What You Can Learn From Clark Rockefeller

Did anybody else read that article in Vanity Fair about "Clark Rockefeller," the German guy who successfully made up a number of mysterious and wealthy personas, including claiming to be a Rockefeller? His audacious and slightly alarming story makes the Catch Me If You Can guy look like a pussy cat by comparison.

What can we, as writers, learn from "Clark?" Anyone? Oh - I see a hand in the back. Yes, correct, we can learn that we all want to believe in the beautiful lie. In other words, people are willing to believe almost anything. Why just last evening, after watching Milla Jovovich complete an extraordinary martial arts stunt in RESIDENT EVIL, my best pal told me he is practicing the same one in his class. Seemed totally plausible to me - my friend is in great shape. Turns out he was joking. But how was I to know? I don't know anything about martial arts. Sure, looking back now, as my friend was lying flat on his back on my sofa eating popcorn, it may have been a suspicious claim. But in the moment - hell, who knows right?

If someone told you that he or she had lived in Brazil for six months and helped indigenous people build new thatch huts while fighting off tarantulas and a neighboring, warlike tribe BEFORE returning to Yale where he or she was studying the Sociology of Indigenous South American Tribes, would you buy that? Because that could possibly be true, well, what reason would you have to disbelieve it?

Yesterday I watched YES MAN - there's a nose-wheely stunt done on a Ducati. Real? Or a movie stunt with some CGI benefit? Real, as it turns out. I'd not know the difference and I don't care - it was a good moment in the movie. In BIG, Zoltar grants Tom Hank's wish. We know in real life this couldn't happen but in the movie - we willingly suspend our disbelief. A willing suspension of disbelief is the free ticket handed to you, the screenwriter, by every audience member going to see your movie.

But taking this idea a step further, or perhaps backwards and to the left - when thinking about your characters - who do they want people to believe they are? Who do you want people to believe YOU are? You see, Clark Rockefeller was motivated by more than a need to scam money, rides in private jets and exclusive club memberships - he reveled in the feeling he got from the perception that he was monied and blue blooded. Imagine how differently a Rockefeller is treated making dinner reservations at the most expensive restaurant. Imagine the carte blanche that gives you. Even if you are not writing a character who is a pathological liar - being that that is the extreme - everyone has a self and public image that they cultivate. I'm the nice dad, the crazy artist, the neurotic writer, the dependable friend. But that's just on the surface - in the bathroom mirror - all alone - who is your character, really? Who are you - really?

Every one of us is playing a role - if not several. You might be one person at work, another person to your family, another person to your lover or friends. Now, we all know that healthy people don't have huge differences in these different roles - but remember, your main character, at the top of the story, isn't totally healthy and balanced - they need to change. And you, the writer (aka God in this script) are going to force that change. In the arc of your character, he/she is going to unite inner and outer selves - the external want and the internal need - so that he/she is healthier and more realized and fulfilled in the end. It is that tension between who your character wants to be and who they need to be that fuels their arc.

As the truth began to sneak up on Clark Rockefeller, his lies grew more and more farfetched. He was desperately avoiding being found out and he got sloppy. Or began to dissemble psychologically. Yeah, well, probably the latter, but if he were a character in a movie, his fall apart would coincide with an epiphany - he'd finally come face to face with what it is he's been running from. Again there's Reality and then there's Movie Reality. In Reality, "Rockefeller" will probably just sit in jail for years believing his own lies then writing a book about the experience. But in Movie Reality, he'd have a flash of insight that would lead to personal growth and a satisfying ending.

There are several lessons to draw from this convoluted and, I hope, entertaining post:

1. Read the paper and/or magazines: If you hadn't heard of Clark Rockefeller til now, you've missed out on just one of trillions of fascinating real life stories that can inspire your writing and your understanding of character.

2. Audiences are like a group of people at a party standing in a circle around that one totally fascinating dude - they've had a couple of drinks and will buy almost anything. Exploit that.

3. Your main character is one person on the exterior but someone else on the inside. It's your job to unite those two selves in a satisfying way. Your main character will hate you for trying.

4. The more you think about what makes people tick - everyone from yourself to crazy, pathological liars to that enormously cranky woman who works at the post office - the deeper your writing can explore that.

5. People are weird. We all are. It's a matter of degree. But movie characters are not like you and me - they are composite, escalated versions of who we fear we'll become if we don't find love, spontaneity, courage - you name it. And in the end, they are who we'd like to be. They are life writ large, they are on a journey with a happy, tragic or in some way conclusive and definable ending. Audiences crave it. So do you. Deliver on that.

6. Writers are weavers of The Beautiful Lie. We are that dude at the party. We are Clark Rockefeller. Have fun with it.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Goal for 2009: Just Do It

So here we are guys...about to start a whole new year. Every year I think, oh, I don't hew to these false calendar boundaries, I just flow with the seasons of life, maaaan. But then the new year rolls around and one does find oneself secretly thinking: will try go to bed earlier, will get electric toothbrush, must get new cell phone plan.

As it turns out, in Screenwriting World, January really does make a natural break from one year to the next. We have a few short weeks of relative quiet then the competition season is announced and business begins to rev back up again. Yes, this year we have a Funky Economy so we must take that into account, but still - Hollywood slouches on and this is indeed a good time to take inventory of where you've been and create a road map for where you're going.

Personally - because it would be no fun if I didn't share - I am excited for the thriller my partner and I co-wrote to go out to some buyers right after Sundance. We're working on another at quite a clip, should we have some opportunities that arise from the first, and we have literally a huge dossier of other ideas, some beat out in outline form, others even more realized than that. So we're ready to pull the trigger on a number of thrillers. Tons of complicated stuff is happening with my business but the upshot is we have new financial backers and - well, I guess it's dull unless you're interested in Media Empire Chia Pets. Lots of cool new initiatives, let's just say. And one of them - if it actually gels - will mean that I will be looking for some kick-ass comedy scripts.

I also really am going to try to go to bed earlier and rise earlier. I want to read more and if I go to bed earlier, there's a chance of that happening rather than the 1.5 paragraphs I currently make it through before falling asleep, book in hand, at 2am. I'm going to be adding some new content to the Rouge Wave which I think you will find mighty enriching. Oh, and work out daily. And get a new car. Yeah, I need a new car. So 2009 will be a year of great personal and professional growth. Oh and I really did get an electric toothbrush so I'm off to a pretty positive start.

What about you? It's sometimes helpful to look back at where you've been in order to design a plan for going forward. Do you have any old scripts that you're still rewriting and working on? Or are you going to generate new material this year? Hint: please generate new material. Are there screenwriting events you'd like to attend this year? Hint: go to at least one. Can you be reading more produced scripts this year? Hint: YES. In fact, one of the new bits on my new website which debuts later this week is a "script of the week" that you can go download and read. Will you be entering competitions this year? Which ones? Deadlines have not yet been announced but we know that in general the deadlines are in May and June. So you have time to prepare. You should be able to complete two to three feature scripts in one calendar year. Sounds like A LOT, I know - but why not try? The more material and ideas you generate, the better your writing becomes and the better your chances of breaking in get. That's a fact, Jack.

So take this week to reflect a bit on where you've been and where you're going. Set goals that are realistic for you. We all have families and other obligations so don't set goals that you know in your gut you won't actually meet. That defeats the purpose. If you work full time, can you set a goal to write two pages each day? Or to write for 30 minutes each day? 30 minutes 7 days a week is 3 1/2 hours of writing time every week. Doesn't sound like much but that might be realistic and actually, writing doesn't take all that much time - it's the THINKING about writing that does. Many of us probably spend more time thinking about, dreading, worrying about, complaining about writing than actually writing. Do you surf the interweb? How many minutes each day? I know I waste tremendous amounts of time on doing stuff that has absolutely no pay off for me. And I know that because when I buckle down to write or work at developing my business, I am always amazed at how much I get done in two focused hours. Two focused hours is like 8 unfocused hours, don't you think? Arguing on message boards, clicking on silly links that show cats saying dumb things spelled wrong, reading celebrity news - these are bullshits, my friends. And we all do it. So we need to go on a collective Interweb Diet. I'm in, are you?

When it comes to your writing career you have to be mercenary: Just Do It. Nobody is going to do it for you and there are plenty of other writers who'd love you to mess around, wasting time because you just created an opening for THEM.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Too Much Drama

Hello, Wavers! How's everybody doing in the vast in-between of Christmas and New Years? It's like some kind of twilight. Speaking of which, the mini-W and I saw 30 DAYS OF NIGHT last evening and loved it. Wow, what great production values and really great, inventive set pieces. A little gory but it was quite compelling.

So as I prepare to launch my new website by this weekend (yeah, that deadline looks to be pushed, ain't that just like life?) I am going through the hundreds of sets of notes we have done over time looking for suitable samples of our work. And I have found the most interesting trend - too many dramas! I'm finding that newer writers tend to write dramas. Because, you know, I do keep track of where each writer is at on the curve so that when we work with that writer, we have that jumping off point. New writer = likelihood of having written drama QUITE HIGH. Which is interesting because further, I have also observed that these dramas get consistently low ratings on the grid and the notes tend to be that its "too self-referential." In other words, not universal, but rather too personally specific - missing a larger, relatable theme.

Drama as a genre coming from a spec writer trying to break in, is common and - not very marketable. Genre pieces tend to trend better on the market. I like dramas very much, personally, but in Hwood we tend to see them mainly written by heavy hitters and released in the winter. I know the first two scripts I wrote were both dramas before I discovered and set upon writing romcom which I did for several scripts before I discovered that my strength is in writing thrillers. It took me awhile to find my voice, my strength and my passion in terms of genre.

If you are writing a drama, you might check in and ask yourself if you are aware that as a genre, it is a weak sell. Also, is your drama self-referential - about that time your boyfriend broke your heart? Is this a mildly biographical drama, in other words? If so - beware. I'm just saying. Make sure you have the emotional distance and skillset to make the story universally resonant, not just a therapeutic way of working out your demons. Which can be fine - we're all working out our demons - but don't lose sight of audience appreciation. Is this story something MANY people can relate to? Or is this something that only YOU find satisfying? If so - how can you elevate the drama, conflict and theme to something more - well, again - universal?

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

What We Do Is Secret: Review

Good morning, Wavers. I am back, having survived Christmas. This is the first in a (very) occasional series of reviews of movies and documentaries about bands and music. Written by a whip smart Los Angeles teenager and follower of the music scene, the Mini-W's best friend and my honorary god daughter, this review is more than informational; for me it is heartening to see a teenager as articulate and thorough about her passion as she is. I think of myself as a fairy godmother; wherever there's a teenager passionate about whatever - okay mainly books, music and movies since that's my bent, I like to encourage that teenager to articulate that passion and make sense of it. I figure it's my contribution to society to encourage thoughtful analysis of what's going on around us from those who will inherit our society in a few short years.

****



What We Do is Secret, the biopic of legendary LA punk band, The Germs, spotlights front man Darby Crash as a prophetic icon for the demise of punk rock. The movie, starring actor Shane West from hit TV show ER, playing Darby Crash, hits the old school LA punk scene head on, reenacting the hard drugs and harder demeanor of the kids and the music that held together that scene.

What We Do is Secret was the brainchild of Rodger Grossman who both directed and wrote the movie. Grossman set out for an accurate and authentic depiction of the rise and fall of America’s Sex Pistols; this was achieved through a nine year process which culminated in a Germs reunion set with Shane West fronting in place of Crash.

The movie was three parts educational and two parts nostalgic (despite the fact that I had no clue where my nostalgia was rooted, being as I’ve only read and listened to the remnants of the height of LA punk). The educational aspect of the film came from what appeared to be a precise depiction of the punk/hardcore culture in the '70s. From the original shots at LA’s own Okidog to the music producer for the film being one of The Germs original founding members, Pat Smear, it takes the Los Angeles that teenagers such as myself currently call their stomping grounds and transforms it to the setting of a counterculture cataclysm.

This revolution of sorts was figureheaded by Darby Crash, whose fascination with philosophy and fascist ideals formed a dynamic character that was soundly depicted as captivating, unattainable, and the epitome of charismatic. His view on circles as the blueprint to life plays a subtle narrative through out the movie. Darby theorizes that everything works in circles; while this proves to be rhetoric on the fluctuation of culture in society, this philosophy also works itself into the description of The Germs influence on music being allotted the title of ‘revolutionary.’ Darby understood and utilized the working of circles in civilization (and beyond) and worked that into his renowned ‘Five Year Plan.’ This takes the term revolutionary down to its core meaning, allowing ultimate subjectivity in interpreting art-based cultural movements.

All in all, I would describe this movie as a calling to music gourmands and modern history connoisseurs alike. Its controversy-ridden demeanor makes for a thought-provoking film riddled with good music and intoxicat[ed]ing personalities. This movie also appeals to the pretentious music fan motivated to learn the scene that parented the state of music today in order to ostentatiously inform peers of their ownership of such knowledge. What We Do is Secret is ideal for a day in which the weather calls for philosophical outbursts, uprooting societal rhetoric, and a good movie.

I give this movie four out of five safety pins.

Tony Blum

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Merry Christmas! And I Really Mean That. Kind of.

Merry Christmas to Christmas-celebrating Wavers everywhere and happy Really Quiet Day at the Movie Theaters to everybody else.

Christmas is pay dirt for writers, it really is. The day when family and friends come together to spend all day eating, drinking and throwing weird potshots. The day when we're all stuck in the house together playing innocuous games and seeing the - uh, rather competitive side of Aunt Pat. The day when we spend an inordinate amount of time managing our expectations - ohhhhhh a clearly regifted bar of cucumber soap. Thanks. And there's always some ridiculous person who wears the Santa hat. The silences in-between conversation that somebody rushes to fill. Oh sure, there's the laughter, the good food, the memories but to me, Christmas has always had a measure of forced gaiety. I have more fun with friends and family on a random Saturday night when we all come together for absolutely no reason. Christmas is so weighted. And really, as I just pointed out to a friend, as a percentage of the year, Christmas really hogs the limelight of our attention. The advertising, mall decor and Christmas tunes start the second Thanksgiving is over and sometimes before. So there's essentially a five week period every year when one should/must/will see family, spend money on stuff nobody really wants, cook and eat food one normally avoids and botches up one's routine for all of the above.

Don't get me wrong - I like the Christmas Season.

No, I just said that. It seemed what I should say at this point. I don't dislike it actively.I just get tired of it even while it's still happening. I was enough already about a week and a half ago.

And I have to work. Not on reading scripts but on the new website The Script Department will be debuting, with any luck from the volcano gods, on January first. It's not just me, there is the web designer, an art director and a copywriter all working straight through Christmas to get this done properly. Because some jackass decided randomly that January 1st would be a good, symbolic date to debut the new site. Oh wait, I think that was me. It seemed simple enough at the time. The site is going to look amazing and I'm very impressed by the work done by the aforementioned talented professionals.

Things I have decided over this holiday season:

Cranium? Geared for fourth grade comprehension level. I kick butt but cannot take pride in that. I mean - really.

Taboo? Funny for first ten minutes then kind of dull. Is the word - DIPSTICK?! Yay, one point for team Mat/Julie/Quincy!

Prime rib roast? Wouldn't be SO expensive if you didn't have to buy so many POUNDS of it. That stupid bone-in really adds to the cost.

Ecards? Not a fan.

Hilarious Santa Pictures send via email: love it.

Writing time? Forget it.

Good shopping destination for teenagers? Wacko in Hollywood, Aaahs or worst case, CVS, the ubiquitous drug store full of glittery gift ensembles that every teenager finds hilarious. Teens like hilarious gifts so they're fun to shop for.

Please let Christmas just be over already. I'm ready for 2009 and a Christmas Season that is 11 whole months away from taking over my life again. Next year? Maui, a Mai Tai and a good book.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

When Will You Arrive?

Last evening, spending another delightful evening with a particularly delightful friend, we of course discussed our writing goals for 2009 - relative to where we have been as writers during this long journey which in both cases began some time ago. And as we discussed those who were also writing scripts and trying to break in but who eventually quit trying, my friend came up with a great metaphor - that of a funnel.

The top of the funnel being the widest part - where literally thousands of people say - I'm going to write a script! But the funnel narrows rather quickly as writers who thought they'd find success after writing one or two scripts learn the brutal truth. Huh uh. Doesn't happen that way. It's a bit of an endurance race. A marathon. So when success doesn't occur to those at the top of the funnel almost immediately - one or three scripts in - they quit.

The writers who move lower into the funnel are the ones who keep writing - literally, for sometimes years. They write script after script, they keep networking, they take lumps, classes and sleeping aides. Those writers who reach the neck of the funnel are significantly less in numbers. It's like a herd being thinned. These are writers who have continued the process, never giving up. They're still standing - well, I mean, squished into the funnel. One of these days if they keep trying, they'll SPLASH into the bottle below the funnel. Heaven, right?! It's all azure seas, palm trees and Grey Goose vodka in the bottle, yes!

Not exactly. You've finally made a sale. Can you make another one? Can you get rewrite work? Should you quit your day job and just wait for those dollars to roll in? Hell no. The truth is once you splash into the bottle below the funnel - where actual paid writers live, you have to start paddling right away. Sink or swim. Top-of-the-funnel writers mistakenly fantasize that one sale will a) be enough money to live on FOREVER! b) offers will then flow to them REGULARLY! Sadly, neither is true. Say you make a sale and get paid scale. Six figures. Say low six because you're new to the splashy bottle. So what's that - maybe 200K if you're pretty lucky? Okay, now let's pay your attorney and manager. And taxes. So maybe you're going to bank something like 100K after all that. Give or take. I'm not a mathematician so just go with me. Say out of that 100K you spend even 25% on yourself immediately - go on vacation, pay off a credit card, put a juicy downpayment on a car. You've got about 75K left. Wow, that's enough to quit your day job and support your family on for a year! Or - is it? Okay say it is. What about the next year? Are you going to make another sale? Can you count on that? How about the year after that?

I had dinner with an A-list writer familiar with the Academy Award recently and he mentioned morosely how there'd been so little work for the past couple of years. And this man is ON the A-list. I once heard that the WGA estimates that only 35% of their membership is working each year. That leaves - wait - yes, 65% of guild members out of work on a given calendar year.

So there are many things to ponder: where are you in the funnel? That's okay if you're at the very top, having written one or three scripts. Or maybe you're in the neck, you've written six or seven scripts and optioned something once. Do you have a realistic idea about what splashing down into the bottle is going to be like - for real? Do you have the ambition, nerves of steel and passion to not know where your next writing income is going to come from? Do you mind if there are two or three year stretches in-between? Can you live on promises and martinis?

We can all relate to over-inflating our expectations only to be disappointed when we arrive at our destination. Oh - this is Namibia? Where's like the flocks of flamingos and herds of zebras like on tv? Can you drink the water? I have to eat that? What do you mean - rebel coup?! Does your idea of "making it Hollywood" look something like this?




Of course it does. It did to me, too. For awhile. But the closer you get to the bottom of the funnel, the more you can hear the faint cries of surprise from those just ahead of you on the water slide.

Making it all the way down through the funnel and into the bottle is more like being a trained paratrooper. When you finally splash down you have to immediately reorganize and strategize your survival in enemy territory.

Don't get me wrong - I'm excited to splash into the bottle. But I'm realistic. Somebody might just hand me a towel a year later, thank me for playing and escort me to the poop deck with a party favor. This is a very long way of saying - keep your day job. And keep your expectations realistic. One sale will NOT necessarily change your life. I take that back - it will - but probably not in the way that you have imagined. Are you really ready for this lifestyle? Is it what you really want? I know so many writers who made it into the bottle with a sale and then have been dog paddling ever since with no other successes of note.

Screenwriting magazines are full of interviews with exceptions - but inside that bottle there's a tiny little tropical island where the A-list writers live. Don't be fooled into thinking that little island is shared by more than a tiny minority. And even then - even then, my friends, those A-listers are on an episode of Survivor and can - and do - get kicked off the island at any time. Just keep it real, Wavers. That's today's upshot. Writing is a bitch of a way to earn a living. Even when you're actually doing it.

Now get back to work.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Rep: To Have and to Have Not

Michelle sent a very sweet comment re my post of yesterday, which detailed the very long journey of a thriller my writing partner and I wrote. She wished me well and hoped that we'd get rep. I began to answer her comment, reminding her that we don't need or want no stinkin' rep right now then it occurred to me that that might be a little confusing and that better - this situation is a great jumping off point to talk about rep. Do you have it? Do you need it?

My personal situation: I have had three managers over time. Each with varying degrees of efficacy. None has ever made a sale for me. I blame that on me not the rep. But one thing I can tell you is that getting a rep is a total paradox. It's something you absolutely need and something that definitely puts you on the next level of your aspirations - but on the other hand? It guarantees absolutely nothing.

Writers can go through different reps over time and generally do. Getting a rep is tremendously validating. At first. But once you get over the glow of that, you may find yourself doing rewrite after rewrite of the script that got you the rep - mind you, these rewrites are FOR the rep - what he or she is thinking will strengthen the draft before it goes out. I've seen many a writer get stuck right there. I got a rep!! Three months later they're still rewriting the draft for the rep because the rep liked it but doesn't feel 100% confident about sending it out yet. Here's what can happen during this protracted rewrite period - the rep continues to look for and get new clients with other, possibly hotter scripts than yours. So one day, two months into rewriting your script, you get the funny feeling that what felt like a huge step forward has become a lukewarm dead end. Your rep's ardor has cooled. This is a rotten feeling. Trust me.

Alternatively, the rep asks for maybe one or two polishes and takes the script out. You're so excited! It's going out! Wide! Fast forward two weeks. The script didn't grab any traction. So the rep works with you on more rewrites on that draft because he/she is thinking maybe there's someone who didn't see the script who might bite. But we're already talking about second tier now. You're - kinda - hopeful but there's a distinctly different feeling now. The slight whiff of failure. But, you tell yourself, all kinds of hungry young producers are out there and hey, you don't need six figures! Any sale is a good sale! (True, but...it's not what you had in mind).

And round and round it goes.

The bottom line about looking for rep: If you've never had a manager or agent, it will give you a HUGE boost mentally. You will feel like a million bucks. But then reality kicks in - is this rep really, truly going to help you? And - was your material really, truly ready for prime-time? It may not have been. Not all reps - especially those who are not yet real players - have the judgment, taste or connections which will truly anoint you and your script as something to take seriously on the market place. In other words - some reps are not an achievement for you at all. This is a sucky realization, trust me.

If you've never been repped and therefore haven't made the connections nor garnered the experience, the chances that you could get your script into the hands of meaningful producers is almost nil. But if you have had rep in the past, you have had meaningful relationships and meaningful feedback that the material is competitive, you absolutely can make a sale without a rep - because you don't need the rep to shop the material. You've made a hand off. That's what happened to my writing partner and I on this particular script.

Screenwriters come in different stripes and go through distinct stages like:

The absolute beginners happy to be writing draft after draft of premise after premise. They are realistic. They go to classes, they know they're not very good but they're having fun and love the challenge. They are willing to write six scripts before looking for rep. They don't even give getting rep a whole lot of thought yet.

The absolute beginners who've done half the work of the writer above and start looking for rep. They think it goes like this: write script, get rep, sell script. They usually wind up bitter and disappointed and angry. Some have an epiphany and put their nose to the grindstone and really do the work, reverting to the type of writer above. Others just go to screenwriting message boards and spew bile about other writers and sales and how it's all NOT FAIR. Please don't be this person. Please?

Intermediate writers who've done the above (whether they had the epiphany or knew all along it would take time) who enter competitions, keep writing and finally look for rep. They find rep. But it doesn't turn out to be a very good rep. They keep writing. They make relationships. They keep trying. They get a better rep. Their script gets read around town. They get meaningful external and internal validation but no sale. Now they are in the Pool of Potentially Selling Writers.

Potentially Selling Writers have written seven, eight, maybe 10 scripts. And they're working on another one right now. They have placed in competitions. They have been or are repped now. They take meetings from time to time. They are neither head-in-the-clouds nor bitter. They hang around with other good writers. They are always learning. They have humility and high hopes but they are also realistic. They know the brass ring is elusive but they've come a long way and their chances are better now than they have ever been. Because they've made it through the fire and paid their dues, they aren't particularly worried about rep. They don't look for rep - rep looks for them. They no longer see obtaining rep as the be all end all. They see it as a chance for the script to go out. They may not even need a rep; they may know producers who can take the work out to other producers. Through experience, they know that not all rep is alike.

So like everything in this damn town, there are many paradoxes and always exceptions. Getting rep - especially if it's your first rep - does NOT mean you are about to make a sale. But it does mean that somebody who works in the business sees potential in you and your work. And that's a great feeling and one that can fuel your writing for some time - regardless of the outcome.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Writing is Rewriting

Forgive my absence today, Wavers. My writing partner and I are deep into a rewrite of a script set to go out to buyers after Sundance. We're having a lot of fun with it but it is time consuming.

The story of this psychological thriller is a long one. I came up with the idea probably five years ago, based on a newspaper article I read about a local man waiting for a heart donor. I was writing comedies at the time so I just wrote down one or two sentences about the idea and shelved it. I was just about to graduate from the two year program at The Writer's Boot Camp when one evening I mentioned the idea to some of my writer friends. They were completely excited about the idea. So I outlined it and then got in touch with the talented writer who is now my partner. He had written a number of psychological thriller novels and I knew he'd bring so much to the table. We wrote the script in just a few weeks and felt we had a strong draft. It didn't take us long to get a manager and we were off to the races. The script went out wide and we had a interest from some major players. One of which was a producer at Fox. We decided to work with that producer and we went into development, i.e., several weeks and months of rewrite after rewrite after rewrite. The script improved with every pass but over time, the producer got more interested in another, "hotter" script and we got bumped. So much for that. Months of our time. Down the drain. We were disappointed and yet we did have a better script for the experience. Except now the script had nowhere to go: too many eyes had already seen it. Into a drawer it went. For almost two years.

Until about a month ago when a friend of mine passed it to a producer known for hating every script he reads. Sort of a useless favor, I thought. Except - he liked it. And the rewrites were on - again. Tweak it this way - tweak it that way. No, no - too far. Bring it back. It's like trying to steer a ship into a dock. A very big, slow moving ship. Again, the script has benefitted but I kid you not, this is easily the 35th draft of the script since its inception almost five years ago.

It has been written and rewritten and rewritten again and reinvented and tweaked to make it scarier and more R-rated and less scary and more PG-13. But the bones of the story have always remained. It has been a lesson in taking notes and a lesson in executing those notes to the best of our understanding. There have been notes that we didn't agree with and that we stood our ground on. There have been notes that we hit ourselves on the head over because it hadn't occurred to us.

And now - we're back at it again. We did a draft about two weeks ago. Big changes. But not quite what the producer wanted. We made things too pointed in the first act. Then we did another draft, softening the first act and making the first act break BIGGER. We took our set pieces and added more "stuff." We tweaked the character arc of the protagonist. Which had a trickle down effect and forced changes in almost every scene of the script.

We've made changes with a chainsaw - losing entire scenes wholesale. We've made changes with a scalpel, tweaking single lines of dialogue toward a connotative meaning. We've used a sledgehammer on some of our set pieces - and a laser on others. Some drafts have clearly been better than others - other drafts have been six of one and a half dozen of another - it just depends on subjective tastes.

You can go crazy rewriting a script this many times. Seriously. It's tempting to get sloppy and lose sight of the fundamental DNA of the script that you originally envisioned. It has been an intense lesson in listening to, interpreting and enacting notes.

We've had to reconsider entire sequences and replace them with new material. We've had to repurpose sequences, moments and even single lines of dialogue. When you have this many drafts on file, you have almost a library of scenes and sequences to repurpose. The producer we're working with now has impeccable taste and I think (or hope) that the script is now in better shape than it ever has been to possibly - maybe - hopefully - get sold. The producer is a well respected heavy hitter and so it's going out to the big boys. We don't currently have rep but have already had a couple of offers. Know what? I don't feel like giving anyone a percentage of a sale, should we be so lucky. We've done all the heavy lifting and we have a good lawyer.

You know what has made this experience a good one for us and for those we have worked with? A willingness to bury our darlings, a sharp ear when interpreting notes and a resulting toolbox full of laser beams, chainsaws, sledgehammers and scalpels. But possibly most importantly, we have maintained a love of the fundamental story we wanted to tell. Even after all these drafts. We'll see what happens after Sundance. Maybe we'll finally make that homerun. Maybe not. But I'll tell you one thing - we're better writers for this experience. We've proven to be writers who are good to work with. We listen to notes carefully and we deliver drafts quickly. We're good in a room and we are totally focused on one thing and one thing only - writing a draft that is the best iteration of the story we wanted to tell.

Are you willing to take notes - over and over and over again on your script? To hack away scenes or sequences that you were really fond of? To totally reinvent, reimagine and repurpose them? To be totally flexible and yet totally focused on the essence of your story? And then to not even be sure that you'll ever earn a dime for any of it? It's a tall order.

Upon occasion I work with writers who are loathe to take notes, make changes or totally reimagine a scene, act or even a premise. To which I generally observe - silly preciousness will get you nowhere. Get limber, my friends. Get real limber. Do your writing yoga every day. Be willing to do anything to elevate your script to its highest creative potential.

You might as well. Writing IS rewriting.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Thank You!

Oh my gosh, Wavers - I'm just back from my mailbox on Wilshire My guy Mazi called and said you better get down here right away. I had no idea what he was talking about. Was something wrong? Did all the scripts I send him make the copier catch fire? Was there an eel in my mailbox?

None of the above. I arrived to find a SLEW of flowers, cards, chocolates and even wine from Rouge Wavers and clients - thank all of you so very much. Apparently all this stuff had been piling up for days. So if you sent something, I apologize for my late response! Words are not enough to express my gratitude for your kindness. I'll thank everybody individually too but I really didn't expect this and I wanted to thank you en masse as well. Thank you for reading The Rouge Wave. Thank you for brightening my holidays. I'm so touched.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

The Assistant Files

I actually really like many parts of being an assistant. It's uncool, but I basically have the kind of '50s-housewife personality that is quite happy to bring people coffee and roll their calls.

However. There are a few things I really, really dislike about being an assistant, and this is one of them:

Assistant Call-Rolling Power Struggles

The following is all hypothetical and did not happen to me recently. Or anything like that.

Say your boss ("Boss") is pretty important. Say there's an executive ("Executive") who Boss deals with a lot and who feels that he, Executive, is a pretty big deal. Say that Boss does not necessarily agree. In fact, say that Boss and Executive basically dislike each other a lot, but are forced to work together because they're both on the same project.

So that's the backstory. Now, say that while Boss was in a meeting, Executive called and left word.

Hours pass. Boss doesn't return the call because Boss will always try to get out of calling Executive, no matter how often you say "Hey, Boss, we owe Executive a call." Eventually, Boss gets one of those jerk emails from Executive that reads "CALL ME." Boss swears creatively and yells out, can you please get Executive on the phone? You call Executive's office: "I have Boss returning Executive's call."

A pause. Executive's assistant says "Let me check." A minute passes. Executive's assistant gets back on.

"Okay, you put Boss on the phone and as soon as Executive can jump off the call he's on--"

"I'm not going to do that," you say. You don't want to put Boss on the phone because you suspect that Executive is mad at him, and will make him hold for more than the 15 seconds that's about the max Boss can handle before yelling at you that you shouldn't have put him on the phone if they weren't ready. "I can hold for Executive, though."

"...just put Boss on," the assistant says. For her part, she doesn't want me to hold for Executive because it means that her Executive will have to hold for my Boss, even if it's just for the few seconds between "Hi! Still me, sorry." and Boss getting on. (Confused yet?)

And just like that, the other assistant and I are now in the midst of an epic power struggle about whose boss is more important. (This is something I would not have believed if you'd told me about it when I first moved to LA.)

"Nope," I say.

"But Executive can't hold for Boss--"

"Are you kidding? You really think I'm going to make Boss get on the phone and listen to your hold music for five minutes just so Executive doesn't have to stay on hold for the time it takes me to push the hold button and tell Boss that he's on the line? Really? Really?!?"

"Just put Boss on the line to hold, it won't be for all that long--"

"No. We'll leave word. Thank you."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Basically it's a game of Hold Chicken, and it's stupid. As soon as I got off the phone, I was both very irritated that someone had dared play King Of The Phone Mountain with us and equally embarrassed that I cared about this even a little bit. I went into Boss' office, fuming. "What," Boss said. "I left word," I grumbled. "Also, Executive is such a jerk! His assistant tried to make you hold for him!!!"

"...," Boss said.

People in the industry often act like being an assistant qualifies you to eventually work your way up and have your boss' job. I disagree. You know what being an assistant qualifies you to do? Be a wife. In the '50s or early '60s. With a bunch of petty concerns, and sublimating your own power struggles into those of your boss/ersatz husband and obsessing over how people take their coffee and trying to anticipate their needs...it's very Mad Men.

xxo,

Andy Sachs

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Directing the Eye of Your Reader

We all know that including directorial/camera instructions in your script is a big no-no. It's annoying, it's unprofessional, it's overstepping, it's pretentious and it's annoying. Yeah, I said annoying twice.* I'm talking about stuff like MOS (without sound), SMASH CUT, PAN TO, TRACKING SHOT, etc.

SMASH CUT TO:

*an anonymous Rouge Waver commenter once pointed out that I had used a word twice in a very ha-HA way. To which I responded, dude, I am a good writer. I never use a word twice unless I am being ironic or comedic. Every word I write is thought through. Because that's what writers do. Unless I'm too lazy, tired or hung-over to notice in which case, ha-HA away; nobody should drink 3 grape soda and vodka cocktails in a row and I know that now.

BACK TO SCENE:

Anywho, I get the impulse - we screenwriters see and hear the scenes we're writing. Aspiring screenwriters often do one of two things wrong: they either add camera directions as above, or they just - don't. They do something like:

WALT crosses to the sink and rinses his coffee cup. He notices the birds singing outside. Behind him, a drooling monster enters the kitchen and begins to pant hungrily. Walt turns and sees it.

Walt: Oh my god a drooling monster!!

B-O-R-I-N-G.

So the trick is, how do you guide the eye of the reader in your action lines without over or under serving the moment? How do you get that nice dun dun DUN moment in there?

Walt is the character whose point of view we are with, right? We are experiencing what he is experiencing. In the example above, the scene is written as if from a bird's eye view and it saps the scene of any tension. But try this:

WALT hums while he rinses his coffee cup in the sink. Outside, two robins chirp merrily at the bird feeder. Walt smiles when - another sound, one he doesn't recognize...it's not coming from outside. Slowly, Walt turns.

A DROOLING MONSTER is right behind him!

Walt rockets backwards onto his ass, spilling water all over himself.

Walt: My god! A drooling monster!

So we jump in later, we put Walt's attention on something else before he notices the monster, we create a nice dun dun DUN! moment when he sees the monster and we give him a sharp reaction to the sight of it.

Now that silly example might be really far from what you're writing but the concept applies to good scene work in any genre in any script.

Action lines are not just a droning narration, they are more akin to telling a story around a campfire. You know? Like in summer camp?

And THEN -

Everybody stares at you, the crackling of the fire the only sound as their respective marshmallows start to burn...

Behind her...

Your fellow campers can't stand it - what? What is behind her? I know you know what it is but TELL US!!

And it doesn't have to be scary, though I keep using those types of examples because I write psychological thrillers.

Let's crib that set piece from BRIDGET JONES I was talking about the other day. Without looking at the script, mind you, which was probably written differently than this but you'll still grok my point:

Darcy takes a swing at Cleaver. He goes down momentarily then rushes Darcy. The two struggle then tumble into -

A packed Greek restaurant!

Now, again, I actually don't know how that scene was written but you'll notice that the way I have done this here, the mere separation of the action lines gives the reader pause long enough to be pleasantly surprised. They don't see the Greek restaurant coming because you, simply using a line break, waited to show us that.

Another writer might have done this:

Darcy takes a swing at Cleaver. He goes down momentarily then rushes Darcy. The two struggle then tumble into a packed Greek restaurant.

You see how much more fun the first example is? But what I most commonly see from new screenwriters is this - the worst way to write this:

Darcy and Cleaver fight. Behind them, a Greek restaurant is open. They struggle their way into the restaurant.

I kid you not, I see that kind of writing all the time. Dull, dull, dull. You've told us everything from a bird's eye view and there's no fun to be had in the reading of that. YOU know there's a Greek restaurant and they're going to tumble into it but as the viewer (or reader) I only vaguely know there may be businesses on that street but I'm not really paying attention to what kind of businesses - I'm on the fight. That's the beat of the scene. The fight. But you, the writer, you're going to top the fight with the introduction of a new element - a packed restaurant.

Writing kinetic action lines is a variation of show don't tell but I prefer to think of it as an issue of pacing and where the eye is directed. What do you call attention to in order to then create some surprise on the page? A Greek restaurant! Wow! But if you tell me the restaurant is there in the first place, I already saw that moment coming and it sucks the fun out of getting there.

Using line breaks, hyphens, all-caps - these are all tiny little mechanical cheats to draw attention where you want it. In the Walt example, above, we put his attention (and yours) on the birds outside. That way the monster will be more surprising. In the Darcy/Cleaver scene, we want your attention on the fight itself. We save the Greek restaurant for the topper.

Now, before some smarty pants Rouge Waver sends me the BRIDGET scene and says SEE- Fielding did it thus and such way which was totally different from your example, let me say in advance, I don't care, I am making a very salient point here and I think we all get that. Or, I hope we do.*

SMASH CUT TO:

*Dear anonymous commenter, stuff it.

BACK TO SCENE:

Look at the rhythm and pacing of your action lines. Make sure you play out your scene in such a way that you are taking the reader by the nose and putting their attention where you want it so that I get maximum fun and entertainment out of not noticing the CREAM PIE about to be heaved into the character's face. Or the guy standing behind the door with an ax. Or the elevator door about to open on a crazy circus clown. Who has a cream pie.

Pacing and rhythm is fundamental to all entertaining writing - whether it's a blog post, short story, novel or script. I do it on the Rouge Wave all the time. Pretty much in every single post. Because otherwise this blog becomes information, information, information, information. And that is dull and you wouldn't come back for more, would you?

Now if you'll excuse me - DING! - huh, what's that? I pause in my blogging, I turn and -

A CRAZY CIRCUS CLOWN HEAVES A CREAM PIE IN MY FACE!

I wipe the cream from my eyes and it's then that I notice -

It's Anonymous Commenter!

Julie: Very funny, dude. Very funny.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Black List Scripts and Nominations

Boy, you know it's the end of the year in Hollywood when award nominations start flowing like champagne and the Black List takes a bow. To check out the latest award nominations, check out the following links:

Golden Globe Nominations: Awards ceremony January 11th

Critic's Choice Nominations: Awards ceremony, January 8th

National Board of Review

I have the following Black List scripts:

THE BEAVER written by Kyle Killen
THE ORANGES written by Ian Helfer & Jay Reiss
THE TUTOR written by Matthew Fogel
BIG HOLE written by Michael Gilio
WINTERS DISCONTENT written by Paul Fruchbom
THE LOW DWELLER written by Brad Ingelsby
BROKEN CITY written by Brian Tucker

If you would like any or all of them, please email my assistant, Chaia, and your wish is our - wait - from your lips to god's - no, no, uh, throw one shoe, I'm a shamed president, throw two shoes and it's confirmed. Ah - and I haven't even had any egg nog. You get the drift. To find the black list scripts, click HERE.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Short Scene WINNER

Good morning, Wavers. Here is the winning Christmas Short Scene. Joshua James will be receiving a fifty dollar gift certificate to the business of his choice.

I tried to find a special guest judge but due to the holidays, many people are either out of town or too busy with other commitments. I was frustrated by that but then I thought, wait, I'm a pretty special judge, so we'll go with me. In the past, when I have chosen the top three short scenes, I know immediately who the winner should be (ballot stuffing aside, which is why we're using a new model - not popular vote but professional vote).

Of the 50+ short scenes that were submitted, only a tiny fraction were anywhere near what I had hoped for. Now, given, writing a compelling scene that tells an entire story in and of itself is quite a challenge. But it's a challenge that a screenwriter should be able to meet. This is why these competitions are a great exercise.

Many short scenes were too clever for their own good. I didn't get it, in other words. Things weren't set up and came out of the blue. Storylines were unclear. Keywords were repeated, on the nose or inserted a bit randomly.

Joshua's short scene was head and shoulders above any other submission I received. Head and shoulders. So what did Joshua do right?

His short scene used the keywords organically. The scene has a beginning, a middle and an end. It has a key moment that sets up a mystery and the pay off is satisfying and sweet. It sets up world, it is logical and it has universal resonance. Congratulations, Josh, you did a great job.

Nog
by Joshua James

EXT. SNOW-FILLED STREET - DAY
Wind and snow howl. BARB (29) wades through the knee-deep
snow in the middle of the street. She carries a large
thermos. Wades up to a house. Shivering, Barb takes out her
keys. Notices a-

MAILMAN - struggling through the snow, three doors up.

BARB - checks the mailbox by the door. A letter.

INT. FOYER - DAY
Barb stomps snow off her boots, unwraps herself from the
scarves and jackets.

She opens the letter. Picks up the thermos. Walks into the hall. Stops midway as she reads:

“Dear Barb, enclosed is an all expenses paid trip for
two to MAUI for the Christmas holiday. You’ve put in so many
extra hours that the partners and I agreed to do something
special for you. It’s Maui, Barb, Maui! Best, Tracy.”

EMMA (O.S.)
Barb? Is that you?

INT. KITCHEN - CONTINUOUS
Barb steps on the pedal of a kitchen trash can. Lid goes up.
Barb drops the letter, tickets and voucher into the trash.

EMMA
I can’t believe you went out in a
raging blizzard just for that.

EMMA (60) appears, in a wheelchair. Barb grabs two cups.

BARB
It’s your favorite. Cinnamon
flavored egg nog from Cuddy’s.

Barb pours egg nog from the thermos. Hands a cup to her.

EMMA
I bet you wish you were somewhere
warm and sunny right about now.

Barb smiles. Sips her egg nog.

BARB
Not at all, Mom. It’s Christmas.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Bigger Set Pieces

One day this could happen to you. You're sitting in a meeting with an agent, manager or producer (okay in my case, I am talking about a producer) who says to you - I really, really like the script. Great concept, great writing, I think I can sell this. Except.... He leans forward. Could you just...make the set pieces, I don't know - bigger?

And you stare. And you think, what do you mean - bigger? I have this incredible car crash or fight scene or jet fuel explosion - how does that get BIGGER than that? You mean like, more stuff in the scene? Yeah, exactly - he says - more stuff!

And you leave the meeting and google the nearest bar. More stuff. What the hell? But this is where the two most powerful words in screenwriting can be your friend. And those two words are "what if". But let's wind back the tape and talk about just what a set piece is:

Set pieces are the - wait for it - stuff that producers dream of. Because set pieces are the parts of movies that audiences remember the most. Think of some of your favorite movie moments - likely those moments were set pieces. Set pieces are relative to the genre of the movie, so your set pieces may have nothing to do with jet fuel or car chases or smashing through plate glass windows. Set pieces are the essence of show don't tell. Set pieces can be five minutes long or just a quick moment.

The other night, I (re) watched BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY and had a new appreciation for great set pieces. When Bridget shows up to the Tarts & Vicars party and it's been canceled - that very first moment when all eyes turn to her in her ridiculous bunny suit - that's a terrific set piece. The montage when Bridget shaves her legs, waxes her punanny and works out really hard - that's a set piece. Set pieces show up in the trailer for your movie. They are on the poster. They sell the movie.

One set piece from BRIDGET is a perfect example of more stuff in a set piece. And here we harken back to those golden words: What if? Colin Firth and Hugh Grant get in a fist fight outside in the street. It's a great confrontation, it really is. Because every time it gets good, it gets better. So what if the two main love interests are duking it out in the street, in front of Bridget? What if as they start fighting, they tumble into a restaurant? But - what if someone was having a birthday party in the restaurant? What if, just as the fighting is really going crazy, a waiter brings a birthday cake into the room? A really elaborate birthday cake? And what if, as a comedic detail, the two characters stop fighting momentarily to join in singing "Happy Birthday?" And THEN the fighting resumes and they crash through a plate glass window? So we've gone from a confrontation out on the street to a full-on slapstick reverie. With a lot of stuff.
It is helpful to go through your script and simply list the set pieces you have. Do you have at least six? And - do they have enough "stuff?" Are they big, bigger, biggest? Are they exciting and scary and funny or whatever your genre calls for?

Set pieces are the coin of the realm when a producer reads your script. You need to not only deliver a number of entertaining set pieces in your script, you need to make sure they are as chock full of exciting detail and "stuff."*

Stuff: going into the Rouge Wave vocabulary along with BOSH (Bunch Of Stuff Happens, but not good stuff).

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

The Assistant Files

I recently heard this philosophy of networking that says something along the lines of: you don't need to be out trying to meet as many people as possible. Instead you should put your energy into being someone that other people want to meet, and then let them come to you.

Let me first say, I don't know if I'm totally on board with this strategy. It seems like people who have introvert tendencies (ahem, writers) might take this as encouragement to just be TOTALLY AWESOME in the privacy of their own homes.

But it did start me thinking, in a roundabout way, of soundbites.

Say you're taking a meeting. The routine goes that they greet you and offer you a beverage and a seat, and then you have about five minutes of small talk. Because this five minutes comes at the beginning of the meeting when you're still good and nervous, it's pretty intimidating, right? You want to make a good impression, you want to build rapport, maybe you just want your voice to start working and the flop sweats to stop.

We all occasionally struggle with feeling like a person that others want to meet. Especially if you're still in that trying-to-turn-pro stage of your career, you might catch yourself feeling like you don't actually have a lot to offer yet. (Right? Is that just me?) So having a sound bite or two to fill that five minutes, a little scripted TA DA! all planned out ahead of time, can help take the edge off those nerves.

What the heck do I mean by 'soundbite'? Think of it as a hook, something people can latch onto so that you stick in their minds. Remember that game you played at sleepaway camp, "My name is Andy and I like alligators…" It's sort of like that; just a little something you're putting out there that people can associate with you. It makes you memorable.

You're a Yale grad who once took a year off to join the circus. You're a former JAG Corps judge who never rendered anything but a Guilty verdict. You have quotes from your favorite movie, Joe Versus the Volcano, tattooed on your body.

These are all soundbites I've heard from writers as they waited for meetings with my boss. (I can't vouch for their truthfulness, but hey-- they worked.)

With a soundbite, you give people a nice, neat little package of I'm Awesome, Jump On This Bandwagon. But you ALSO give the people you've met a way to sell you to, say, their agent, boss, or whomever else they might be passing one of your scripts along to. They get to rave about the fantastic new writer they met, and top it off with, "AND she used to work as a pilot for the President of the Congo. You should totally meet her." You're actually helping make their job easier. Now doesn't that sound like someone that other people would want to meet?

xxoo,
Andy Sachs

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

Writing Seasonal Scripts

Each month I write an article for the StoryLink Ezine (an offshoot of The Writer's Store)in the "ask the expert" section which I of course find humorous but you know, it's all good. So the question this month was:

"Is there a strategy to writing things that are seasonal?"

If by seasonal you mean a script in which the plot is focused and centered around a particular season or holiday, then all you have to do as far as strategy is concerned is write the BEST, most unique script about that season or holiday. But let’s dig deeper.

Imagine spec scripts sales divided into a pie chart of sale probability and potential.

The biggest slice of the pie would go to Hot New Writers* With a Unique Concept, Great Rep and Attachments. I’ll translate to, say, 75%.

The next slice is much smaller: Promising New Writers With a Unique Concept, Good Rep, No Attachments but Fans of the Work. Let’s call this 15%.

Then, much, much smaller slices would be evenly divided among Risky/Provocative Passion Projects With Influential Fans and Freakishly Lucky Diablo Cody Types. Let’s give those 5% each.

How does writing seasonal projects fit into this picture? Well, it doesn’t. To reiterate:

- Hot New Writer*, Unique Concept, Great Rep – attachments
- Promising Writer, Unique Concept, Good Rep – no attachments but fans
- Risky/Provocative with fans
- Freakishly Lucky

You want to fall under one of these categories regardless of whether or not your script is centered around something seasonal. Say you’re in that 75th percentile. You’re HOT, you’ve got great rep and all of that. Does writing something about Christmas or Easter or Halloween instantly put you in a smaller slice of that 75th percentile? Of course it does. Now the marketing and release dates of your script are restricted to a particular time of year. But if your script is fantastically entertaining and unique – so what? That’s a very high-class problem to have.

But let’s assume you’re like most aspiring screenwriters out there slugging it out and trying the spec market once or twice a year. And you’ve written something seasonal. Should you time when you query your Easter script to coincide with Easter? No. In general, the time between someone intially reading and responding to your script and that script premiering in theaters can be upwards of two years. Is it cute or at all helpful to send a Valentine-oriented script into be read on or near Valentine’s Day? Not really.

So goal one is to work hard to become the Hot Writer with Great Concepts – regardless of the topicality of your script. Then you can worry about when to query and how your script/movie would be marketed. If you have an idea for a seasonal script and you just love it and you are certain that it is totally unique and compelling – go for it.

*Definitions of Hot New Writer would include but are not limited to:

You’ve made it onto the Black List. You have influential and powerful fans of your work. You have won the Nicholl Competition. You’re a Disney Fellow. Variety noted that you are among the “top ten writers to watch.” How you arrived at this level of hotness is a confluence of: talent, luck, opportunity, timing and connections. You’re probably young. You probably live in Los Angeles. You have a great backstory. Possibly you were a stripper or sandwich board guy standing on the sidewalk hawking something weird. You have an amiable personality and you are good in a room.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.

2008 Black List

Okay guys - this came out yesterday and shot around Hollywood with lightning speed. I can do no better to explain what this list is and means than to quote the cover page that comes along with it:

****

THE BLACK LIST was compiled from the suggestions of over 250 film executives, each of whom contributed the names of up to ten of their favorite scripts that were written in, or are somehow uniquely associated with, 2008 and will not be released in theaters during this calendar year.

This year, scripts had to receive at least four mentions to be included on THE BLACK LIST.

All reasonable effort has been made to confirm the information contained herein. THE BLACK LIST apologizes for all misspellings, misattributions, incorrect representation identification, and questionable “2008” affiliations.

It has been said many times, but it’s worth repeating:

THE BLACK LIST is not a “best of” list. It is, at best, a “most liked” list.

THE BLACK LIST salutes all those who spend their days attacking the blank page.

****

Now: each script is preceded by the number of votes it received. I have heard ugly rumors in the past that the black list is political, and that various managers, etc., lobby to get their clients listed. Is this true? I'm not sure. Let's say there's some degree of truth to it. In any event, I am happy to see Script Department client Ryan Condal is on the list for GALAHAD and that my friend Josh Zetumer is on for the second year in a row with his latest, MAN OF CLOTH. I also see a fellow Writer's Boot Camp alum on the list, Javier Rodriguez.

What does it mean to be on the Black List? It's good. It's very good. It means you have fans in the industry and it means that you will get more attention now.

Some stats that my lovely and capable assistant Chaia compiled: of the 107 scripts on this list, only 17 female writers showed up*. There are 19 partnered scripts and one three-way writing partnership.

*this is a pretty fair reflection of the general ratio of male to female screenwriters.

So take a look at this list, Wavers. What do you think of the titles? There are some really provocative, clever ones. Take a look at the loglines. Are you working on something similar? Might have to walk away from it then. Have a gander and start working toward showing up on this list yourself next year.

2008 BLACK LIST

[67 votes]

THE BEAVER by Kyle Killen
“A depressed man finds hope in a beaver puppet that he wears on his hand.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Cliff Roberts
MANAGER Anonymous Content –Keith Redmon
AVAILABLE. Anonymous Content producing.

[61 votes]

THE ORANGES by Jay Reiss & Ian Helfer
“A man has a romantic relationship with the daughter of a family friend, which turns their lives upside down.”
AGENT Reiss: Creative Artists Agency -Spencer Baumgarten, Greg McKnight, Jessica Matthews
Helfer: The Gersh Agency -Sandra Lucchesi, Eric Garfinkel,
Frank Wuliger
MANAGER Reiss:Mosaic Media Group –Paul Nelson, Jimmy Miller, Ilan Breil Helfer: Principal Entertainment –Danny Sherman
UNAVAILABLE. Media Rights Capital. A Likely Story producing.

[44 votes]

BUTTER by Jason Micallef
“A small town becomes a center for controversy and jealousy as its annual butter carving contest begins.”
AGENT Endeavor –Phil D’amecourt, Rich Cook
MANAGER Washington Square Arts -Josh McGuire
AVAILABLE. Michael De Luca Productions producing.

[42 votes]

BIG HOLE by Michael Gilio
“An old cowboy goes on a mission to recover his money after a million dollar sweepstakes scam cleans out his entire bank account.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Julien Thuan
MANAGER Industry Entertainment –Eryn Brown
AVAILABLE. Aversano Films producing.

[40 votes]

THE LOW DWELLER by Brad Ingelsby
“A man trying to assimilate into society after being released from jail discovers that someone from his past is out to settle a score.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Mike Esola, Rob Carlson
MANAGER Energy Entertainment -Brooklyn Weaver, Adam Marshall
UNAVAILABLE. Relativity. Scott Free Productions, Energy Entertainment, Appian Way Productions producing.

[39 votes]

FUCKBUDDIES by Liz Meriwether
“A guy and a girl struggle to have an exclusively sexual relationship as they both come to realize they want much more.”
AGENT William Morris Agency -Cliff Roberts
AVAILABLE. Montecito Picture Company producing.

[34 votes]

WINTER’S DISCONTENT by Paul Fruchbom
“When Herb Winter’s wife of fifty years dies, the faithful but sexually frustrated widower moves into a retirement community to start living the swinging single life.”
AGENT United Talent Agency -Jon Huddle, David Kramer, Adam Weinstein
MANAGER Circle of Confusion -Kemper Donovan
UNAVAILABLE. Sony. Atlas Entertainment producing.

[29 votes]

BROKEN CITY by Brian Tucker
“A New York private investigator gets sucked into a shady mayoral election.”
AGENT Endeavor -Sarah Lemkin
UNAVAILABLE. Mandate. Mr. Muddproducing.

[24 votes]

I’M WITH CANCER by Will Reiser
“A autobiographical comic account of one man’s struggle to beat cancer.”
AGENT United Talent Agency -Blair Kohan
MANAGER Thruline Entertainment -Jodi Lieberman, Willie Mercer
UNAVAILABLE. Mandate. Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Ben Karlin producing.

[22 votes]

OUR BRAND IS CRISIS by Peter Straughan
“Based on the eponymous documentary. James Carville and a team of U.S. political consultants travel to South America to help Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (aka ‘Goni’) become President of Bolivia.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency -Brian Siberell
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. Smoke House producing.

[21 votes]

INGLORIOUS BASTERDS by Quentin Tarantino
“American soldiers, French peasants, French resistance, and Nazis collide in Hitler occupied France.”
AGENT William Morris Agency -Mike Simpson
UNAVAILABLE. Universal Pictures, The Weinstein Company. Lawrence Bender Productions producing.

[20 votes]

UNTITLED VANESSA TAYLOR PROJECT by Vanessa Taylor
“After thirty years of marriage, a middle-aged couple attends an intense counseling weekend to decide the fate of their marriage.”
AGENT United Talent Agency -Doug Johnson, Adam Weinstein
MANAGER Management 360 -Guymon Casady, Darin Friedman
AVAILABLE. Escape Artists, Management 360 producing.

[16]

GALAHAD by `Ryan Condal
“A revisionist twist on the King Arthur legend from the knight Galahad’s perspective.”
AGENT William Morris Agency -Aaron Hart
MANAGER Energy Entertainment -Brooklyn Weaver, Adam Marshall
UNAVAILABLE. The Film Department. Energy Entertainment producing.

THE WEST IS DEAD by Andrew Baldwin
“During the Great Depression, a group of semi-outlaws go on the run from the law when forced to vacate a town as the Hoover dam is constructed.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency -Jay Baker, Josh Krauss
MANAGER Anonymous Content -Bard Dorros, David Kanter
AVAILABLE.

[15 votes]

MANUSCRIPT by Paul Grellong
“A contemporary thriller about three bright, young New Yorkers with boundless literary ambition who will stop at nothing to get what they want.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency -Chris Till
MANAGER59 Entertainment -Marti Blumenthal
UNAVAILABLE. The Film Department. Donna Gigliotti producing.

THE TUTOR by Matthew Fogel
“A twenty three year old recent graduate decides, at his mother’s insistence, to tutor his ex-girlfriend’s younger sister for the SATs. When they begin a romantic relationship, his ex-girlfriend moves back home for the summer and begins to fall back in love with our anti-hero as well.”
AGENT United Talent Agency -Jason Burns, Adam Weinstein
AVAILABLE. Principato/Young Management producing.

[14 votes]

THE DESCENDANTS by Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
“A newly widowed father -also one of the richest men in Oahu, Hawaii -takes off with his two rebellious daughters to track down his dead wife’s ex-lover on the island of Kauai.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency -Jay Baker, Brian Kend
MANAGERPrincipato/Young Management -Brian Dobbins, Paul Young
UNAVAILABLE. Fox Searchlight. Ad Hominem Enterprises producing.

SUNFLOWER by Misha Green
“Two young women struggle to escape from and exact revenge on the deranged college professor who holds them hostage.”
AGENT Endeavor -Susan Solomon
MANAGERN iadManagement -Jennifer Graff
UNAVAILABLE. Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. Vincent Newman producing.

GOING THE DISTANCE by Geoff LaTulippe
“A couple tries to maintain a long-distance relationship.”
AGENT The GershAgency -Sarah Self
MANAGER Mosaic Media Group -Michael Lasker
UNAVAILABLE. New Line. Offspring Entertainment producing.

[13 votes]

THE AMERICAN WAY by Brian Kistler
“Two brothers are affected by their parents’murder, leading one to the FBI and the other to a life of crime.”
AGENT William Morris Agency -Alan Gasmer, Kimberly Bialek
UNAVAILABLE. The Film Department. Steve Golin producing.

NOWHERE BOY by Matt Greenhalgh
“The story of John Lennon’s rise from lonely, Liverpool teenager to iconic rock star.”
AGENT Endeavor -Chris Donnelly, Elia Infascelli-Smith
UNAVAILABLE. Film Four. Ecosse Films producing.

RAINDROPS ALL AROUND ME by Reed Agnew & Eli Jorne
“A socially awkward high school teacher learns to ‘dumb it down’in order to fit in with those around him.”
AGENT International Creative Management -Harley Copen
MANAGER Underground Films and Management -Oly Obst
UNAVAILABLE. Universal. Red Hour Films producing.

SEQUELS, REMAKES & ADAPTATIONS by Sam Esmail
“The outlandish journey of a young man in search of love and what he’s meant to do with his life.”
AGENT William Morris Agency -Mike Esola
MANAGER Energy Entertainment -Brooklyn Weaver, Adam Marshall
AVAILABLE. WAM Films producing.

[12 votes]

A COUPLE OF DICKS by Mark Cullen & Robb Cullen
“Two veteran LAPD detectives attempt to track down a stolen, mint-condition, 1952 baseball card that one of the detectives hopes to sell in order to pay for his daughter’s upcoming wedding.”
AGENT William Morris Agency -Cliff Roberts
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. Marc Platt Productions producing.

GAY DUDE by Alan Yang
“A comedy about the friendship of two high school seniors that’s torn apart after one comes out of the closet.”
AGENT William Morris Agency -Mike Esola
AVAILABLE.

THE MANY DEATHS OF BARNABY JAMES by Brian Nathanson
“A teenage apprentice in a macabre circus for the dead yearns to bring his true love back to life, but not before encountering the many dangerous and mysterious gothic characters that stand in his way.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency -Jay Baker, Jessica Matthews
MANAGER Benderspink-Jill McElroy, Langley Perer
AVAILABLE.

UNDERAGE by Scott Neustadter & Michael Weber
“A seventeen-year-old seduces a twentysomething man and then blackmails him into being her boyfriend in order to exact revenge on her high school aged ex.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency -Bill Zotti, Jessica Matthews
MANAGER Kaplan/PerroneEntertainment -Aaron Kaplan, Justin Killion, Sean Perrone
UNAVAILABLE. Paramount. Montecito Picture Company producing.

[11 votes]

CODE NAME VEIL by Matt Billingsley
“Based on actual events. A young CIA agent struggles to maintain his morality while navigating dangerous and absurd conditions in 1980s Beirut.”
AGENT United Talent Agency -Charlie Ferraro, Adam Weinstein
Industry Entertainment -Eryn Brown, Jess Rosenthal
AVAILABLE. Stacy Cohen, Kristin Harms producing.

EVERYTHING MUST GO by Dan Rush
“A relapsed alcoholic loses his job and his wife and decides to live on his front lawn while selling all of his belongings in a yard sale.”
AGENT International Creative Management -Todd Hoffman, David Unger
MANAGER Management 360 -Guymon Casady
AVAILABLE. Temple Hill Productions producing.

THE FOURTH KIND by Olatunde Osunsanmi
“A woman investigates an extraordinary number of unexplained disappearances from one small town in Alaska.”
AGENT Endeavor -Sarah Lemkin, Phil Raskind
MANAGER Caliber Media -Dallas Sonnier
UNAVAILABLE. Gold Circle Films.

FOXCATCHER by E Max Frye & Dan Futterman
“Based on the true story of John du Pont, a paranoid schizophrenic who was heir to the du Pont fortune. After building a wrestling training facility named Team Foxcatcher on his Pennsylvania estate, Du Pont shot and killed Olympic gold medal-winning grappler David Schulz.”
AGENT Frye: Endeavor -Tom Strickler
Futterman: Endeavor -Tom Strickler, Adriana Alberghetti
MANAGER Futterman: Principal Entertainment -Larry Taube
UNAVAILABLE. Media Rights Capital. Grandview Pictures, Bennett Miller producing.

THE PHANTOM LIMB by Kevin Koehler
“A troubled private detective uncovers a blackmail scam involvinga gangster who runs a brothel that caters to amputee fetishes (and other taboo sexual interests) and the doctor who performs the body modifications.”
AGENT Endeavor -Rich Cook, David Karp
MANAGERMosaic Media Group -Brent Lilley
AVAILABLE. John Cameron producing.

[10 votes]

THE APOSTLES OF INFINITE LOVE by Victoria Strouse
“When an upper class dysfunctional New York family learn their youngest daughter has joined a cult in the midwest, they recruit a cult deprogrammer and go on the road to save her while both parents and siblings confront their issues with one another.”
AGENT Endeavor -Adam Levine, Bryan Besser
MANAGER Anonymous Content -Michael Sugar
AVAILABLE. Red Hour Films producing.

THE F-WORD by Elan Mastai
“Two best friends struggle with falling in love without ruining the bond between them.”
AGENT The Gersh Agency -Frank Wuliger, Greg Pedicin
MANAGER Principato/Young Management -Paul Young, Dave Rosenthal
UNAVAILABLE. Fox Searchlight. Mark Stevenson, Ford Oelman, Mark Costa producing.

UP IN THE AIR by Jason Reitman
“A ruthless human resources executive, whose job is to fire people, looks forward to the only joy he has in life, his millionth frequent flyer mile, a goal he pursues with zeal as the rest of his life falls apart around him because he is constantly on the road.”
AGENT William Morris Agency -Jeff Gorin, David Lonner
UNAVAILABLE. Paramount. Montecito Picture Company, Hard C Productions producing.


[9 votes]

BACHELORETTE by Leslye Headland
“Ten years out of high school, three unhappy single friends come together as bridesmaids at a classmate's wedding, get drunk, get high, and trash the wedding dress while romancing new and old loves and settling old business.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Rebecca Ewing, Yuli Masinovsky
MANAGER Caliber Media –Max Roman, Dallas Sonnier
AVAILABLE. Mark Gordon producing.

JONNY QUEST by Dan Mazeau
“Young Jonny Quest travels the world with his scientist father, adopted brother from India, Bandit the bulldog, and a government agent assigned to protect them while they investigate scientific mysteries.”
AGENT The Gersh Agency –David Kopple
MANAGER Circle of Confusion –David Alpert, Ashley Berns
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. Lin Pictures, Adrian Askarieh, Daniel Alter producing.

THE KARMA COALITION by Shawn Christensen
“A professor embarks on a quest to uncover the truth behind his wife's death before the world ends.”
AGENT Endeavor –Bryan Besser
MANAGER Caliber Media –Dallas Sonnier
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. Lin Pictures producing.

KEIKO by Elizabeth Wright Shapiro
“A white teenage girl, who was adopted and raised in Japan by Japanese parents, travels to America to find her long lost father, comedian Dana Carvey.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Tobin Babst, Blair Kohan
MANAGER Industry Entertainment –Jess Rosenthal
AVAILABLE.

KNIGHTS by Nick Confalone & Neal Dusedau
“A kickass British adventure where knighted celebrities (an entrepreneur, a soccer player, a musician, and an actor) are called upon to defend their country.”
MANAGER 3 Arts Entertainment –Greg Walter
AVAILABLE.

TWENTY TIMES A LADY by Gabrielle Allan & Jennifer Crittenden
“Based on the book by Karyn Bosnak. After realizing that she has had twice as many sexual partners as the national average, Ally swears off new guys and decides to go back and visit the previous twenty guys and find out if she overlooked anyone.”
AGENT Allen: United Talent Agency –Rebecca Ewing, Blair Kohan
Crittenden: Creative Artists Agency –Bill Zotti, Jeff Jacobs
UNAVAILABLE. Sony. Contrafilmproducing.

[8 votes]

CLEAR WINTER NOON by John Kolvenbach
“A hit man released from jail in his seventies tries to make amends for the innocent life he took.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Shana Eddy, Yuli Masinovsky, Jason Burns
MANAGER 3 Arts Entertainment –Tom Lassally
UNAVAILABLE. 2929 Productions. 2929 Productions, 3 Arts Entertainment producing.

FIERCE INVALIDS HOME FROM HOT CLIMATES by Eric Aronson
“Based on the novel by Tom Robbins. An irascible, world-weary CIA operative is duped by his boss into helping re-place a listening device back in Russian hands that is vital to spying on them.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Greg McKnight, Billy Hawkins
MANAGER Management 360 –Guymon Casady, Darin Friedman
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. Infinitum Nihil, GK Films producing.

ROUNDTABLE by Brian K Vaughan
“In modern day, Merlin attempts to assemble a bunch of knights to battle an ancient evil.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Martin Spencer
UNAVAILABLE. Paramount. Parkes/MacDonald Productions producing.

[7 votes]

THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF THE MONOGAMOUS DUCK by Neeraj Katyal
“A writer struggling with drugs and his girlfriend’s death leaves New York for Los Angeles where he falls in love with a teacher and straightens out his life.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Barbara Dreyfus, Rebecca Ewing, Julien Thuan
AVAILABLE. Color Force producing.

THE GARY COLEMAN –EMMANUEL LEWIS PROJECT by Dan Fogelman
“Emmanuel Lewis and Gary Coleman save the world from an evil madman.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Danny Greenberg
MANAGER Industry Entertainment –Eryn Brown
AVAILABLE. Platinum Dunes producing.

THE LAYMAN’S TERMS by Jeremy Bailey
“In the midst of the Great Depression, a prodigal son returns home to face his demons and resurrect the dust bowl town he left behind. But the arrival of a mysterious woman soon threatens his way of life when he discovers she is being hunted by the very same Chicago gangsters he used to run with.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Charlie Ferraro, Adam Weinstein
MANAGER Magnet Management –Bob Sobhani
AVAILABLE.

THE MALLUSIONIST by Robbie Pickering & Jace Ricci
“A wannabe illusionist travels cross country with his young son to compete against his archnemesis in a Vegas magic show.”
AGENT Endeavor –Dawn Saltzman, Bill Weinstein
MANAGER Pickering: Benderspink–Charlie Gogolak
Ricci: Leverage Management –Gina Marcheschi
AVAILABLE. Red Hour Films producing.

PLAN B by Kate Angelo
“A woman sets out to be artificially inseminated and falls in love.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Jason Burns, Adam Weinstein
UNAVAILABLE. CBS Films. Escape Artists producing.

WHAT IS LIFE WORTH? By Max Borenstein
“Based on the memoir of Kenneth Feinberg, a dramatization of his involvement in the 9/11 victims compensation fund.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Alan Gasmer
MANAGERAnonymous Content –Bard Dorros, Adam Kossack
AVAILABLE. Michael De Luca Productions producing.

[6 votes]

ACOD: ADULT CHILDREN OF DIVORCE by Ben Karlin & Stu Zicherman
“A grown man finds himself still caught in the crossfire of his parents’ divorce.”
AGENT Karlin: United Talent Agency –Blair Kohan
Zicherman: William Morris Agency –David Lubliner
MANAGERKarlin:3 Arts Entertainment –David Miner
UNAVAILABLE. Miramax. Cohen Films, Ben Karlin producing.

BAD TEACHER by Lee Eisenberg & Gene Stupnitsky
“After being dumped by her boyfriend, a foul-mouthed, gold-digging seventh-grade teacher sets her sights on a colleague who is dating the school’s model teacher.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Jeff Gorin, Aaron Hart
MANAGER Mosaic Media Group –Michael Lasker, Jimmy Miller
UNAVAILABLE. Sony. The Miller Company producing.

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY by Charles Randolph
“The true story of former Assistant United States attorney Stanley Alpert’s kidnapping by petty thieves and how he bonded with them in a Queens, NY apartment in 1998.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Rowena Arguelles, Risa Gertner
MANAGER Brillstein Entertainment Partners –Margaret Riley
AVAILABLE. Paula Wagner producing.

CHILD 44 by Richard Price
“Based on the novel by Tom Rob Smith. An officer in Stalinist Russia’s secret police is framed by a colleague for treason. While on the run with his wife, he stumbles upon a series of child murders and launches his own rogue investigation.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Bob Bookman
UNAVAILABLE. Fox 2000. Scott Free Productions producing.

EASY A by Bert Royal
“A good-natured high school student uses the rumor mill to personal advantage by pretending to be the school slut.”
AGENT Paradigm –Trevor Astbury, Valarie Phillips
MANAGER Dana Jackson
UNAVAILABLE. Screen Gems. Olive Bridge Entertainment producing.

GIANTS by Eric Nazarian
“A teenager with Marfan Syndrome comes to terms with his estranged father, his overworked mother, and the possibility that he very well might die during his upcoming procedure.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Alex Lerner, Stuart Manashil
MANAGER The Arlook Group –Jon Wolff
AVAILABLE. Lynette Ramirez producing.

GRAND THEFT AUTO by Jason Dean Hall
“Facing foreclosure on his repo yard, a young ex-con resumes a life of crime only to get blamed when his uncle’s coke deal gets hijacked. Caught in double crosses between Russian mafia, Yakuza, and the ATF, the young ex-con kidnaps a crime boss’s daughter and steals car after car on a Vegas bound suicide mission to retrieve the stolen drugs.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Jay Baker, Greg McKnight
MANAGER Management 360 –Darin Friedman
UNAVAILABLE. Fox Atomic. Stuart Parr, Roger Corman, Paul Rosenberg producing.

HELP ME SPREAD GOODNESS by Mark Friedman
“When an email predator dupes a man out of his son’s college fund, the man travels to Nigeria to confront those who ripped him off.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Charlie Ferraro, Rio Hernandez
MANAGER Chad Snopek Management –Chad Snopek
AVAILABLE. Participant Productions producing.

INFERNO: A LINDA LOVELACE STORY by Matt Wilder
“The story of Linda Lovelace, the first mainstream porn star who eventually overcame her past, found happiness in suburbia and led a crusade to stop pornography.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Brian Kend, Jay Baker
MANAGER Brillstein Entertainment Partners –Missy Malkin
AVAILABLE.

LONDON BOULEVARD by William Monahan
“Based on the book by Ken Fruen. Fresh out of prison, Mitchell lands a legitimate job as a handyman for a rich actress who's eager to reward him with cash, cars, and sex. But Mitchell can never truly escape his violent past or the dangerous world of loan sharks, drug addicts and other bottom feeders.”
AGENT Endeavor –Chris Donnelly
AVAILABLE. Quentin Curtis, William Monahan producing.

MEMOIRS by Will Fetters
“Two college students who’ve experienced recent loss fall in love and heal their fractured families.”
AGENT Endeavor –Elia Infascelli-Smith, Sarah Lemkin
MANAGER Underground Films and Management –Trevor Engelson, Nick Osborne, Oly Obst
AVAILABLE. Underground Films and Management producing.

SHRAPNEL by Evan Daugherty
“Two mortal enemies square off on a hunting trip to the death.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Tobin Babst, Rio Hernandez
MANAGER Energy Entertainment –Brooklyn Weaver, Jake Wagner
AVAILABLE.

YOUR DREAMS SUCK by Kat Dennings & Geoffrey Litwak
“An awkward teen with no self esteem regains his self-confidence after joining a Dance Dance Revolution team.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Jessica Matthews
MANAGER Management 360 –Nicole King
AVAILABLE. DiNoviPictures producing.

[5 votes]

AFTER HAILEY by Scott Frank
“Based on the novel by Jonathan Tropper. After a twentysomething man’s older wife dies, he remains in suburbia and struggles to raise her teenage son from a previous marriage.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Beth Swofford, Maha Dakhil, Bob Bookman
UNAVAILABLE. Paramount. Michaels Goldwyn producing.

THE BLADE ITSELF by Aaron Stockard
“Based on the novel by Marcus Sakey. Two former childhood friends, who made their reputation committing petty crimes, are reunited years later, forcing one of them to decide how far he will go to protect his past.”
AGENT Endeavor –Elia Infascelli-Smith
UNAVAILABLE. Miramax. Idealogy, Inc. producing.

BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE by Adam Cozad
“Two orphans, raised by a CIA operative to be assassins, become targets themselves.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Jeff Gorin, Aaron Hart
MANAGER The Gotham Group –Jeremy Bell
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. Thunder Road producing.

FRESHLY POPPED by Megan Parsons
“A teenage girl who works at a movie theater tries to decide to whom she wants to lose her virginity.”
AGENT Paradigm –Scott Henderson, Lucy Stille
MANAGER Kaplan/PerroneEntertainment –Justin Killion
UNAVAILABLE. Overture. Escape Artists producing.

GAZA by Frank Deasy
“A British woman goes to Gaza to recover the body of her dead daughter and comes to understand her daughter’s political ideals.”
AGENT Endeavor –Tom Strickler
UNAVAILABLE. BBC Films. Andy Harries producing.

GREETINGS FROM JERRY by John Killoran
“Jerry seems to have it all -money, women, and a ridiculously easy job as a greeting card writer -until a tiny mistake at work unravels his life. Having lost everything he had -but never earned -he's forced to confront who he really is and start again from scratch.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Jessica Matthews
AVAILABLE. Rick Yorn, Terra Firma Films producing.

GROWN MAN BUSINESS by Justin Britt-Gibson
“An older man who was a gangster in his youth returns to his neighborhood after a long absence to find the boys who murdered the son he abandoned years previous.”
AGENT The Gersh Agency –Sean Barclay
MANAGER Media Talent Group –Chris Davey
AVAILABLE. Winkler Films producing.

THE HERETIC by Javier Rodriguez
“The Roman Catholic Church asks a former inquisitor to assassinate rebel monk Martin Luther.”
AGENT The Gersh Agency –David Kopple, Greg Pedicin
MANAGER Mad Hatter Entertainment –Michael Connolly
AVAILABLE. Phoenix Pictures producing.

HOW TO BE GOOD by Cindy Chupack
“Based on the novel by Nick Hornby. A woman having second thoughts about her husband is pleased when he begins following a guru, but when her husband invites the guru to live with them, her point of view changes entirely.”
AGENT Endeavor –Adriana Alberghetti
UNAVAILABLE. Miramax. Laura Ziskin Productions producing.

IRON JACK by Johnny Rosenthal
“A renowned novelist’s comic quest for hidden treasure in the 1930s.”
AGENT Paradigm –Mark Ross
MANAGER Principato/Young Management –George Heller
UNAVAILABLE. Sony. Broken Road Productions producing.

MAN OF CLOTH by Josh Zetumer
“When an English minister's family (wife and youngest son) are unjustly punished and sent off to a prison colony in Australia, the minister and his oldest son travel to Australia to re-unite the family. Upon arrival though, the minister is informed of their death, and quickly vengeance is the only thing that can quiet his hurt.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Jason Burns
MANAGER Management 360 –Guymon Casady, Darin Friedman
AVAILABLE. Management 360 producing.

SLEEPING BEAUTY by Julia Leigh
“A haunting erotic fairy tale about Lucy, a student who drifts into prostitution and finds her niche as a woman who sleeps, drugged, in a ‘Sleeping Beauty chamber’while men do to her what she can‘t remember the next morning.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –BecSmith, Kassie Evashevski, JulienThuan
AVAILABLE.

THE SPELLMAN FILES by Bobby Florsheim & Josh Stolberg
“A family of private investigators use their gumshoe skills to crack cases and pry into one another’s personal lives.”
AGENT Florsheim: Endeavor –Adriana Alberghetti
Stolberg: United Talent Agency –Julien Thuan
UNAVAILABLE. Paramount. Laura Ziskin Productions producing.

STOP HUNTINGDON ANIMAL CRUELTY by Adam Sachs
“A lonely journalist finds love and inspiration in a quirky, unlikely manner –covering the misadventures of a young boy’s ‘protest’of an animal rights movement.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Mike Esola
MANAGER Energy Entertainment –Brooklyn Weaver, Adam Marshall
UNAVAILABLE. Lionsgate. Energy Entertainment, Broken Road Productions producing.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Beau Willimon
“Based on the novel by Charles Dickens. Set in Paris and London during the French Revolution, English aristocrat Sydney Carton sacrifices his own life for his unrequited love Lucie Manette and Frenchman Charles Darnay.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Chris Till, Bob Bookman
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. Spring Creek Productions, Appian Way Productions producing.

UNLOCKED by Peter O’Brien
“A female CIA interrogator is duped into getting a terrorist to provide key information to the wrong side, thrusting her into the middle of a plot to plan a devastating biological attack in London.”
AGENT Original Artists –Jordan Bayer
MANAGER Brillstein Entertainment Partners –Margaret Riley
AVAILABLE. Rainmaker Films (Georgina Townsley, Paul Goldin), Di Bonaventura Pictures producing.

WHAT WOULD KENNY DO? by Chris Baldi
“A seventeen-year-old high school kid meets a ‘hologram’of himself at thirty-seven-years-old and benefits from their friendship.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Mike Esola, Ava Greenfield
MANAGER Abstract Entertainment –Josh Adler, Michael Goldberg
UNAVAILABLE. United Artists. Winkler Films producing.

THE ZERO by Stephen Chin
“Based on the novel by Jess Walter. After a New York City policeman shoots himself in the head following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he is assigned to work for a shadowy agency at ‘Ground Zero’and quickly finds himself drawn into a sinister government plot.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Michael Eisner, Carolyn Sivitz, Cliff Roberts
MANAGER Industry Entertainment –Rosalie Swedlin, Jess Rosenthal
AVAILABLE. John Wells, Blumhouseproducing.

[4 votes]

47 RONIN by Chris Morgan
“Forty-seven samurai seek vengeance upon a regional lord who is responsible for the death of their master.”
AGENT International Creative Management –Emile Gladstone
UNAVAILABLE. Universal. Stuber Productions, Walter Hamada producing.

BALLAD OF THE WHISKEY ROBBER by Rich Wilkes
“Based on the book by Julian Rubinstein.”
AGENT Endeavor –Tom Strickler
MANAGER Management 360 –Daniel Rappaport
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. Infinitum Nihil producing.

THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE DAMNED by Hanna Weg
“The tumultuous and doomed love affair of Jazz Age icons F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Shana Eddy, Keya Khayatian
UNAVAILABLE. The Film Department. FarFalla Films, Sandbar Pictures producing.

A BITTERSWEET LIFE by Mark L Smith
“A crime boss asks his trusted lieutenant to determine if his young mistress is having an affair (and to kill her and her lover if she is.) The lieutenant confirms the affair but, entranced by the girl, chooses to let them live. Discovering this, the crime boss orders the lieutenant killed, only he escapes and seeks vengeance.”
AGENT International Creative Management –Harley Copen
UNAVAILABLE. Fox Atomic. Shady Films producing.

BOBBIE SUE by Russell Sharman, Owen Egerton, & Chris Mass
“A hard charging female ambulance chaser becomes the face of a prestigious law firm when an important client is sued for sexual discrimination.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Jason Burns
MANAGER Untitled Entertainment –Jennifer Levine
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. De Line Pictures producing.

BOBISM by Ben Wexler
“A shy college student discovers that life in one thousand years will be based on his blog–and he has to stop aliens from the future who want him dead.”
AGENT Endeavor –Bryan Besser
UNAVAILABLE. MGM. Contrafilm producing.

DEADLINE by Soo Hugh
“A discredited journalist navigates dangerous politics to find a missing aid worker.”
AGENT Endeavor –Dawn Saltzman, David Karp
MANAGER Energy Entertainment –Brooklyn Weaver, Adam Marshall
AVAILABLE.

THE DEBT by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn
“Based on the Israeli film HaHov. Three Israeli Mossad agents discover that a war criminal is still alive and set out to pursue him.”
AGENT Goldman: Aitken Alexander Associates (UK)
Vaughn: Endeavor –Phil Raskind
MANAGER Vaughn: Brillstein Entertainment Partners –Naren Desai, Cynthia Pett-Dante
UNAVAILABLE. Miramax. MARV Films producing.

THE ENDS OF THE EARTH by Chris Terrio
“Based on a true story. The controversial love affair between an oil baron and his adopted daughter destroys the empire they built together.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Rowena Arguelles
AVAILABLE. Escape Artists producing.

HEARTSTOPPER by Dan Antoniazzi & Ben Shiffrin
“A romantic comedy, with a serial killer.”
AVAILABLE.

THE HOW-TO GUIDE FOR SAVING THE WORLD by Ben David Grabinski
“A loser discovers a book on how to stop an alien invasion and is thrust into action to stop a real one.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Aaron Hart, Cliff Roberts, Danny Greenberg
MANAGER Kaplan/PerroneEntertainment –Justin Killion, Sean Perrone
AVAILABLE. Barry Sonnenfeld producing.

I KILLED BUDDY CLOY by Nick Garrison & Chase Pletts
“When a terrible act of violence shatters Ray’s hum-drum existence, his sociopath uncle lures him down an absurd, vengeful path.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Aaron Hart, Ben Rowe, Jeff Gorin
AVAILABLE.

JAR CITY by Michael Ross
“Based on the film by Baltasar Kormakur. A police detective’s investigation of a murder leads to the uncovering of secrets in a small town.”
AGENT The Gersh Agency –David Kopple
UNAVAILABLE. Overture. Baltasar Kormakur producing.

A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY by Susan Walter
“A female clothing designer struggles to find love and success after turning thirty.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Michael Eisner, Ava Greenfield
MANAGER Untitled Entertainment –Jennifer Levine
AVAILABLE. Anonymous Content, Jennifer Levine producing.

THE MOST ANNOYING MAN IN THE WORLD by Kevin Kopelow & Heath Seifert
“A man travels across the country with his annoying brother in order to get to his own wedding.”
AGENT Endeavor –Bill Weinstein, David Karp
UNAVAILABLE. Walt Disney. Oops Doughnuts Productions producing.

MOTORCADE by Billy Ray
“The President of the United States and his motorcade are attacked during a visit to Los Angeles.”
AGENT International Creative Management –Bruce Kaufman
MANAGER Management 360 –Guymon Casady
UNAVAILABLE. Dreamworks. Parkes/MacDonald Productions producing.

THE MURDERER AMONG US by Lori Gambino
“Based on true events. Legendary filmmaker Fritz Lang contends with a mounting police investigation into the death of his first wife, the growing threat of the Third Reich, and a caustic relationship with his female collaborator; all leading to the production of the film M.”
MANAGER Luber-Roklin Entertainment –Stephen Crawford
AVAILABLE.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HELL by Brian McGreevy & Lee Shipman
“A gritty, contemporary retelling of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO set in the underworld of the Hell’s Kitchen Irish mob.”
AGENT Paradigm –Valarie Phillips, Trevor Astbury
MANAGER Mad Hatter Entertainment –Michael Connolly
AVAILABLE. Mad Hatter Entertainment producing.

SAMURAI by Fernley Phillips
“Set in Japan during the 150 Year War, a ronin out for justice teams up with a ninja and a green-eyed English boy to rid Japan of an evil Lord. Their partnership becomes the stuff of myth.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Jay Baker
MANAGER Energy Entertainment –Brooklyn Weaver
UNAVAILABLE. Fox Atomic. State Street Pictures producing.

THE SCAVENGERS by Nate Edelman
“Based on the play Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge. A ne’er-do-well Irish twentysomethingbecomes infamous when he commits a haphazard murder and catchesthe fancy of a brazen barmaid who, bored with her small town existence, sees him as the
rebel he always wanted to be and follows him on the run.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Rio Hernandez, Shana Eddy
MANAGERManage-ment–Dan Halstead
AVAILABLE.

SERIAL KILLER DAYS by Mark Carter
“A dark comedy blending stories of teen love and municipal corruption set against the backdrop of a town plagued by a serial killer that decides to profit the only way it can -by creating a festival and economy around the fact that they have a serial killer.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Rio Hernandez, Keya Khayatian
MANAGER New Wave Entertainment –Brad Mendelsohn
AVAILABLE. Hard C Productions producing.

SHERLOCK HOLMES by Tony Peckham
“A dark, sophisticated take on Sherlock Holmes and his trusted number two, Dr. Watson.”
AGENT William Morris Agency –Cliff Roberts
MANAGEMENT Anonymous Content –Michael Sugar, Bard Dorros
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. Silver Pictures, Wigram Productions, Lin Pictures producing.

SWINGLES by Jeff Roda
“After their best friends get engaged, a dedicated bachelor and a high-strung lawyer team up to help each other get dates by giving revealing insights into the opposite sex (thus inventing ‘swingling’) but complications ensue when they fall for each other.”
AGENT Endeavor –Lis Rowinski, Adriana Alberghetti
UNAVAILABLE. Paramount. MisherFilms producing.

‘TIL BETH DO US PART by Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg
“The friendship of two twentysomething men is put to the test when one of them becomes engaged.”
AGENT Creative Artists Agency –Todd Feldman, Greg McKnight
MANAGER Principato/Young Management –Dave Rosenthal, Paul Young
UNAVAILABLE. Warner Brothers. Principato/Young Management producing.

UNTITLED CHANNING TATUM PROJECT by Doug Jung
“A Los Angeles cop escorts a Korean gang leader back to South Korea. When the gang leader escapes, killing the cop's partner in the process, he teams with a young Korean gangster in a bloody pursuit of revenge that takes them through the dangerous and exotic underworld of Seoul.”
AGENT United Talent Agency –Charlie Ferraro, Barbara Dreyfus
MANAGER New Wave Entertainment –Brad Mendelsohn
UNAVAILABLE. Fox Atomic. Vertigo, Management 360 producing

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Twitter or subscribe via RSS.