The adventures of a professional screenwriter and sometimes film festival jurist, slogging through the trenches of Hollywood, writing movies that you have never heard of, and getting no respect. Voted #10 - Best Blogs For Screenwriters - Bachelor's Degree
You might be the wrong person to ask, since you seem to write first sell later, but what about selling original pitches? I've heard even with a good spec, many writers still end up pitching and writing as work-for-hire on the pitch rather than spec. Do you have a feel for the numbers on that kind of stuff? How much of the market sits between out-and-out specs and adapting existing material and projects?
I also wonder if playwrights complain about the way that they're always remaking Shakespeare. Just throw in Doctor Who and Jean Luc Picard and people are bound to see it! At least in the movie business, they usually end up paying another writer. ;-)
Playwrights complain about revivals of old musicals. You can always get an audience for SHOWBOAT or WEST SIDE STORY... so theatres keep doing those shows and shun anything original.
5 comments:
I guess it's all about the money and not the art, but then someone has to do something to raise the percentage of successful movies.
You might be the wrong person to ask, since you seem to write first sell later, but what about selling original pitches? I've heard even with a good spec, many writers still end up pitching and writing as work-for-hire on the pitch rather than spec. Do you have a feel for the numbers on that kind of stuff? How much of the market sits between out-and-out specs and adapting existing material and projects?
I also wonder if playwrights complain about the way that they're always remaking Shakespeare. Just throw in Doctor Who and Jean Luc Picard and people are bound to see it! At least in the movie business, they usually end up paying another writer. ;-)
I think it's the same story - an original pitch runs into the same "no brand name" problems as an original script.
They would rather make BATTLESHIP: THE MOTION PICTURE because it's based on a game everybody knows.
But, they still need somebody to write BATTLESHIP. Same amount of writing jobs, they're just different.
- Bill
Playwrights complain about revivals of old musicals. You can always get an audience for SHOWBOAT or WEST SIDE STORY... so theatres keep doing those shows and shun anything original.
- Bill
Bringing up BATTLESHIP: THE MOVIE reminded me of the trailer for MINESWEEPER. Link follows if you haven't seen it yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs
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