We’ll talk Twisters in a moment but first we have to remind everyone about the local tornado that’s hitting Scriptshadow this Friday: MEGA-SHOWDOWN. It’s a free online screenwriting contest. You send in your title, genre, logline, and first page and the ten best entries will go head-to-head this weekend. Your script needs to be finished because the winner will get a script review. Here’s how to enter…
What: Mega-Showdown (Online Feature Screenplay Contest)
What I need from you: Title, genre, logline, your first five pages
Optional: movie tagline, movie-crossover pitch
Contest Date: Friday, July 26th
Deadline: Thursday, July 25th, 10pm Pacific Time
Send to: entries should be sent to carsonreeves3@gmail.com
How: Include “MEGA” in the subject line
Price: Free
Onto the weekend!
As often happens on the weekend, Friday rolls around and I say, “I’ve got to go see this new movie!” And then ALL THE WORK I didn’t get done during the week rears its head, with script after script still to read, and I say, “Guess there will be no movie this weekend!”
MAYBE if Twisters had scored higher than 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, I would’ve found a way to get to The Grove. But one of my prerequisites for going to the theater is that the movie has to look like it’s offering SOMETHING new. And no matter how far you ducked your head in the cellar to avoid that whirling dervish of Glen Powell hype, this movie looked as formulaic as it gets.
Which is BAD when it comes to someone who’s spent thousands of hours of their life dissecting screenplays.
But it’s GOOD, as proven by the 80 million dollars Twisters took in this weekend, for the average moviegoer. I think a lot of us forget that the average person sees 1 or 2 movies a year at the theater. Those audiences don’t have any idea what formula is. Nor do they care.
So, if you know the 3-Act structure, you can write one of these big Hollywood films. And if you really want to separate yourselves from the pack, learn to execute the 3-Act structure INVISIBLY. What that means is, when the major story beats show up, they don’t announce themselves. “HERE’S THE INCITING INCIDENT!” “HERE’S THE FIRST ACT TURN!” “HERE’S THE CULMINATION OF MY HERO’S ARC!” Once you become an expert at delivering these big moments invisibly, you become a screenwriting gale-force (hey, I’m trying to stay on-theme here, work with me).
In fact, if there’s anything that the success of these reboots like Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, and Twisters has taught us, it’s that formula stands the test of time. I suspect that one of the reasons these gigantic ensemble franchises, like Marvel, like Fast and Furious, and like Star Wars, are starting to crumble is because they screw with a key ingredient in the screenplay formula, which is that they throw away the single protag in favor of 10 of them. So the audience doesn’t have that one person to relate to and connect with.
Let’s not forget that, as those franchises grew, like Marvel, they were utilizing the more traditional formula with small character counts. But they made a deal with the devil once they started including multiple superheroes in each movie. Cause you can’t go backwards after that. Not only does it mean that we don’t have that one character to connect with anymore. But the structure gets uncomfortably stretched out when you’re covering ten character storylines instead of one.
Ryan Coogler played the good soldier in Black Panther 2 but, every once in a while, he couldn’t contain how frustrated he was that Marvel was making him include characters like Iron Heart. The narrative had to go completely out of its way to get her into its story and that broke the formula. Once you break the formula, the formula stops working. You either have to commit to it or don’t use it at all. You can’t straddle the fence.
Another screenwriting win this week comes in the form of the 5 year old Bryan Cranston Showtime show, “Your Honor.” The show did middling numbers on the old-timey cable network. But now that it’s on Netflix, it’s doing INSANE numbers. How insane? On Nielson’s OVERALL ratings, it’s beating out The Boys and House of the Dragon.
If you remember, Cranston’s breakout show, Breaking Bad, didn’t initially have huge numbers on AMC. It was only once the show got to Netflix that it became this huge bonanza. So they’re obviously using the same strategy here. And it goes to show that how well a show is received has a lot to do with what network it’s on.
So, why is it a win for screenwriting? Because it’s a show with one of the better concepts of the last five years. A judge’s son hits and kills someone with his car. The judge then uses his power to protect him and cover it up. But problems arise when the victim turns out to be the son of a mob boss. That’s a really good premise for a show!
If only the execution was as good as that concept! I watched three episodes and the writing wasn’t as crisp as Breaking Bad. But, again, this is why concept is king. It can absolutely override average execution. Cause everybody is watching this show now even though the execution isn’t superb.
Speaking of Nielson ratings, there was another surprising placement on the list. Or, in this case, you could say non-placement. Not only did The Acolyte not make the Overall Top 10 in ratings. It didn’t even make the Originals Top 10! That’s straight-up embarrassing. Some of you might contest that. But if you’re honest with yourselves, there’s no way around it. This is a 180 million dollar show. That’s on par with Game of Thrones. To fall below Sweetooth, Mayor of Kingstown, and even America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, is a catastrophic failure.
Is that the hatch?? Wait a minute, does Qimir live on the Lost Island???
Look. We can talk all day about the failure of Star Wars shows. And I do. But between the ratings for this, Andor, Obi-Wan, Boba Fett, and Ahsoka, this is proof that Star Wars was not made for television. It doesn’t work without a) spectacle and b) giant stakes. People don’t care if two Star Wars characters who have minor conflict with each other are talking in a room. And that’s TV’s bread and butter – two people talking in a room. So, Acolyte may not only have doomed itself. It may have doomed Star Wars television for good.
As you all know, this week is not just Mega-Showdown mania but also the release of the biggest movie of the year: Deadpool vs. Wolverine. I just realized now I’m not going to be able to review this film because it debuts on the same day as Mega-Showdown. And Mega-Showdown is like Love Island. It lasts ten days. Actually, you know what? I can just review it in my newsletter. Yeah, I’ll do that!
I feel bad for the Deadpool team. They’re doing EVERYTHING they can to generate publicity, something Ryan Reynolds is a master of. But they’re doing it during the two wildest weeks in American political history. It’s hard to gain any media attention with the craziness that’s going on right now. So a lot of these Ryan and Hugh posts that would normally go viral are disappearing faster than a High School freshman after a Thanos snap.
It’ll be interesting to see how they adapt to this because, so far, in all the trailers, they’ve only been giving us the first act of the movie. There are said to be a lot of big cameos in the film. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started announcing some of those cameos this week in order to get SOME media traction.
As for my excitement level for the film, I’m at a 7 out of 10. There has been nothing in any of the trailers that’s gotten me dancing the Macarena on top of my bed. And the movie definitely has a weak link, which is the director, Shawn Levy. Shawn’s only directed one R-rated movie in his life (This is Where I Leave You). He cut his teeth on inoffensive material, like Night at the Museum and Cheaper by the Dozen. And he directed one of the worst movies I’ve seen in a while, in The Adam Project.
To expand on that, when you look at this trailer, you do not see “vision.” Sabertooth was one of my favorite comic book characters growing up and he just looked so vanilla here. I felt nothing when he was revealed.
So I’m not going to lie. I’m worried. But it’s still going to be better than 95% of the big studio movies this year. Without question that will be the case. The franchise has too many weapons at its disposal to fail. I just want it to live up to the hype. This is the kind of movie that could galvanize the moviegoing public. We need it to kick butt.
Anybody else worried?
Mega-Showdown.
Get those scripts in!
