Sarah Del Collo “Naked Lady Blues” – James and Suzanne Cordingley “Running Boys” – Sci-Fi – Peter Kennedy “Roadside Assistance” – David J. Sakmyster “Borderland” – J.R. Taylor “When Harry tries to Marry– Nayan Padrai & Ralph Stein “Running Boys” – Peter Kennedy “Blood Honor” – William Berezansky “The Underground Castle” – Jacqueline Stewart “Brooklynese” – Troy Ransome “94 Maidens” – Rhonda Fink – Whitman Writers Boot Camp Fellowship Award Winners Feature Hour Teleplay Prize (Drama) $1,000 each “Now you See Me” Beth Szyperski “In Treatment” – “Episode 75” – “MIA” – Short Films Margaret Lepera J.J. Hillard “Boing!” Half–Hour Teleplay Prize (Comedy) Pilot “Entourage” – “Feng Shui’d” – Chris Raymond “Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll” Dmitry Sheynin

Visit http://creativescreenwriting.com/aaa/index.html to enter the 2010 AAA Contest – Deadline is April 11th!! NOW PLAYING BY PETER CLINES

thinking in such a linear way. You see scenes that would work better somewhere else, or you start to look at it more on a structural angle.” He points out that on the board for his current project, a single glance tells him his first act has far more cards in it than his second act. “So I’m re- alizing that my act one is a little heavy, and there’s probably some stuff I should be moving around or fixing. I don’t know if I would’ve noticed that if I was writing an outline because it’s just not as easy to see.” In Season of the Witch, Behman (Nicolas Cage) and Fel- son (Ron Perlman) are two knights who have returned to France exhausted and near-bro- ken after a failed attempt to launch a new crusade. During their long absence, Europe had been gripped by a dark plague that killed thousands. A local cardinal (Christopher Lee) has determined the cause — a young peasant girl (Claire Foy), Season of the Witch whom the church has de- nounced as a witch and accused Screenplay by Bragi Schut of poisoning the land with her spells. The cardinal charges the SCREENWRITER BRAGI SCHUT (Thresh- thing noble in my mind,” the screenwriter knights with delivering the prisoner to a old) confesses with a laugh that he often gets says, “and very interesting about a character distant abbey where they can “destroy the The Seventh Seal and The Seventh Sign con- who’s trying to undo something that they’ve witch’s powers.” Behman, bitter and skep- fused. It’s the classic, done in their past that they’re ashamed of.” tical after his time abroad, accepts the duty though, that inspired him to write his Schut thinks part of the appeal of such char- to ensure the helpless girl will get a fair Nicholl Fellowship-winning script Season of acters is that this element is entirely self-con- trial. The road to the abbey is long and the Witch, which finally makes its way to the tained and internal. “Nobody outside of the hard, though, and the knights and their screen seven years after it won. “There’s a protagonist may even give a damn,” he says. companions begin to suspect their prisoner scene in [Bergman’s] movie where a bunch “But I’m very intrigued with the notion of a might not be that helpless after all, let of knights pass a woman who has been ac- character who is judging himself and finds alone innocent. cused of witchcraft on the road,” Schut re- that he is wanting. That to me is very rich, Season, as Schut sees it, has a very simple calls. “You just feel bad for her. She’s clearly dramatic stuff.” This led him to the idea of a structure. “It’s a journey film,” he explains. been abused, and I think her wrists are actu- knight so scarred by the things he had seen “The first act is the arrival in the world and ally broken because they’re afraid of her — and done that he had lost faith in God — a setting the stage. Then you slowly bring to- they don’t want her to cast any spells. I re- knight who, in the script, eventually became gether your team, you give them their or- member that scene just stuck with me. She’s known as Behman. ders, and you set them off on the journey.” obviously innocent and a victim, and it’s a Schut is not a fan of outlines and tends However, he’s quick to point out that his horrible moment. But it just got me think- to work mostly with note cards. “I think out- story ran up against the same problem ing, ‘What if she really were a witch and we lines are a little bit limiting in that you see Bergman’s did. “His script was not histori- just thought she was innocent?’ That was them in a very linear way,” he explains. “You cally that accurate,” Schut explains. “His the kernel of the idea.” start from A and try to figure out how to get script takes place during the time of the Another kernel was Schut’s long-running to B and how to get to C. With note cards, Black Death, the plague, and he shows these fascination with characters trying to redeem what I found interesting was when you put knights returning from the Crusades.” themselves for past actions. “There’s some- all these cards up on the board, you stop When he first wrote Season, the screen-

72 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 Season of the Witch in theaters March 19 Give Me 5 Minutes and I'll Show You How You Can Write a 120- Page Screenplay in Under 30 Days writer handed off his drafts to his father, trying to be snarky about it or subversive AND...Have It Sold Within 60 Days an amateur historian, who shook his head or anything,” the screenwriter insists. “I for a Minimum of $250,000! at the gross inaccuracies. “The Black Death just liked the name LaVey. I did know of really happened 100, 200 years after the Anton LaVey and I just figured if nobody GUARANTEED! Crusades,” Schut points out. “And that raised any red flags I’d get away with it. was after the tail end of the Crusades. If And then Nicolas Cage, two days into the you’re talking about the Crusades every- shoot!” He laughs again. one thinks of, the sacking of Jerusalem, However, changing LaVey to Behman that was much earlier.” While he decided created a new problem: Now the majority Become a highly paid screenwriter or to let these mistakes slide in order to meet of the characters had names ending in a x story "pitcher" the Nicholl Fellowship deadline — a wise hard “N” sound. Besides the knights, there x Write a full-length screenplay in 30 choice, in retrospect — once he was was their guide Hagaman (Stephen Gra- days or less awarded the Fellowship and the script was ham) and the altar boy Kaylan (Robert x Become a sought-after Hollywood sold, he began to fret over the errors. “Oh, Sheenan), who tags along on the journey writer in 12 months or less my God, everyone’s going to realize the hoping to become a knight himself. Cage, x Make six- or seven-figures for each plague didn’t happen during the Cru- a fan of Arthurian legends, stepped in script or movie idea sades!” he chuckles. “And then of course again with a solution, pointing out that if Find Out How One Screenwriter Broke In with [director] Dominic Sena did. Those are the the altar boy’s name was shortened to Kay, NO EXPERIENCE and Sold His First Movie Idea things you don’t worry about so much the implication would be that earning his for [REVEALED IN SECRET REPORT]! And How when you’re just sitting there writing it knighthood would make him Sir Kay, one ANYONE Can Follow a Simple Success Blueprint to Have the Hollywood Screenwriting Career and then, suddenly, oh my God, this is of the knights of Camelot, a subtle nod You've Always Wanted! GET INSTANT ACCESS! going to be in theaters! We’ve gotta figure Schut liked as well. this out!” Also notable is that the title character, www.ScreenwritingRiches.com Like any good writer, he hit the books. the peasant girl, is never named in the Books on the Black Plague, the Crusades story. “I liked that device,” the screen- and the different medieval orders of writer admits. “I’ve seen it in one or two “I sold my first spec knights, giving a special nod to “The other films, where they just have a char- script in 19 days for Monks of War” by Desmond Seward. His acter named ‘the drifter’ or something. $310,000 thanks to research helped him define his characters Usually it’s the protagonist in Westerns.” Moni Share’s better and also figure out what war they In his Nicholl-winning draft, it was ap- were returning home from. “There were parent from the start that the girl was evil critiquing, rewriting, six or seven Crusades and ours is not one and the knights were being tricked. How- and coaching expertise!” ~Scott V. of those,” Schut says. “Ours is a very ob- ever, Sena pushed for a draft more in line scure battle much later. It was sort of a last- with the screenwriter’s original kernel of The Secret Little-Known ditch effort to get a Crusade going again, inspiration: What if the characters and au- but it was a bit of a joke and a lot of peo- dience thought the girl might be an inno- Strategies on How You ple were killed for nothing. Not that they cent pawn. “The challenge then is, how do were killed for anything in the real Cru- you keep it scary while still not revealing Can Easily Get Your sades. They were all ill-conceived, mis- that she’s evil right at the outset?” Screenplay Read and guided efforts.” Schut points out that, given modern An unusual round of changes to the marketing and even the film’s title, it will Sold for Six-Figures script occurred once the film went into be hard for audiences to walk into the- production. When filming began, the aters not knowing the girl is a witch. “I within Just a Few Weeks! main character was still named LaVey. think it’s more about hiding it from our “We were telling a story that was origi- characters in the film,” he explains. “The Those who make it BIG in ANY profession from sports to the entertainment business all fear comes from the audience knowing nally set in France,” the writer says, “so I depend on experienced coaches to strategize thought, LaVey — that’s a cool, strong- that she is dangerous but the characters their approach, tighten up their performance, sounding name.” Only a few days in, not knowing that yet. It’s the old Hitch- and give them the ultimate winning edge. You however, before the name had been es- cock thing about the bomb under the can’t expect to be successful if you are trying to tablished, he was approached by Cage on table. The audience sees it but the char- go it alone with no help, no strategy & no edge! set. “He comes over and he says, ‘Bragi, acters sitting at the table eating dinner Let Moni Share help strategize your career, fix you realize we can’t call him LaVey. You don’t and that creates, hopefully, sus- your script, and get it sold in the next few realize that, right?’” Schut feigned inno- pense. So it was about giving us scares weeks! Go to www.MoniShare.com or call cence, but Cage gave him a sly wink and and creating suspense but in a way that (310) 288-6525. You can get a FREE CAREER pointed out playfully that Anton LaVey is the knights could still think she’s inno- ASSESSMENT from Moni Share personally the name of the founder and High Priest cent.” He pauses and adds, “At least, for a (worth $500) if you are one of the first 10 to respond! of the Church of Satan. “I really wasn’t little while.” www.MoniShare.com

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 73 NOW PLAYING BY DANNY MUNSO The Losers in theaters April 9

story to the beginning, telling the tale of how the team was burned by the CIA and how they came together. Vanderbilt’s process was unusual on this film since he was the second writer and much work had already been done before he came onboard. To nail down the structure, he began typing out the spine of the film in a document. “I suppose it’s like note card- ing,” he explains, “but it’s not on note cards. It’s just a guide for where the thing is going. It’s one-line descriptions of events or mo- ments. That’s how I piece everything to- gether.” Another obstacle he encountered was the sheer volume of characters in the comic. “In a way it was good because there’s so much incident in the comics that we were never lacking for something for the charac- ters to do,” he says. “But, at a certain point, there are so many characters in the movie that the real estate gets smaller and smaller. That’s another place where the spine comes in handy.” Vanderbilt was also appreciative of the The Losers source material he was handed, as the char- acters brought to life by Diggle were already Screenplay by Peter Berg and James Vanderbilt fully formed long before the film adaptation Based on the graphic novel written by Andy Diggle was in the works. “When you’re adapting something and the characters are really well- drawn and already great, that only helps me BEFORE DIRECTOR Peter Berg stormed Though Berg laid the groundwork for the and makes me look good,” he laughs. “Or, if the box office with Hancock in 2008, he be- basic story beats, Vanderbilt had free reign to there’s a great line in the comic, and there came enthralled with Andy Diggle’s Ver- add and subtract elements that he felt were are many, just use it.” He also relished the op- tigo comic book series The Losers. The story necessary, including culling more material portunity to bring a lesser-known work to a revolves around a Special Forces team that from the comics. “Peter was very much larger audience. “That’s what makes it so is employed by the CIA and subsequently about how cool the comic books were,” Van- much fun,” he continues. “It’s a great found betrayed and left for dead by the agency derbilt recalls. “He didn’t want me to just go treasure that not a lot of people know about, and its handler, Max. After recovering the off what he had written.” and it’s my job to take the wonderful stuff group begins conducting a series of covert Both writers wanted the drafts to be sim- and throw it out there.” operations against the CIA and Max. Berg ilar to the comics’ tone, something Vander- One comic known to most moviegoers is completed a first draft of the screenplay, bilt says sets this film apart from most of the Marvel’s Spider-Man. Vanderbilt was hired to but realized his schedule as a sought-after other comic book-based movies. “It’s very write the fourth installment of the highly filmmaker in both film and television fun and even though there are some dark el- successful franchise for Sony. While all prin- would not allow him to continue the proj- ements to it, there’s a wonderful anarchic cipals involved in the project lauded his ect, so he called his friend, Zodiac scribe spirit to the work,” he explains. “Declaring draft, original series director Sam Raimi and James Vanderbilt. war on the CIA is fun and cool, and we re- star Tobey Maguire had to drop out due to The pair worked together previously ally wanted to capture that!” scheduling issues. Rather than wait, Sony when Vanderbilt wrote the screenplay for The first major change Vanderbilt made scrapped the project and decided to reboot 2003’s The Rundown, which Berg directed. was to the script’s structure. Berg’s draft fol- the franchise with a young Peter Parker. Prov- Both men enjoyed their experience with one lowed the comics’ plotting in that right ing their confidence in Vanderbilt, he was another on that project and Vanderbilt was from the get-go, the team was together and hired to write the reboot as well. Though he excited to pick up where Berg left off. “I loved in the middle of a mission. “For comics, in is disappointed Spider-Man 4 probably won’t the draft he showed me,” Vanderbilt says. “I the first issue you need to already be into make it to the screen, he is happy to remain just looked at him and said, ‘I’m in.’” your story,” Vanderbilt says. “The origin with the franchise. “It’s been such a great op- Vanderbilt then set out to immerse him- story usually comes later, but I thought the portunity to work with all these people,” he self in The Losers’ world, reading both Berg’s film needed to be told more chronologi- says, “and I think people will enjoy the one first draft and collections of Diggle’s comics. cally.” Vanderbilt shifted the team’s origin we’re working on now.”

74 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 NOW PLAYING BY DANNY MUNSO Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in theaters April 23

did. He also tries to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulli- gan). Meanwhile, Winnie’s fiancé Jacob (Shia LaBeouf) suspects the death of his mentor was at the hand of his hedge fund manager and enlists Gordon’s help in proving it. Loeb’s writing process begins with a rough outline where he sketches only basic story ele- ments, which he calls “islands.” “Almost all of my actual writing is done on the page,” he ex- plains. “But I also do a lot of writing not at my computer.” Loeb structures much of the screen- play in his head while taking walks or even while sitting in L.A. traffic. “I do so much plan- ning in my head that when I sit down at the keyboard, it flows pretty quickly,” he continues. “I can write eight pages in a day and yet it may only take me two hours.” His quick fingers helped him meet Fox’s hard deadline for the film, as Loeb hammered out a draft in six weeks. A tough challenge for Loeb and the pro- ducers was to make the relationship between Wall Street: Gekko and Jacob drastically different from that of Gekko and Bud Fox in the original. Money Never Sleeps They were aided by the fact that in today’s world, a man like Bud Fox wouldn’t exist. Screenplay by Allan Loeb* “The guys on Wall Street now have grown up there and were making hundreds of mil- Based on characters created by Stanley Weiser & Oliver Stone lions of dollars in their twenties,” Loeb says. “And that’s where Jacob is coming from. PART OF THE decade, screenwriter Allan birthday. Douglas loved it and signed on im- He’s not corruptible like Bud was because, Loeb was having trouble breaking into the stu- mediately. But Stone, the original’s director, perhaps, he may already be a little cor- dio system. Feeling dejected, he thought he was on record, both publicly and privately, rupted.” Loeb also wanted to reverse the should begin working on a Plan B. He ended saying he didn’t think a sequel to Wall Street roles in the film. “It wasn’t about this wide- up getting his license to become a stockbro- was necessarily justified. eyed kid who wants Gordon to get him in ker, but before he could ever take up the pro- Before sitting down to pen the script, Loeb the game. Now Jacob is the one in the game fession, he sold his first script and has been a spent a lot of time in New York in the fall of and Gordon is on the outside.” successful screenwriter ever since, penning 2008, interviewing investment bankers whose Rather than be fearful of tackling an Things We Lost in the Fire and co-writing 21. worlds were imploding. Their mood, however, iconic figure such as Gordon Gekko, Loeb Little did he know that just a few years later, was upbeat. “They were excited,” Loeb laughs, found the challenge invigorating. “Gordon he would be back in the financial world — as “because I was interviewing them for the se- has a very distinct, very great and very fun the writer for the sequel to Oliver Stone’s 1987 quel to THE bible of the financial world.” voice to write,” he says. “Bringing that to the classic Wall Street. Loeb is quick to point out, though, that his page was a blast.” He received high praise Loeb was approached by Fox in the sum- goal was not to make this film about the fi- from Douglas who, upon completion of the mer of 2008 to revisit a Wall Street sequel writ- nancial crisis, but rather to use it as a back- script, told Loeb that he really nailed Gor- ten by Stephen Schiff. “The financial crisis was drop for the movie’s plot. “I didn’t want to don. “That felt great to hear,” Loeb says.” An- really picking up at the time,” Loeb recalls, give a message to the American people or to other wonderful surprise also awaited Loeb “and they wanted a new script to tailor itself Wall Street in general,” he says. “What I did at the end of the process. The film’s producer, to that.” He pitched his ideas over lunch, want to do was write a great sequel to a great Edward Pressman, passed a draft of the script where Fox exec Alex Young gave him the movie with a great character.” to Stone who, Pressman told Loeb, “flipped good news: The studio loved it, but he still had The plot Loeb created, titled Wall Street: out.” Stone signed on to direct, marking his to pitch to Gordon Gekko himself, Michael Money Never Sleeps, is set 23 years after the first first sequel as a director. “He said this is some- Douglas, the star of the original film. film. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) has thing he didn’t think could exist,” Loeb says. In a scene reminiscent of when green just been released from prison into a very dif- “So him coming aboard and validating stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) pitches ferent Wall Street than the one he left. Gekko everything was a really good shock to have. Gekko some stocks on Gekko’s birthday, is viewed as a dinosaur by his contemporaries He brought instant credibility to the piece Loeb pitched to Douglas on the actor’s own who no longer commands the respect he once and that was really exciting for me.” *Writing credits not final at presstime.

March/April 2010 creativescreenwriting | 75 ˘ Alice (Mia Wasikowska) and The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) go, well, mad in an updated take on the iconic tea party scene in Alice in Wonderland; screenplay by Linda Woolverton, inspired by Alice’s Adventures in LastWORDS Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.

35 36

37 38 in a screenplay of 111 pages

76 | creativescreenwriting March/April 2010 12 NEW DVDS JUST $19.95 EACH SCREENWRITING SCHOOL IN A BOX Writing Great Openings... Romantic Comedy ... Sci-Fi Writing ... Animation ...... Writing Horror ... Subplots ... Writing Great Scenes... Navigating The Studio System Plus: drastically reduced shipping and handling charges; shipping 2-3 DVDs now costs the same as one.

FULL SET OF EXPO DVDS Order All 60 of our DVDs at a 40% Discount SCREENWRITING SCHOOL IN A BOX — at 3% of the cost of attending film school. Don’t miss this amazing value and opportunity to really launch your screenwriting career. Purchase the Entire Set at a 40% Discount WAS $1,197.00 ON SALE FOR $717.97 VISIT OUR WEBSITE http://creativescreenwriting.com/dvds.html

Creative Screenwriting Reader Discount: enter ‘READERDVDS’ in your shopping cart