Script Sales: New Line Cinema has STORIES I COULDN'T TELL..., Dimension grabs TH
January 30th, 2003
New Line Cinema's ChickFlicks has acquired feature rights to Bruce McIver's "Stories I Couldn't Tell While I Was a Pastor." The project came to ChickFlicks through "Frasier" co-stars Peri Gilpin and Jane Leeves, who will produce the film through their production company, Bristol Cities. Jim McGrath will adapt McIver's autobiography, in which he details his life as a young and progressive clergyman who's a widower and the father of a young daughter when he's assigned to the parish of a conservative Baptist church in Dallas.
HOLLYWOOD - Dimension Films has made a three-script pact with scribes Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender. The arrangement starts with the duo's comic pitch "The Man From Nantucket." Phillips will produce the trio. Deal comes after the writers turned in "The Golden Tux," a script they sold as a pitch. Pic, about a groom who hires a professional best man, is the first project bought for Phillips, whom Dimension expects to be its go-to guy for reasonably priced comedies.
The three-pic nonexclusive pact calls for the scribes to get co-producer credit on "Nantucket" and executive produce the second and third films. Each script is a mid-six-figure deal --impressive for a couple of guys who met while they were assistants at Creative Artists Agency. They left, signed with William Morris and begin selling scripts.
They are also writing a pilot script for Brad Grey Television, "Harold and Arnie," which is reminiscent of "Dumb and Dumber," only the protagonists are sixth graders.
NEW YORK - Warner Bros. and John Wells Prods. have optioned "Retribution," a first novel by former Florida Assistant State Attorney Jilliane P. Hoffman, in a high-six-figure deal. G.P. Putnam's Sons acquired publishing rights to "Retribution" as part of a two-book, $2 million deal. Putnam will publish the book early in 2004.
The story follows a female state attorney working on a case involving a sexual predator connected to a ferocious attack she suffered as a law student a decade earlier.
As an assistant state attorney from 1992-96, Hoffman worked as a felony prosecutor with experience in extraditions and domestic violence. She also was a legal adviser for the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement.
All of us creative types have things we're naturally good at, and things we've learned to do, and things we aren't that good at (yet). This creates a creative trap: when approaching a project, we often work on the part we understand best — the part that scares us least. So if you're good at plot, you write the plot first, and then fill in the characters later. If you're good at characters, you write up the characters and then feel your way towards a plot.
Everyone pursuing a screenwriting career will eventually realize this journey is not for the thin of skin or for those who cannot handle the emotional ups and downs this business brings. If you haven’t yet experienced the soul crushing disappointment of finally having written a script that goes into development, but it doesn’t make it to production and sits on a shelf, I don’t envy you. It’s happened to me a handful of times out of my nearly two dozen paid screenwriting assignments. Learn this early — there are no guarantees in the screenwriting game. You take your lumps, heal, and move on to the next screenplay and the next one.
I love Readers! Yes they are the gatekeepers to the Promised Land and like it or not they do have power. But just how much? Well, I’m here to show you. I got my hands on a classified document folks, the holy grail… An actual copy of a real STUDIO MEMO covering GUIDELINES for their READERS.
Scenes must have a reason to exist in your screenplay. Each scene must advance the plot forward through dialogue and/or visual storytelling. Characters’ journeys drive the script’s narrative, and each scene must steer their journey forward. Although some scenes might not even contain any characters, these scenes must still provide information about your plot, as well as your characters’ lives and actions. There is no set rule as to how many lines, paragraphs, or pages constitute a scene.
The following has nothing to do with wet t-shirts. This entry is actually about screenwriting contests - a subject with little marquee value. One of the most popular category of questions that I find in my e-mail box is about screenwriting contests. As I say over and over, I believe that most are a waste of energy and entry fee. Some - like the Nicholl and Disney Fellowships - are very reputable and have launched a few Hollywood careers. Regardless of how reputable any contest might be, the screening process for most seems tenuous. Low fees for contest readers and a bulk of scripts guarantees a sloppy vetting system.
"Lowtide" writer, director and producer Kevin McMullin has sold his short story "Bomb" and is tabbed to write the script for "low seven figures" and "Gladiator" director Ridley Scott is attached to Direct. According to reports, 20th Century beat out studios Apple, Netflix, Sony, and Warner Bros.
Books are the fastest and easiest way you can learn from an expert. In screenwriting, it’s no different. Some of the best screenwriters and those who have mastered the craft, have created countless books trying to encapsulate all they’ve learned in their work. If you’re a new screenwriter and looking to improve or simply to learn how to create better scripts, these three books will help you out.
Everybody has a perspective. Everybody in your scene has a reason. They have their own voice, their own identity, their own history… But if you don’t know who everybody is and why they’re there, why they’re feeling what they’re feeling and why they’re doing what they’re doing, then you’re in trouble.
What is a successful second act? One that keeps the reader engaged, moves the story forward, and successfully delivers it into the falling action; that being the third act climax and the denouement. A bad screenplay has a second act that simply doesn't keep the narrative trajectory in place and thus the spine of the story sags; meaning rising tension and conflict is not taking place.