Monday, September 11, 2017

Welcome To Hollywood!

From 2009...

From an article by Robert Elisberg in the Huffington Post:

Steve Martin tells of trying to pitch a movie based on the classic play "Cyrano de Bergerac." No studio executive knew what he was talking about, and all rejected it. Luckily, though, he was Steve Martin and knew the studio president, Guy McElwaine. And happily McElwaine was a bright adult who actually loved the play. And most fortunately of all, the movie got made - because otherwise no one would ever have seen the glorious "Roxanne."

A friend once pitched a version of Sherlock Holmes. "Who's that?" a studio executive asked, later thinking the world-renowned, fictional detective was a real person. Needless-to-say, it never got made. But imagine if that same executive had been pitched the new Sherlock Holmes movie which stars Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. You wouldn't see it this December.

Another friend was pitching a buddy movie to an executive who prided herself on the subject. "Let's discuss great buddy movies," she enthused, "I'm an expert." My friend immediately mentioned, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." "What's that?" the executive asked.

Honest.


Studio Execs and Readers and Other People Who Make Script Decisions.

- Bill

3 comments:

S. Harlan Cone said...

Your Year One review is troublesome for me. I don't particularly care about Year One itself, but these are the guys who are supposed to be writing GHOSTBUSTERS 3 - and the original GHOSTBUSTERS is my favorite movie of all time. Downright *formative* for me as far as my sense of humor.

I'd like a good GB3.

Morgan McKinnon said...

Of course I disagree with you...for the most part (ie, I don't think aspiring writers are expecting to sell their very first script for a million dollars$$$$).

But what I do believe is...that it is crazy for writers to allow a few men to rule this industry as they've been doing.

A few men (who probably can't write a sentence) who have money.

That's insane!

But alas, that is going to change.


Watch,

Morgan McKinnon

ObiDonWan said...

I really like the movie THE WAITRESS, and admire its (late) writer/director, Adrienne Shelly. Never heard about it until a friend put the DVD in my hands.

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