Genre: Music Biopic
Premise: The turbulent road to success of the band, Fleetwood Mac, whose childhood sweetheart members, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, broke up and began writing songs about each other, songs that would make the band one of the most popular of all time.
About: Rumours finished Top 10 on last year’s Black List. This is the breakthrough screenplay for writers Tyler Austin and Patrick Eme.
Writers: Tyler Austin & Patrick Eme
Details: 121 pages
Uh oh.
Did someone say “Music Biopic?”
And Carson is still in the room?
Yes, it’s true. I have a longstanding rule here at Scriptshadow that all music biopics are awful until proven otherwise.
It’s not the most ridiculous take if you look at the evidence. Most writers who write these things don’t know how to write. They know how to research (if by “research” you mean checking out the first 10 hits on Google) the band/artist they’re writing about then give us the most linear vanilla telling of that story the medium allows.
This blasphemous approach yielded such movies as “Ray” and “Walk The Line,” films that nearly destroyed the biopic after thousands lost their lives dying of boredom while watching them.
The only – and I mean ONLY – music biopic that gave me hope for the music biopic genre was Blonde Ambition, the 2015 number 1 Black List script about Madonna. The reason that script was so good was because a) it was interested in telling a good story all on its own, and b) it wasn’t afraid to dig into the ugly parts of its subject’s life.
Audiences can tell when you’re honest. That’s the art they TRULY respond to because it mimics real life. When you start telling lies, sweet little lies, to make your movie more “commercial,” we’re not going to accept it. ESPECIALLY in non-fiction material, because that’s when you’re most required to provide the truth.
Which segues us perfectly into today’s script. Because today’s script is about the ugly. It’s about the truth. It’s about the rough realities of life, even in the face of being the most popular band in the world.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. Does this mean, Carson, that you actually LIKED a music biopic screenplay? Is that even possible?
Read on to find out.
For those who don’t know, Fleetwood Mac was a gigantic awesome band who could do no wrong for a stint in the mid-70s. It all started when teenage sweethearts Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined up with an already successful band called, Fleetwood Mac.
Their first album together, released in 1975, was a success. But it was during the resulting tour that vocalist Stevie began partying more and meeting lots of people. And while it was never made clear in the script exactly what happened, this seems to have led to Lindsey and Stevie’s breakup.
Now normally when you break up with someone, you go your own ways. But Lindsey and Stevie’s plan was a litttttttllllle different. They started writing songs about each other. Mean songs. Like Lindsey’s “Go Your Own Way.” Then Stevie would come back at him with a song of her own, “Silver Springs.”
That 1977 album would go on to win ALBUM OF THE FREAKING YEAR and Fleetwood Mac seemed, to the outside world at least, unstoppable. But let’s be real. You can’t have that much conflict going on inside your house and expect it not to burn down. Just ask The Beatles.
Lindsey would become obsessed with creating experimental music while Stevie did more drugs than you can find at your local CVS. And she banged a lot of dudes, too. Or, at least, that’s the rumour. Would these two former lovebirds be permanently stuck in this music landscape alone? Or would they find a way to reconcile?
This may be the first wikipedia adaptation of a biopic that I actually liked.
That’s because the material is so juicy.
The first half of this script is notably formulaic. It feels like we’re hitting pre-ordained plot beats on cruise control (they meet, they like each other, they form a band, they struggle, they meet Fleetwood Mac). I remember angrily typing down in the rough draft of this document that this was the FREAKING PROBLEM with music biopics. So vanilla. So linear. So predictable.
But the second there’s trouble in paradise between Stevie and Lindsey, things get good. I’d always heard these two were together then broke up and they may have wrote some songs about each other. But I didn’t know that they were actively not talking and using these songs as weapons against one another. That took this script to a new level.
And I think there’s a fascinating conversation to be had here about what creates good art. That conflict and consternation and weathering the toughest moments in life – that’s what creates our biggest emotional reservoirs to draw from. And nowhere is that better proven than Fleetwood Mac and their Album of the Year, Rumours. It is the sum total of a nuclear blast of conflict.
I think about that when it applies to screenwriting. It’s hard to write something good if there isn’t some conflict involved between you and the piece. Maybe it’s you and the main character. Maybe it’s you and the setting. Maybe it’s you and the subject matter. The closer you are to the pain that inspires your art, the more likely you are to write something good.
So that was a cool “story-within-the-story” to watch.
The frustrating thing about Rumours is that it’s good, but it has the potential to be really good. I can point to three areas where it needs to tighten the screws. By the way, the phrase “tighten the screws” means you’re making a murky element clearer.
The first adjustment is that it never shows us Lindsey and Stevie super in love. We see Stevie giddy when she first meets Lindsey. But then we cut straight to them living in a ratchet apartment and not having a lot of fun together.
If we never experience them being in love – seeing that in their faces and how they act around each other – then the breakup isn’t going to be as powerful. And the breakup is EVERYTHING in this movie. That’s what the movie is about – how this breakup creates the most memorable album ever.
The second adjustment is the writers never tell us why they broke up. It’s all murky and vague. They’re hanging out. Then they’re not hanging out as much. Then Stevie gets an innocent ride home from Don Henley. Then they’re broken up somehow. Come on! This is an important moment. It needs more of a defining scene. It can’t be something that happens off-screen.
(spoiler) Finally, you need a better reconciliation. I like what the writers’ intent was. This movie doesn’t end with Lindsey and Stevie realizing they love each other. It’s more realistic than that. Lindsey goes to Stevie and says he wants to start working on music together again. But they don’t even give us a hint of any happiness between the two. They sit down and begrudgingly start working a song. I’m not asking for Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts here. Lindsey doesn’t not need to tell Stevie that he’s just a boy… standing in front of a girl. I’m asking for a little bit of love. A smile. Have them remember some old moment together and laugh about it. That’s not too much to ask, is it?
If they did these things, I would bump this up to an “impressive.” Because it’s a great story and it’s great music (I went and listened to all their songs afterwards). Well worth the read.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[xx] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: This script taught me the power of exploring conflict in unique ways. Usually, when you think of conflict between two characters, you think of it in a straight-forward manner. This person doesn’t like that person so they let them know. And the other person lets them know what they think right back. That’s rarely interesting. What’s interesting is when people explore conflict in roundabout ways. Indirectly. Passive-aggressively. Creatively. And that’s what we get here. We get these two people exploring their conflict through song-writing. It’s a reminder that there’s a bigger conflict toolbox to play with than you think.
