Genre: Sci-Fi
Premise: (from IMDB) When the creator of a virtual reality world called the OASIS dies, he releases a video in which he challenges all OASIS users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune.
About: Time to answer that question I asked a couple of months ago. Which movie will do better at the box office? A Wrinkle In Time or Ready Player One? RP1 took in 53 million this weekend. If you look at percentage return on investment when compared to A Wrinkle in Time, (Wrinkle’s budget was 100 million, RP1’s was 175 million), Wrinkle actually fared better on its opening weekend. We called that movie a bomb. So this has to be a bomb too, right? I would say that RP1 isn’t so much a bomb as it is a grenade. The reason being that RP1 is going to do way better internationally than A Wrinkle in Time, which should make the film profitable. Wrinkle in Time, however, will be a loss for Disney. That’s not to say RP1 hasn’t used some trickery to make its less-than-stellar opening weekend look better than it is. RP1 opened a day earlier than usual (on Thursday) AND got an extra day after the weekend with the holiday (Monday). This helped them to claim a “weekend” haul with two extra days’ worth of money lumped in. Looks like the Easter Bunny isn’t the only one hiding a few extra eggs around the yard. The reality is, when WB did their pre-film projections, they were banking on a 75 million dollar opening weekend AT LEAST. And if you look at it that way, RP1 is a financial disappointment. But is the movie actually good!? That’s the ultimate question. Let’s find out.
Writer: Zak Penn (based on the novel by Ernest Cline)
Details: 140 minutes

I’d heard some disappointing things leading up to the release of Ready Player One, the most frustrating of which was that Steven Spielberg went off and shot The Post while Ready Player One was being edited.

Some of you may see this as a non-story. But to me it’s everything. One of the biggest issues with Ready Player One is that it’s all over the place. And because its subject matter made it particularly susceptible to being “all over the place,” it needed someone who was 100% committed to keep it on track. If Spielberg was shooting The Post while Ready Player One was being edited, it meant he was also involved in pre-production and casting and scheduling and meetings for The Post while Ready Player One was being shot. His mind was in two places at once. Which is why this movie feels so scattered.

Problem #2: Spielberg gave a Ready Player One promotional interview where he was asked about getting the rights to all the properties in the rights-heavy film. Spielberg responded with a befuddled, “Oh yeah, I didn’t deal with that. The studio people were in charge of all that.” I’m sorry but whhhhuuuhhh did you just say? Shouldn’t you be the one leading the charge on this!? Not just because getting the rights was everything with Ready Player One, but because you’re STEVEN SPIELBERG and can get anything you want.

Because here’s the thing. The novel for Ready Player One was all about Halliday’s love for the 80s. I know nostalgia is controversial right now but the 80s were the heartbeat of this book. Halliday built the Oasis as a way to live forever as a child in that decade. So there was thematic unity – From Pac-Man to Back to the Future to Tears for Fears – in every pop culture reference. By contrast, this movie is a mish-mash of whatever the hell pop culture references you can think of over the last 40 years, which contributes to the pervasive messiness. I mean Iron Giant missed the 80s by a decade! Why is he featured in this??? It’s so random.

A more dedicated director would’ve put his foot down and said, “No. It doesn’t make sense if it’s ALL pop culture. It needs to be pop culture from ONE SPECIFIC time period.” There’s some SUPER GEEKY screenwriting history connected to all this. Zak Penn, the screenwriter who adapted RP1, is forever enshrined in screenwriting lore for losing his shit after his breakthrough spec, The Last Action Hero, was rewritten to expand the 80s pop culture movie references Penn had based the movie on, to movie references from every era. I’m getting off track though, just like Spielberg! So let’s loop back.

For those of you who don’t know anything about Ready Player One, it’s set in 2040-something, and focuses on a world that spends the majority of its time inside the “Oasis,” basically the virtual version of the internet.

Wade (or “Parzival” as he’s known in the Oasis), our plucky teenaged hero, is one of millions who are hunting for three keys inside the Oasis by its since-deceased creator, Roy Hallidy. Hallidy wrote into his will that whoever finds these three keys will inherit the Oasis itself, which is worth in the neighborhood of a trillion dollars.

With his two best friends, the super-hot Art3mis and the super-cool “H,” Parzival must hold off the evil organization, IOI, from finding the three eggs first and turning the Oasis into a heartless money-thieving conglomerate.

So Spielberg didn’t get the big picture stuff right. What bout the characters? Let’s start with Parzival. In the book, Parzival was a walking nobody in the real world. So when he gets that first key and becomes an instant Oasis celebrity? It felt like something huge had happened. Imagine being no one and then becoming the most famous person in the world overnight. The book documented that transition beautifully. In the movie, this was lost. Parzival’s introduction is used strictly to dish out narration and set up the rules of the universe. As a result, we never feel like we know Parzival. And that’s been reflected in how people have reacted to Tye Sheridan’s performance. It’s all very polite. “Yeah, it was okay.” And that’s because they botched the setup for this kid.

One of the oldest screenwriting tips in the book is to “establish your character’s normal world before throwing them into the crazy world.” Look at one of the inspirations for Parzival, Marty McFly. In Back to the Future, we see Marty McFly at school, we experience his aspirations to become a rock star, we get to know his girlfriend, we hang out with his weirdo family. We see HIS NORMAL LIFE. Therefore, when he’s thrown into the crazy world (the past), we have something to contrast it with.

That never happens here. Parzival’s “normal life” is limited to a quick slide down a pole and a giant glob of narration that has nothing to do with him. We’re into the Oasis before I even know if Parzival goes to school or this is summer break or what he does with his average day. This is an admittedly different situation from Back to the Future. An argument can be made that the Oasis IS the “normal world” of this reality. But if I was guiding this project, I would’ve established more of Percival’s real world life first. I never truly connected with him and I have a sneaking feeling that was the reason.

Where Ready Player One really falls apart, however, is in the second half of its second act. The characters are all having realizations that none of us are in on (the equivalent of: “Halladay’s pocket protector wasn’t protecting his pocket. It was protecting the planet.” “So you’re saying we need to go to the Zanzibar System?” “Yes!”), the muddy rule-set of the mythology is getting muddier with every scene (If a bad guy dies in the Oasis, his perfectly healthy real-world counterpart has to be replaced with someone else??), and a climax is birthed out of thin air (Uh, I guess we’re all trying to stop the bad guys from playing Atari 2600!).

It’s a shit show.

And looking back on it, Spielberg’s visualization of the Oasis itself is a metaphor for the screenplay. The virtual world of the Oasis is dark, muddy, and unflattering. Which is exactly how this story is treated. You could never quite see what was going on through all the haze. I mean that opening car race scene, which I featured in my screenplay review as having the potential to be legendary, was a giant piece of Transformers-inspired tomfoolery. You never knew what was going on because the camera was always zipping between every street corner, wrecking ball, giant gorilla, and T-Rex it could find. There isn’t a SINGLE CLEAN SHOT of the action. And it made me sad. Steven Spielberg taking his directing cues from Michael Bay? What has this world come to?

There’s a moment deep in the script where our five heroic avatars meet each other in the real world for the first time. In an INSTANT the movie came alive. Gone were upside-down gravi-dancing set pieces and in their place were simple medium and close up shots of REAL PEOPLE. Who were playing off each other. Who were having REAL MOMENTS. You could feel how comfortable the director was. It was like, “Where the hell has this been all movie?”

I get it, guys. It’s a movie that takes place in a virtual world. You can’t have a ton of real-world scenes. But the reason those scenes popped was because they were based in simplicity. There was no nonsense going on. It was pure character-driven storytelling. And that’s what we needed more of in the movie, whether that meant more real-world scenes, or applying that ‘simple’ mindset to the Oasis.

I’ll finish off with something that’s going to nip your belt buckle but who am I if I’m not being honest? This is trigger-bait folks. Read at your own risk. Ready? I didn’t like the Shining sequence. This is the sequence everybody’s talking about and I know firsthand people loved it cause audience members were going crazy for it in my screening.

But to me the sequence confirmed why Spielberg doesn’t get the material. The Shining, while released in 1980, is considered by everyone to be a 70s movie. That’s how it identifies. And it’s not what Cline had in mind at all (the sequence wasn’t in the book). Because I’ve read a million articles on Spielberg, I know he’s a Kubrik fanatic, and that this sequence had nothing to do with what was right for the movie, and everything to do with a director who selfishly wanted to recreate one of his directing crush’s famous sets.

Don’t get me wrong. The sequence works in a vacuum. But it doesn’t fit into the whole. It contributes to the “anything goes” mentality where nothing in this film needs to connect, either logically or thematically. The Shining in the same movie as Iron Giant? What??

So is the movie bad? No, the movie isn’t bad. What it is is average. It has a few moments. The stuff in the real world where you could actually see people interacting and expressing emotion was when the film worked best. But the Oasis should’ve been crisper. And cooler! Parzival should’ve been better-constructed. And the screenplay needed to be simplified. The more I think about this, the more I think it should’ve been a TV series. It needed time to breathe and the feature format wasn’t going to allow that. There were a couple of fun scenes here. But Ready Player One was a mess in the Scriptshadow notebook.

[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the price of admission
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned: Establish your “normal” world before sending your hero and the audience into the “crazy” world.

You asked for it, you got it. Another post for you to update each other on your 2018 screenwriting goals. Have you been writing every day? If not, tsk tsk! Even if it’s just one page – ONE PAGE! – you must write every single day. Why? Because it’s not the number of pages you write that matters. It’s that you establish a routine. For each day you don’t write, it becomes easier not to write the next day, and the day after. By writing every day, you establish a routine, which ensures that you’ll be more productive in the long run.

It’s a three-day weekend so you won’t be seeing me until Tuesday. But that’s when I drop my juicy Ready Player One review. It’s going to be the review of the CENTURY!!! Well, that’s not true. It’ll just question whether Spielberg’s still got it. Can’t wait to share. See ya then…

Genre: Western
Premise: When his wife is murdered and baby taken, a young Preacher in 1880’s Colorado forsakes his calling to become a bounty hunter and get his son back.
Why You Should Read: This script is a cross between Taken and the Dark Knight but set in the old west. Authentic to its time period, it has a grittiness that is prevalent with this genre. Westerns are glorious to look at on the big screen, with sweeping panoramas and intimate close-ups. The stories are personal but feel larger than life. At its heart, On the Sparrow is a tale of two pathways. The story of a father desperate to get his baby boy back and fighting the darkness that descends on him and the villainous couple that ripped his family apart and seeks to settle down and live a good life resulting from the fruits of their wickedness. In the end the pathways must cross.
Writer: RW Hahn
Details: 121 pages (this is a slightly updated draft from the one that appeared on Amateur Offerings)

I’ll be honest. I had a long week. I’m tired. My brain is functioning at quarter-capacity. All I wanted to do was get to Friday, head up to the Arclight on Sunset, zone out, and watch some Ready Player One.

So when I saw that my last remaining duty before the week ended was to read a 121 page (121 page!!) Western that started with a horse drawn cart rolling through the Colorado countryside, I wasn’t exactly yelling from the rooftops, “YAHHOOOO!!! I LOVE MY LIIIIIIIFE!”

I’m hoping that slow-rolling cart isn’t a metaphor for this script. Let’s take a look.

Foster and Sassy are a couple of criminals who come across a Reverend and his wife horse-carting their way to the town of Dolor. They kill them both and pose as them in town. There they meet the local young handsome Reverend, Sparrow, and his wife, Marjorie. After Sparrow gives a sermon, he entrusts Foster (whom he believes is the real Reverend) to take the collection money to another town.

Foster and Sassy are greedy, however. When Sparrow goes hunting with friends the next day, Foster kills Marjorie and Sassy steals their young son. They set fire to the house and leave. Sparrow comes home as the house is still burning, runs inside, and in the process gets third degree burns all over his body.

With the money they’ve stolen, Foster and Sassy hightail it off to another town, buy a ranch, and start living the good life. It takes Sparrow a good two years to recover from his injuries. When he rips off the gauze, he looks like a monster. But he doesn’t care. All he wants is to find the people who killed his wife and stole his son.

So Sparrow gets deputized and decides he’s going to start, I guess, hunting down random killers first? Or maybe he hopes that by hunting down killers, he’ll come across the people who killed his wife. Either way, he spends the next 12 years (12 YEARS!!!) bringing in random baddies until, at the very end, he finds and has an encounter with Foster.

Okay.

I’m going to try and keep myself from getting angry as I break this down because I don’t think Randy was interested in writing the script that I wanted to read.

Still, I think this script has major structural flaws.

Let’s start with the obvious one. Go up and re-read the logline. I want you to imagine what page (or minute mark) you would expect our main character – Sparrow – to start the journey promised in that logline on. What would be an acceptable spot for you. Page 15? Page 25? Page 30? Page 40?

Well in this script, Sparrow doesn’t get deputized to go out on his mission until page 60!!!! That means that we have to endure 60 pages before the script’s main engine is ignited. I’m sorry but that’s unacceptable. And, to be honest, it’s a little bit insulting. All I do on this site is tell you guys over and over to KEEP YOUR STORY MOVING. Keep it moving. Keep it going! In fact, whatever you think is an acceptable pace for “keeping it going?” Go twice as fast as that. Readers get bored fast. Faster than ever these days. And to think that this most basic of structural tenets was ignored. I don’t know. I feel like I’m talking to myself sometimes. Waiting til page 60 to start the journey?? Come on. This is a Screenwriting 101 mistake here.

And then!

Once Sparrow actually does go out on his journey, he doesn’t even go after Foster! He just goes after random criminals who we know nothing about and therefore don’t care if they’re brought to justice or not.

As I got towards the end of this, I began to think maybe this was the whole point of the movie. Like Zodiac. It was more about a person going crazy in the search for revenge than it was the actual revenge? [Deeeeeep breeeeeaaaath]. I don’t know though, man. With that film it didn’t matter as much because our hero was a reporter with no personal connection to the killer. But in Sparrow our hero is the one whose wife is murdered. So I think we want to see him find and get his revenge. It needs to be more straight-forward.

I mean I could honestly make the argument that nothing happens here between the pages of 20 and 100. It’s just characters diddling around. A full decade passes of this. And it’s not interesting. I want to see my characters going after things (being active) that matter (going after the person who killed your wife, not randos who shot the local bartender).

I have a gut feeling that Randy became so enamored with the visual of this character – a sheriff whose entire face was burned off – that he lost sight of the simple and basic practices that build a good story. And that visual wasn’t even utilized properly. Had Sparrow been vain, or had he knowingly used his looks to manipulate others and get ahead in his profession, then losing those looks means something. If you burn him just to burn him, it’s an empty transformation.

Look, this is a good logline. It won a lot of people over. And that’s because it promises an exciting movie! This iteration that I read, though, is the opposite of exciting. To fix that, Sparrow needs to go off looking for Foster on page 25, not 60. He shouldn’t go on any detours to kill other people. His focus should always be on finding Foster. The timeline should be under a month, as opposed to 10 years long. This should be a 90 page script. Not a paragraph longer. And that’s that.

I don’t see the point in overcomplicating this narrative. It’s a simple story.

Script link: On The Sparrow

[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned: I thought this was a known thing here on Scriptshadow but it’s obviously not so I’m going to repeat it for today’s What I Learned. The main journey that your character goes on – the one that’s promised in your logline – needs to start immediately after Act 1. Which is between pages 25-30. It should never start on page 60.

P.S. For the people who voted for this, I want to know why the 60 page setup didn’t bother you. It could lead to some interesting discussions about structure. So please give your thoughts in the comments. Thank you!

How does “Action” rank?

Are you trying to sell a script? Do you want to make the Black List? Then today’s article is for you! I’ll be going through each and every major genre and break down how likely it is to sell a script or make the Black List in that genre. This is not meant as an end-all be-all determination for what you should write. There is no 100% sure-fire formula for writing a script. But you do want to load the odds up in your favor. All genres will be rated on a scale of 1-10 in the two categories, 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. Spec sales are hard to come by so don’t expect any 9s or 10s in that category. But you can still sell a spec in the right genre. Let’s take a look…

Genre: Super-Hero
Script Sale: 1 out of 10
Black List: 1 out of 10
Comps: Black Panther, The Dark Knight, Avengers: Infinity War
Breakdown: There’s no point writing in this genre unless you’re adapting from something else that was successful in another medium. I suppose if you did an action-comedy type thing with it, like Will Smith’s “Hancock,” that could work. But generally speaking, the super-hero genre is strictly an IP zone. Screenwriters should steer clear of it at all costs.

Genre: Contained Thriller (Horror)
Script Sale: 8 out of 10
Black List: 5 out of 10
Comps: 10 Cloverfield Lane, Get Out, Saw
Breakdown: Welcome, my friends, to the most lucrative genre for spec screenwriters and filmmakers. Contained horror is cheap to produce. Horror audiences don’t require much from the genre other than to be scared. You’re not going to get a million dollar paycheck writing in this genre. But your chances of selling one of these is better than in any other genre on this list.

Genre: Contained Thriller (Sci-Fi)
Script Sale: 7 out of 10
Black List: 3 out of 10
Comps: Alien, Ex-Machina, Primer
Breakdown: These movies don’t do as well at the box office as horror, which is why their numbers are lower. They’re also more expensive to make than contained horror. Your best bet is probably to mix the two, like they did with the original Alien.

Genre: Romantic Comedy
Script Sale: 3 out of 10
Black List: 4 out of 10
Comps: How to be Single, Love Simon
Breakdown: This is how bad the romantic comedy has gotten. One of the biggest romantic comedies of 2016, “Why Him,” didn’t even focus on the romantic relationship. It focused on the hero and the romantic interest’s father. With that said, I think I saw a romantic comedy on last year’s Black List for the first time in a long time (Daddio?). So maybe there’s hope. Here’s my take on the romantic comedy. Someone needs to do with the rom-com what Christopher Nolan did with the super-hero movie when he made The Dark Knight. Cut out all this goofy wish- fulfillment nonsense and make it more realistic.

Genre: Action-Comedy
Script Sale: 7 out of 10
Black List: 2 out of 10
Comps: The Spy Who Dumped Me, Central Intelligence
Breakdown: I consider the Action-Comedy to be a hidden gem for spec sales. Hollywood has always loved making these movies. Unlike the straight comedy, which has fallen in recent years because it doesn’t travel well, any sort of action plays well to international audiences. So Hollywood has shifted their priorities over to this genre from the comedy, despite the fact that they cost more to make.

Genre: Western
Script Sale: 5 out of 10
Black List: 7 out of 10
Comps: Bone Tomahawk, Hostiles, The Homesman
Breakdown: This is a tricky genre. At first glance, it seems antiquated. Yet they continue to make 3-4 Westerns a year. I think the reason for this is that directors love to shoot them and actors love to be in them. There’s something inexorably cool about playing a gunslinger or getting that classic wide shot of the old country. You just can’t go crazy when you write these. Nobody’s making big budget Westerns anymore. The ideal setup would be something like “High Noon” where everything is localized (aka “cheap”).

Genre: Period (War)
Script Sale: 6 out of 10
Black List: 7 out of 10
Comps: Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, Dunkirk, Hacksaw Ridge
Breakdown: When I say “Period War,” I mean any war dating back 2000 years. From the 300 Spartans to the Iraq War. War always sells. There’s something visceral about it that speaks to audiences on multiple levels. But these days, your war film MUST BE BASED ON A TRUE STORY. Otherwise don’t bother. The only reason this gets a 6 on the “sale” rating instead of a “7” is because these movies are expensive to make. So studios have to think a little harder before pulling the trigger.

Genre: Zombie
Script Sale: 5 out of 10
Black List: 3 out of 10
Comps: Train to Busan, Maggie, 28 Days Later
Breakdown: Five years ago, the zombie genre would’ve been a good 2-3 points higher. But the genre is currently in an ice age. Luckily, ice ages only last five years in Hollywood, which means it’s only a matter of time before the zombie pic comes back to life! You like that? “Back to life?” Ah, I kill myself. Then I re-animate myself. Just remember to always ALWAYS try to reinvent this genre. If your zombie script is anything like what I’ve seen in the past, I’m throwing it in the trash. And so is every other reader in Hollywood.

Genre: Romance
Script Sale: 3 out of 10
Black List: 5 out of 10
Comps: Call Me By Your Name, The Notebook, Dear John
Breakdown: This is the least glorious of the genres. Nobody remembers who wrote or directed these movies. But there’s definitely a market for them. Unfortunately, for right now, that market is dominated by Nicholas Sparks, and, to a lesser extent, John Green. It’s not a spec-friendly genre, which means you should probably steer clear of it. Self-publish a novel instead.

Genre: Comedy
Script Sale: 5 out of 10
Black List: 3 out of 10
Comps: Father Figures, Daddy’s Home, Bad Moms
Breakdown: Like I said above, if you’re going to write a comedy, I’d suggest writing an action-comedy. But you can still sell a straight comedy. Right now, the trend for a sale has three branches. 1) Make it female-centric. 2) Go with an age old situation that has built-in conflict (a step-father being forced to co-parent with the real father). Or 3) Pick whatever the latest trendy tech thing is and write about that (those two Uber comedy spec sales from a couple of years ago are an example). The nice thing about this genre is that the big name comedy actors have cut their fees, so comedies can be made for cheap. That means there are still sales to be had!

Genre: Biopic
Script Sale: 8 out of 10
Black List: 10 out of 10
Comps: The Founder, Catch Me If You Can, The Imitation Game
Breakdown: This genre is right up there with Contained Horror as the most lucrative on the list. The reason being that this is the last outlet where movie stars can still be movie stars, as opposed to cogs in a machine. Also, as long as you can spell, your biopic will make The Black List.

Genre: Period
Script Sale: 1 out of 10
Black List: 5 out of 10
Comps: The Other Boleyn Girl, Victoria and Abdul, Love in the Time of Cholera, Tulip Fever, The Danish Girl
Breakdown: If you’re writing a period piece that isn’t associated with war, do so at your own risk. These movies make less than no money. Even the ones that get a boost from Oscar noms rarely do well. On the plus side, these movies do okay in the UK, on the Black List, and in the Nicholl Competition. So if you love these stories, there are outlets for you. But these are some of the toughest pitches in the business. You’ll get 1/1000 of the read requests than had you written a contained horror film. If I was a producer and someone pitched me a story set in the 17th century where an artist and his lover invested in the tulip business, I might just shoot myself right there.

Genre: Sci-Fi Fantasy
Script Sale: 0 out of 10
Black List: 1 out of 10
Comps: Star Wars, Jupiter Ascending, Avatar
Breakdown: This genre is a death-trap. It’s the most expensive genre to produce. The sprawling nature of these stories and their enormous character counts are the exact opposite of what screenplays do well. Don’t bother defending why the sci-fi fantasy script you’re working on is different. This is the one genre I can say, without knowing anything about your script, that if you’re working on one, STOP. You’re wasting your time.

Genre: Horror
Script Sale: 7 out of 10
Black List: 4 out of 10
Comps: It, The Conjuring
Breakdown: With the emergence of “It,” the straight horror film (not contained) is harder to gauge. Hollywood hates spending money on horror since the formula has proven for so long that you don’t need to. But 700 million worldwide is a quick way to change opinions. We also have to remember that these bigger budget horror flicks are based on IP. With that said, I think a good horror script, regardless of whether it’s contained or not, can sell. I also think big-budget horror is about to blow up. So better get on the trend early than late.

Genre: Action
Script Sale: 7 out of 10
Black List: 6 out of 10
Comps: John Wick, The Fast and the Furious, The Bourne Identity, Taken, Die Hard
Breakdown: Straight action plays EVERYWHERE. Everywhere, guys. Nobody needs subtitles for it. So studios are desperate to find that next great action property. They usually get it from books (fifth-tier versions of James Bond). But this is one of the few genres still open for spec screenwriters to create something on their own. They’re expensive to produce, so a sale isn’t guaranteed. But I don’t see this genre dying out… well… ever.

Genre: Drama
Script Sale: 3 out of 10
Black List: 7 out of 10
Comps: Three Billboards, Suburbicon, Room
Breakdown: This is a unique category because on the surface, you don’t want to mess with it. The genre requires more skill to pull off than any other genre. You have to rely strictly on great storytelling and strong character development, which most writers don’t master for a decade or more. A bad drama script is a script reader’s nightmare. Wrought with melodrama and cliched story beats, it’s the reading equivalent of Hell. With that said, these movies win studios Oscars. So studios are always going to be intrigued by them. It’s for this reason that if you write a drama, your aim should be to make The Black List and get the film made as opposed to secure that big flashy script sale.

Genre: Sci-Fi
Script Sale: 5 out of 10
Black List: 3 out of 10
Comps: The Matrix, Source Code, The Martian, Inception, Ready Player One
Breakdown: Straight sci-fi is fun but it’s such an expensive genre and it’s competing directly with such a juggernaut of a genre (Super-Hero) that it’s hard to get a studio to bite on non-IP material. The Black List doesn’t really like them either. If you like sci-fi, I’d write something in the time-travel or “time-travel adjacent” genre (like Source Code), where you can create a big premise for a smaller price tag.

Genre: Faith-Based
Script Sale: 6.5 out of 10
Black List: Negative 8 out of 10
Comps: Heaven is For Real, The Shack, I Can Only Imagine
Breakdown: I don’t know much about this genre. But I do know the faith-based market is coming of age. And if you’re a screenwriter looking to make a living, there’s no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of that. It seems like a lot of these movies are based on books, but as long as you convey a positive message in your script about doing the right thing, and wrap it inside a good idea, there’s no reason to think you can’t sell your screenplay. Also, if a writer can figure out how to subvert the overtly melodramatic tendencies of these scripts so that they can cross over, they’ll become extremely wealthy. Unfortunately, the Black List’s “No Conservatives Allowed” policy means you’ll have to wave goodbye to any Black List aspirations.

Genre: Fantasy
Script Sale: 1 out of 10
Black List: 5 out of 10
Comps: The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The BFG
Breakdown: The only reason this genre isn’t at zero is that it’s a little more accessible than sci-fi fantasy. Still, this genre is built exclusively off of IP, usually books. I occasionally see fantasy scripts hit the Black List (A Monster Calls) but if you have a great fantasy idea, it’s highly advisable that you write a novel instead of a screenplay.

Genre: Action-Adventure
Script Sale: 4.5 out of 10
Black List: 2 out of 10
Comps: Indiana Jones, Jurassic World, Pirates of the Caribbean
Breakdown: This is a weird genre because it SHOULD be a great outlet for spec screenwriters. It seems to be open for new ideas. And the family-friendly aspect of the genre means that they’ll play to anybody. That’s the main reason a movie as average as Jurassic World can make 1.6 billion dollars. I suppose that when movies in a genre start making that much money, studios are more likely to look for previous success in other mediums than buy a spec. Still, something tells me that a writer who comes up with the next Indiana Jones could quickly find themselves on the front page of the trades.

Genre: Dark Comedy
Script Sale: 2 out of 10
Black List: 8 out of 10
Comps: Ingrid Goes West, Me Earl and The Dying Girl, Little Miss Sunshine, Fargo
Breakdown: There’s a lot of crossover with Drama here. Dark Comedy is a really tough genre to master. But, when done well, it could put you in the Oscar race. So it can’t be dismissed completely. With that said, these movies rarely make money. Even the good ones. There’s one every five years that becomes a mega-hit but other than that, there are hundreds of dark comedies that are never seen or heard from again. The good news is, the Black List looooooves dark comedies. It’s probably their favorite genre behind biopics. And if your script makes the list, there’s a 50/50 chance it’ll get made into a movie.

Genre: Straight Thriller
Script Sale: 6 out of 10
Black List: 3 out of 10
Comps: Gone Girl, Buried, The Girl on the Train, The Circle, The Gift
Breakdown: There’s some natural crossover between Thrillers and Action-Thrillers. So to distinguish the two, I see straight Thrillers as more real-world based and suspense-driven. In the past we may have called them Hithcockian Thrillers. These movies aren’t as lucrative as horror, but there’s a market for them for sure. If you’re going to write a thriller, try to have a really clever concept and one great twist. Those two things make these reads a lot more memorable, which increases the chance of a sale exponentially.

Genre: Family
Script Sale: 5 out of 10
Black List: 1 out of 10
Comps: Night at the Museum, Goosebumps, The Goonies
Breakdown: The reason this gets a slight nod on the script sale chart over the more mature Action-Adventure is because I know that Hollywood has been spending 25 years now looking for the next Goonies. Which means they’re willing to buy good family scripts. And let’s not forget that Night at the Museum was a spec sale as well. And that spawned a huge franchise.

Genre: Musicals
Script Sale: 2 out of 10
Black List: 6 out of 10
Comps: La La Land, The Greatest Showman, A Star is Born
Breakdown: The simple fact is that these movies tend to be either director driven (La La Land) or studio driven (The Greatest Showman). They rarely, if ever, are driven by a screenwriter. And the reason for that is simple: it’s hard to imagine songs on a page. With that said, the few times I’ve seen this work are when a writer tries something really zany. Like a zombie musical. Or a post-apocalyptic musical. So it can be done. It’s just rare.

There you have it. Now get to arguing in the comments!

Carson does feature screenplay consultations, TV Pilot Consultations, and logline consultations. Logline consultations go for $25 a piece or 5 for $75. You get a 1-10 rating, a 200-word evaluation, and a rewrite of the logline. I highly recommend not writing a script unless it gets a 7 or above. All logline consultations come with an 8 hour turnaround. If you’re interested in any sort of consultation package, e-mail Carsonreeves1@gmail.com with the subject line: CONSULTATION. Don’t start writing a script or sending a script out blind. Let Scriptshadow help you get it in shape first!

Genre: Mystery?
Premise: (from Black List) A writer struggling to crack her second novel starts to lose her sense of reality as the book bleeds into her life…and her life bleeds back.
About: This script made last year’s Black List just as writer Elaina Perpelitt’s career started to take off. She got a staff writing job on the Amazon show “Absentia” and wrote two episodes. That show is about a woman who goes missing and then ten years later, after her family has moved on, reappears inside a tank of water. It’s got a pretty good pilot episode so check it out. I’m guessing that this script was used as a sample to win her a job on that show. By the way, this is one of the best ways to get your career started as a writer. Write an original screenplay that’s not exactly marketable, but is a good indication of your voice. Lots of writers get staffed this way.
Writer: Elaina Perpelitt
Details: 115 pages

A post-Star Wars role for Daisy Ridley to escape getting pigeonholed?

Is the curse true? Is writing about writing boring? I don’t know. The most successful writer of all time, Stephen King, seems to be doing okay with that setup, using it for, oh, I don’t know, every story he’s written! But a writer in a novel is different from a writer in a movie. In movies, things need to be visual. More movement is required (move-ment = move-ie). So it’s a trickier balancing act. Let’s see if Perpelitt pulled it off.

Winnie is a “genius” writer if we’re to believe her perfect husband, Jax. Then again, isn’t every writer a genius in the eyes of their other half? It’s a prerequisite for being in a relationship with a writer, yes? But in this case, it’s true. Winnie has already written a bestseller and she’s flying with Jax to Palm Springs to get away from it all and write her next one.

The 27 year-old Winnie is not the easiest person to be with. She’s on multiple anti-depressants and pain killers and she’s extremely moody. A single day with Winnie can result in the best AND worst moment of your year. But Jax is a loving understanding hubby who cares about one thing and one thing only – the well-being of his wife.

Once in Palm Springs, Winnie starts writing, and that’s when shit gets crazy. Her main character, Mara, is 16 years old. Mara used to be in a sexual relationship with her father when she was 12. Now she’s out there banging DJ’s who end up dead afterwards, as well as coupling with sugar daddies with terminal cancer. Yeah, you read all that correctly.

When Winnie is bored, she brings over her new best friend, the young hot-as-fuck neighbor, Sloan, and the two do coke together and talk about Winnie’s ex-boyfriend, RJ. RJ was dangerous and cool and crazy, everything Jax isn’t. And while Winnie hates to admit it, she thinks about him all the time. One night, when she gets black-out drunk, she invites RJ up to Palm Springs, and the next day, she watches in horror as a clueless Jax (who has no idea what RJ looks like, only that Winnie used to date someone with that name) opens the door to RJ.

Winnie does a nice job resisting that temptation, but the combination of drugs and exhaustion and depression send her deeper into the mind of her protagonist, Mara, and, at a certain point, we’re not clear if Mara is the real story or Winnie is. Don’t corner me at a party and ask me what happens next because I don’t know. Things get so unclear that you basically have to draw your own conclusions. But I’m pretty sure several people died. Just don’t quote me on that.

Every writer has to get one of these scripts out of their system – these “nothing is real, or is it?” screenplays. Typically, you write this script in that 24-28 age range, when you’re a few years into the “real world,” but still a low rung on the ladder and unsure why. This results in confusion and frustration. Luckily, you’re a writer. And all your writing teachers tell you to take that emotion and put it on the page! So you do that, hurling complex feelings onto a helpless keyboard like Jackson Pollock, and it feels so good. If feels like you’re examining yourself and saying something. Unfortunately, that experience is one-sided. To the rest of the world, the pages are directionless, an interesting experiment on a road to nowhere.

The problem occurs when you start favoring craziness over plot. The script becomes more about fucking around than answering questions. And that’s exactly what happened here. Midway through this script I wasn’t sure what it was about anymore. I think it was about an unsolved murder. But maybe it was about a girl going crazy? Or maybe it was more about this fictional character Mara trying to find herself? You get the idea. The script wants to be everything and nothing and if there’s any confusion, the burden is on you, the reader, to figure it out.

Perpelitt really stacks the deck against herself, too. This character, Winnie, is extremely unlikable. She’s got this perfect husband who does everything for her and she treats him like garbage, doesn’t appreciate him. She pines for her much more dangerous ex-boyfriend, the one she’s badmouthed to her husband, despite the fact that she’d drop him in a hot second if RJ would be with her. When you mix that in with a story we don’t understand, it’s nearly impossibly to make it work. I know. I’ve been there. Plenty of other writers have been there as well.

A script that did this story much better was Diablo Cody’s “Tully,” specifically because of Cody’s maturity as a writer. She knew that writing this “nothing and everything is real all at once” stuff is a suicide mission so she SIMPLIFIED the story down to one woman having one friendship (spoiler) and it wasn’t until the end that we learned it was all a dream. That setup works so much better, guys. Because that way we’re not so confused all the time and you can use the scenes to explore real conversations and real moments.

That’s not to say the script is a disaster by any means. There’s a clear voice here. The world of the novel is big, colorful, and interesting. And I liked Sloan. Actually, Sloan could’ve been the key to this script working. Had Winnie been a more likable wholesome character, the dark and evil Sloan would’ve contrasted against her more, making their dynamic more compelling. But as written, both of them are bitches. So there was some redundancy there (again, this is something Tully did way better).

Anyways, so yes. I DO think all of you should write one of these scripts to get it out of your system. But they’re minefields, man. Try to keep in mind that, at the end of the day, a script is not meant as a therapy session for yourself. It’s meant to entertain. So if you’re prioritizing the former over the latter, expect a less than excited response.

[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned: Another ALWAYS WORKS tip today. This one is the “person in the other room” scene. Here’s how this scenario works. You have three characters. Two characters share a secret or some knowledge that the third character doesn’t know. You then write a scene where that third character has to leave the room for a moment, and your first two characters have a limited amount of time to discuss that secret. It ALWAYS WORKS. And it works because of the ticking clock. We love conversations that have a sense of urgency to them. And this situation sets up the best version of that urgency. So that scene here in Innocent Monsters occurs when RJ shows up at the Palm Springs house. A clueless Jax welcomes him in. The three talk for a moment in the main room. Jax says he’s going to get something to drink, and now we have our scene. Winnie has to convince RJ to leave but now that RJ is here, he wants her. This is one of the best scenes in the script and the “person in the other room” scene is the reason why.