For the Love of the Movie Picture Show

The latest issue of Creative Screenwriting rolled out a list of genres that are “dead” in the spec market:

The Mob Movie
The Western
Fantasy
Sports
The Female Driven Rom-Com
Scripts Based on the Movie Industry
Ensemble Dramas
Period Pieces
Animation

So – what do you do if your spec is in one of these categories? Switch genres? Throw it in the trash? Give up and go home? What about the strike – should you throw in the towel?

For as long as there have been movies, there have been circumstances – economic, political and social - that have affected the lives and creative choices of writers. Um, black list anyone?

So what is an aspiring writer to do? Two words: keep writing.

A few years ago, my best friend and I took a road trip through Tennessee and Kentucky. We went to Graceland, Dollywood, Memphis and Chattanooga. Good times. But dang, the road signs in that part of the countryside are effed up. The Rand McNally instructions said one thing but the road signs said something altogether different – every time. We developed a mantra: ignore it. But Angie, that sign just said turn right on Route 9! Ignore it. And by following our Rand McNally we got where we needed to go. So long as we ignored the bullet hole ridden signs and stayed our previously charted course. Is this a huge oversimplification which also contains an Southern stereotype? Sure. I’m no Dalai Lama – but there’s a grain of truth too.

Stay your course. If you’re writing a western right now – finish writing your script and make it the best damn western ever. Ditto your animated sports fantasy. Be realistic – if the current trends are not favoring certain genres – yes, you should have your ear to the rail and write for the market. But don’t walk away from what you’ve already started and don’t forget that it is entirely possible that a few months from now some female driven romcom could burst onto the scene and turn that conventional wisdom on its head. As they say, if everyone knew what would be a hit movie – every movie would be a hit. The public is mercurial but one fact remains the same: we humans love a good yarn.

Last weekend I saw a movie that probably shouldn’t have been made. It was cerebral, talky, had tons of voice over and a complicated, morally ambiguous main character. Yet you could have heard a pin drop in the theater, so engrossed was the packed audience. MICHAEL CLAYTON is not, on the surface, a movie that should be particularly successful based on the concept alone. But it was written by Tony Gilroy of the Bourne franchise. And starred George Clooney of the George Clooney franchise. And it was a brilliant movie that made eleven million dollars last weekend.

By all accounts, ISHTAR should have been a runaway hit. So nobody knows anything. And you can take that to the bank.

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