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Guest post by Craig Phillips, GreenCine editor at and struggling screenwriter.

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Trying to sell an original spec script in today's market is a real challenge. Even before the economy went Apocalyptic, Hollywood studios were increasingly gun shy about committing to anything without an existing franchise behind it -- a book or magazine article is preferable to anything created solely out of writer's imagination, for instance. Yes, the idea that unoriginal properties are preferable to originals is not exactly something from the book of revelations. But what's a poor scribe to do?

As a sometime screenwriter myself, who has optioned a couple of scripts but never hit paydirt with that big sale, yet alone had one finally converted into that end goal -- you know, a film -- I obviously have some personal investment in learning as much as I can about the marketplace for scripts. To make my own long story short, I optioned an original script several years ago to a Hollywood producer (whom I found online; more on that soon). Even this "original script" was inspired by real-life incidents and anecdotes, around WWII, and required a great deal of research. Much of it was entirely made up or fictionalized, but we still tried to sell it as "based on real events". Eventually we hooked up with an established and well-regarded director, who is not exactly box office gold, but has artistic integrity. Well, artistic integrity and an original spec didn't even get us a cup of coffee (which is about all I could buy with the money I got off this independent option), and several years later, several option renewals later, I finally let the option expire as the project seemed basically DOA, or DITW (dead in the water). To paraphrase Alvy Singer, a script project is like a relationship that is like a shark, it has to keep moving or it dies. Well one dead shark spec script later, I started from scratch.

Fortunately we deliberately hadn't pitched the project all over town so it's not yet at the point of "old" and it's possible someone else could find it and embrace it. Not likely but possible. But from this experience and my more recent efforts to try to jump start it again taught me that while odds are most definitively stacked against an unestablished writer without the rights to a franchise, things aren't entirely hopeless. Dire yes but not impossible.

Let's backtrack for a moment, though -- what is the market like right now?

I do find it a bit amusing that people get all worked up about things like the Land of the Lost remake, as if the original were a sacred text. I grew up watching it, and have nostalgic pangs for it, but that doesn't make it a work of genius that shalt not be touched. (Sure, they could have re-done it less as a comedy and more as a serious suspense film, but Will Ferrell's starring in it killed that I'm sure.) Still, there is something undeniably distressing for those of us who are continually striving to write original screenplays, to see the percentage of projects given green lights that are franchises -- remakes, sequels, or based on books.

Following up on an earlier post here from Aaron, "Bottomless Barrels," on the ludicrous number of proposed remakes floating around out there (as well as adaptations that defy logical response -- Candy Land?), I took a look at some of the top theatrical releases now playing, out this week or soon:

The Last House on the Left (remake),

Race to Witch Mountain (this one's a sequel and a remake!),

Watchmen (based on graphic novel),

Madea Goes to Jail (sequel/franchise; film gets a whopping 2.7 rating on IMDB),

Slumdog Millionaire (based on a book),

Taken (original script! ...that smells like Euro-Death Wish),

He's Just Not That Into You (based loosely on a book),

Confessions of a Shopaholic (based on a book),

The Horsemen (original script, though there's some Biblical inspiration and a bit of Se7en in it)

X Men Origins: Wolverine (prequel/franchise),

Knowing (original, first pitched by novelist Ryne Pearson; had quite a few writers take a whack at it, including Richard Kelly before it went to eventual director Alex Proyas)

It's of course from the independent and foreign side that we get a healthier number of films based on original ideas, such as Everlasting Moments, Sunshine Cleaning (original script by Megan Holley), or Matt Aselton and Adam Nagata's Gigantic.

(But, hey, even foreign films are apparently not immune to franchise-itis: 12 is a modern, Russian reworking of 12 Angry Men.)

Some of the Hollywood films coming out that are indeed original scripts had the additional safety in having an established writer-director behind it, as in Duplicity (Oscar-nominated scriptwriter Tony Gilroy), I Love You, Man (John Hamburg, Safe Men, Undeclared, etc), or Greg Mottola's Adventureland -- an original script but probably helped see the light of day based on Mottola's track record, most notably having directed the superhit, Superbad.

The reliance on previously existing properties is certainly understandable, given the tenuous economy, with every executive in Hollywood no doubt fearing for their jobs and not wanting to take chances.

The heyday of the spec payday was probably the 80s and 90s, the apex of which might have been Shane Black's "The Last Boy Scout," which sold for $1.75 million. Look at this NY Times article from 1990 which not only mentions Black's sale but a number of other highly paid scripts that either didn't see the light of day ("City of Darkness"' plot sounds familiar, but it's not The Last Action Hero.)

And yet the death of the spec script market is clearly premature.

For instance... From Hollywood Reporter, Tuesday: "Alex Litvak and Michael Finch are going medieval. The scribes have sold their original screenplay Medieval to New Regency Pictures, who picked it up in a bidding environment. No producers are attached. While Regency or Fox, with whom Regency has a distribution deal, would not comment on the sales figure, sources say it was $800,000 against $1.6 million, a colossal payday not seen in some time in the spec market. The script's story line plays like The Dirty Dozen in the age of castle, plagues and serfs."

The following is advice I've gotten from a few different agents and producers, most of them on the independent side but with Hollywood experience, too.

Have a project that can be pitched in simplistic, marketable terms, even if there's more complexity to it. The above project has that built-in "a medieval Dirty Dozen" way of categorizing it that makes it more sellable.

Use contests as a way to get both feedback and, if you win, another way to sell it to an agent.

Use online sites like InkTip.com and TriggerStreet to get feedback and sell your wares to people looking for just what you're selling. (But don't use these solely.)

Consider making a short film, or at least writing a short script and finding someone to direct it with or for you. A successfully made short film can now be much more of a calling card for both writers and directors, with an increasing number of online markets available as a virtual screening room. If these become popular online, that adds to your power. Which also leads to another suggestion:

Make your own damned film! Seriously, someone told me this once as a playful suggestion, and hey, if you can raise several million dollars or whatever the budget would be, more power to you.

Write a play and try to get it produced and/or acted out, so you can hear your dialogue and learn from your inevitable mistakes. The problem with a lot of screenplays these days, especially (I'm told) comedies, is that they are written by people who have never heard their stuff read aloud nor have any experience writing for or working with actors.

Write like hell, as much as you can, and expect that it will take many, many drafts before your script doesn't suck. Most scripts you like that you see up on the screen went through numerous drafts before getting close to their final state. Which is why you should write something you believe in, care about, rather than just something you think will sell, because you're going to have to spend a lot of time with it and if you end up hating it so will everyone else who has to read it.

Also, especially if you're writing comedy, team up with a likeminded soul -- most of the best comedies (or at least ones that are selling) are written by a team. You'll notice a lot of comedies and animated films are credited to more than one writer. Teamwork pays for ensemble pieces and most kinds of comedies.

As script reader myself for a few different studios over the years, I can attest to the fact that there are many bad scripts out there (I've certainly written a few of them). I definitely got sick of reading them. Readers have a pile up to the ceiling of scripts to get through and as you've heard a thousand times if they're not into it within a few pages will gladly toss it aside. Do not send in your script until you believe in it and think it's really good. And even then, get feedback from people you trust first because it still may not be very good.

And what about franchises, existing properties? Should a writer look into acquiring the rights to a book, for instance, as a vehicle for adaptation? l'm going through this right now, looking at a Sci-FI book from decades ago that is fairly obscure but I think would make an existing movie. Even though it's not famous, it's regarded enough, and it's a book, that it would already rank ahead of any spec script I wrote.

Still, there's the rigamarole of buying the rights to it. Sometimes rights can be acquired fairly cheaply, if a relationship between writers, or writer and the owner of the book's rights, can be established, and if agreement can be reached as far as payments. But I'm still learning about this. If someone out there has more experience with acquisition, do tell.

Meanwhile, keep hope alive. For every Fast and the Furious sequel and TV sitcom-into-movie, there's an original idea that catches someone's attention, catches on and then catches fire.

FADE OUT.



Posted by cphillips at March 4, 2009 2:24 PM