A few weeks back I extracted ten screenwriting tips from the movie Hoosiers. It’s right up there with Rocky as the best sports script ever written and probably one of the best scripts written period. So imagine my shock when I discovered that the writer had only two produced credits in the 25 years since that film! How does a writer that skilled not have producers knocking on his door begging him to write their next movie? That question really got me thinking about the way this industry works and how hard it is to write a script that gets purchased or made. There are people out there who actually believe it’s all a crapshoot, that any script that sells is luck.
Well before I get into why I don’t think that’s true, it’s important to note that there are some extenuating circumstances here. First, you probably don’t want to break into the industry with a sports script. There just aren’t many sports movies being made, so if you get pigeonholed as “the sports writer,” you’re going to have a tough time getting jobs. Also, just because you haven’t snagged any credits in a long time doesn’t mean you aren’t working. I’m sure Angelo Pizzo (the writer) has written on plenty of projects since Hoosiers that just never got made.
That doesn’t pertain to the amateur screenwriter because the amateur screenwriter isn’t being paid six figures to write anything yet. They have to generate their own material on their own dime. And that’s what leads us to today. You see, I don’t believe in crapshoots when it comes to screenwriting. I believe that if you follow today’s formula, you can place the odds of selling a script in your favor. And it’s actually quite simple. Ask yourself, who are the three most important people to impress with a screenplay? Why, the Producer, the Director, and the Actor (PDA) of course.
To understand this equation better, we must understand how a script is purchased. Typically, someone will send a producer a script (an agent, a friend, another writer, whomever). If he likes it, he’ll try to attach an actor to the material. Assuming he’s successful, he might then go directly to the studio to try and sell the script. But with studios wanting to do less and less work these days, the producer will also want to attach a director if possible. It makes the package more appealing and gives it a better chance of getting made. No matter how you look at it, at some point, these three people have to be lured to the script.
But what does that really mean? How do you write a script to satisfy these three folks? I’m about to tell you. And here’s the good news. Writing for these three people is actually going to make your script better. This isn’t something you must begrudgingly “fit in” to your script. It’s stuff that will improve the quality of your product. So now that you know who you have to impress, let’s discuss what these people are looking for.
PRODUCER
A producer is looking for a marketable project he can make money off of. True, each producer is different. They work in different genres and have different tastes. But they’re all looking for a movie that will make them money. Why? Because if you make money as a producer, you get to keep making movies. Except for the top top guys (and some would argue even for them), producing is a game of survival. If you don’t make money, you’re done. For this reason, a producer will pay close attention to the marketability of a project. Does it have poster appeal? Trailer appeal? Billboard appeal? Does it have an intriguing hook? Is there something about it that can be marketed? The best way to satisfy these questions is to come up with a good concept. Think something that’s going to bring in that male 14-30 demo. Robots (Transfomers), monsters (Pacific Rim), undercover agents (Safe House), a sexy reimagining (Snow White and the Huntsman). If big summer movies aren’t your thing, then write a fun comedy idea (I Love You Man) or a script with some irony in the logline (The King’s Speech). Even if you’re doing something low-budget, always ask, “Is this marketable to the demographic I’m shooting for?” “Buried” didn’t make a ton of money. But it was contained, cheap to shoot, and marketable. So it made money. Safety Not Guaranteed is another example of a low-budget concept that was marketable. If you’re not considering the question of whether your film can make money or not, you’re ignoring the first cog you must get your script past – the producer.
DIRECTOR
Let’s think about this. What does a director want? Well, put yourself in the director’s shoes. Or better yet, look at all your favorite directors and the kinds of movies they’re making. Directors tend to like interesting visuals, fun and inventive action, an aesthetic that hasn’t been done before, taking us to a time or place we haven’t seen before, new takes on old ideas, anything that allows them to play with the medium in an interesting way. 47 Ronin, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gravity, The Matrix, The Great Gatsby, Life of Pi. If you look at all the top directors in the business, you’ll see that they’re making movies within this rule-set. The easiest way to know if you’re writing a script for a director is to ask, “Would any of the top twenty directors in the world want to direct my script?” I mean really ask yourself that question. And be honest. Because getting a director attached to anything is EXTREMELY hard. They must dedicate 3-4 years to a film. So, for example, if all you have is a bunch of talking heads in your script – if that’s all you’re bringing to the table – I doubt a director’s going to waste 4 years on that. Now there are some caveats here. If you’re writing in comedy, it’s more about how funny the script is (although I’d contend that a comedy director would rather direct The Heat where he gets to move around and play around a lot, than say, Celeste and Jesse Forever, which is a lot more stagnant and boring to shoot). But in the end, as long as you believe the top directors in your genre would be interested in making your script, you’re in good shape.
ACTOR
I’ve talked about writing for actors enough that I’m sure I sound like a broken record by now. But this is probably THE most important factor in getting your screenplay sold. If you get one of the top 30 (A-list) actors attached to your script, your chances of making a sale go up a thousand percent. Why? Because these actors have proven they can open a film (meaning their studio films tabulate more than $25 million dollars on opening weekend). So if you’re a studio, you want the projects these guys are attached to. Now there’s a gamble for the studios because actors jump on and off projects all the time. But it’s a risk worth taking. Which brings us back to, “How do you write for an actor?” Compared to writing for a director, I personally think writing for an actor is much easier. An actor can make ten movies in the same amount of time a director makes one. So they’re less picky. Still, they want a good role to play, and that almost always means a role that shows off what they can do. Something that allows them to play a variety of emotions, something that allows them to show their range. Or just a really unique part. I recently reviewed Dan Gilroy’s latest script, Nightcrawler, in my newsletter (sign up here). The lead role (which Jake Gyllenhaal snatched up) was this talky slightly-crazed borderline autistic sociopathic success-whore who loses himself within the deranged bloody world of amateur news coverage. I mean what actor isn’t going to want to play that part! Or play the part of an emotionally dead female hacker (Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) or a character who wakes up in someone else’s body with no idea how he got there (Source Code) or a king who can’t speak (King’s Speech) or a crackhead who’s an embarrassment to his successful boxing brother (The Fighter) or hell, even an intelligent former CIA agent who gets to coldly kick ass for an entire film (Taken or Salt). Put simply, at least one of the main characters in your script should be INTERESTING, and to a lesser extent, FUN TO PLAY! If you don’t have that, it’s very unlikely your script will sell.
Okay, now that you know you SHOULD have PDA, I bet you’re asking, “Is it possible to sell your script WITHOUT PDA?” Of course. Anything’s possible. There are scripts that get away with only having two of the these three elements. For example, if you have a big enough concept – like say aliens attacking the earth (Independence Day or Pacific Rim), the concept ends up overriding the need for a big star. Which is why both films went with unknowns in the lead role (Will Smith hadn’t yet become a star before Independence Day). Also, some of the meatier acting roles occur in dramas that don’t have the biggest concepts (the kind producers love). I’m sure the producers of The Descendants, while excited to get George Clooney, weren’t exactly thrilled about the prospects of marketing the film. So just like everything else in the business, there’s no clear-cut answer. Sometimes in order to gain a little more of one thing, you have to lose a little of another. But I will say that if you can write that script that incorporates every element of PDA, and you’ve written a good story to boot, you will have positioned yourself for a spec sale. The best example, in my opinion, of PDA, is probably Pirates Of The Caribbean. It’s got all three of the elements in spades. So, what about you? Do you have PDA in your script?
