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Could you imagine?
You conceive the story (based on a 1990 New Yorker article), work with a writer (Samy Burch) to pen the script, the film gets made and you have a release date. Awesome, good job! Then, the studio that picked it up looks at its financials for the year and says,…
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Can Hollywood Still Afford to Think Small?
As someone who spent much of my career in banking and law before finding a second act (hopefully) in screenwriting, I have a habit of looking at business news a little differently than most writers. The proposed merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. has generated exactly the reaction you would…
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Knicks Hollywood Ending – Game 4 (Photo by Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images/Reuters)
If this ‘shade tree’ screenwriter had submitted last night’s Knicks game as a script, a development executive might have sent it back with a note: “We do sports movies, not fantasies.” Down by twenty-nine, clawed back, down one. Seven seconds remaining. The World’s Most Famous Arena holding its collective breath.…
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The Business of Believability
For years, Hollywood chased scale. Bigger explosions. Bigger multi-verses. Bigger opening weekends. And somewhere along the way, many, if not most, films stopped feeling real. Emotionally real, that is. Audiences are sophisticated. That’s because human beings are hard-wired to understand stories; the beginning, middle and end of, well, everything. They…
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Why Place Matters
A misconception in modern screenwriting is that setting is merely backdrop. It isn’t. Audiences know when a writer understands the roads, the weather, the trees in the right season and, perhaps, the way a conversation can happen at the famous Roscoe Diner at six in the morning. Authentic places carry…
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What the Law Taught Me About Story
Oh no! Another lawyer trying to be a screenwriter. Movies, television, novels, and comic books—among other media—are popular because human beings are hardwired to consume and digest stories with clear beginnings, middles, and ends. The same process occurs when a lawyer meets a client – the job is to assess…
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After ‘Fade to Black’: When the Work Meets the Market
You finish a screenplay after months—maybe years. You’ve done your best. Your family members pat you on the back. Your friends are impressed. For a moment, you believe it. Then you show it to people who actually do this for a living. Oh my… Comments include: “The second act drags.”…
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A Lesson from My First “Hollywood Meeting”
Years ago, I attended a friend’s house party where I met a legitimate Hollywood producer. He had already produced several well-known films and would go on to produce a few more. Naturally, I mentioned that I was writing screenplays. One of them — Wolf Trap — caught his attention. He…
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The Long Game in Independent Film
People think writing the script is the hard part. It’s not. The hard part is getting it produced. For years, I’ve been developing a slate under Dreampool — Homegrown, Dutch Treat, The Coffeyville Two Step, and Wolf Trap. Different genres. Different tones. One common thread: they were written to be…