One of the most important factors in getting noticed as a screenwriter is writing a screenplay that Hollywood actually wants to make. This is one of the BIGGEST pitfalls I see writers fall into. I receive an endless number of scripts – scripts I even put in Amateur Offerings – that I know Hollywood will never be interested in. It’s just not their jam to make that movie. The secret to selling anything in life is understanding what your buyer wants. These are the ten movies the buyer (Hollywood) wants right now.
1) Girl with a Gun – It’s still a trend. It’s still marketable. We’ll see what happens when the big studio versions of these films start hitting theaters en mass. Maybe the movies will fizzle and the trend will die. But that time is not now. I’d like to remind you that when a trend hits its downslope, there is still opportunity to pillage its fruits. You simply combine the genre with another genre. A Girl in a Western with a gun. A Girl in a Horror movie with a gun. But the spirt of the original idea has to be there. Don’t give me a Girl in a Western with a gun who shoots her gun twice the whole movie.
Shout Out To: Guy With a Gun! These movies still sell. You just have to be more clever with your premises than Girl With a Gun movies. John Wick and The Equalizer won’t work anymore. You need an idea with a bit more creativity behind it.
2) Biopic – Just to be clear, Biopics refer to long-form character studies, meaning we see the character grow up over several time periods. If you’re only covering a short section of a person’s life (a week or a month) I’d place that more in the “true story” category. Biopics would be movies like the upcoming Bohemian Rhapsody, The Theory of Everything, and The Aviator.
Shout Out To: Clever narratives. To compete in the competitive biopic market, come up with a clever way into the genre. Steve Jobs is a good example of this. Instead of following Jobs’s life continuously, Sorkin focused on his three biggest product announcements.
3) True Story – The true story genre often gets mixed up with the biopic genre because true stories focus on real people and therefore we assume we’re reading a biopic. But true stories are more about covering one specific event in a person’s (or people’s) life. Mayday 109, an upcoming movie about a young John F. Kennedy saving a bunch of people after their boat sinks. The upcoming Pale Blue Dot, about a female astronaut traveling across the country to kill the fellow astronaut she had an affair with. The upcoming I’m Proud of You, about a depressed man who found a new lease on life when he befriended Mr. Rogers.
Shout Out To: Trashy real-life stories. Everyone thinks that if they’re going to adapt a true story, it needs to be serious and say something about the world. Let’s not forget that the infamous Zola The Stripper Twitter novel is anything but serious. That didn’t stop it from selling and getting made into a future film.
4) Social Issues – It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen with Social Issues screenplays moving forward. In the past, these movies have been relegated to low-budget indie dramas, like Fruitvale Station. But with The Black List being so liberal leaning, more and more social issues scripts are dominating the list. Just this past year we have a movie about the power of abortion, a Malcom X story, the Civil Rights case of Dr. Ossian Sweet, a second script about a famous abortion clinic, and even a script called “Social Justice Warrior.” With the recent transgender revolution, I’m expecting 3 or 4 scripts about transgenders to hit the 2018 Black List. Might yours be one of them?
Shout Out To: Writers who aren’t using social issues as a means of virtue signaling. Many social issues are complex and require a balanced look at what’s causing the issue. Your script is going to stand out if you respect that complexity.
5) World War 2 – There were no fewer that EIGHT World War 2 themed scripts on last year’s Black List, including two (Ruin and Keeper of the Diary) in the Top 5. World War 2 is a genre that routinely goes up and down but can always be depended on. Eight scripts makes it the most dominant subject matter on the list by far.
Shout Out To: Using real life events in World War 2 as inspiration to create your own story. One of the problems with true World War 2 stories is that the best ones have all been taken. If you use events and people as inspiration for a jumping off point to write a gnarly new take on the war, you have a shot at standing out from the crowd. This is what Ruin, the number one script on the list, did. Likewise with the newest script to make my Top 25, Max Landis’s Shadow in the Cloud (sorry no link – this review can only be accessed on the Scriptshadow Newsletter).
6) Contained Horror – Contained horror is still the NUMBER 1 WAY TO BREAK INTO HOLLYWOOD. If you can, make sure your contained horror movie contains either a ghost or a monster. Horror films without monsters are much tougher sells (though there are exceptions, like Get Out). How easy is it to break in with horror? They made a movie about the game Truth or Dare. It doesn’t take much to impress, guys. As long as your script is scary.
Shout Out To: Event Horror and Creature Features. After the success of It, we’re going to be seeing more big budget event horror in the coming years. Right now, this is an IP only avenue. But I expect that to change if someone writes a really scary big budget horror spec. Creature Features, while not as popular as they used to be, still have huge upside. Hollywood’s going to look at anything that has franchise potential for the next 30 years.
7) Contained Thriller – A Contained Thriller is typically a one-location thriller. Something like Phone Booth, Panic Room, or 127 Hours. This genre does well because it’s easy to market (you see a guy, a gun, a bomb, and time running out, and you instantly know what you’re getting) and doesn’t cost much.
Shout Out To: Limited Thrillers. A Limited Thriller covers more area than a Contained Thriller but is essentially the same thing with a higher price tag. The Commuter, where Liam Neeson is on a train, would be a Limited Thriller. Obviously, since the pool of people who can produce your movie goes down once you increase the price tag, you’ll have less of a chance at a sale with a Limited Thriller.
8) Female-Centered Comedy – I think there are more comedies in development with females at the moment than with males. So the odds are in your favor by writing something with a woman in the lead role.
Shout Out To: Scripts that don’t just take a male-lead idea and switch the lead to a female. Try and build your female comedy idea from the ground up. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Bridesmaids remains the cream of the crop in this genre.
9) Action Comedy – If you’re thinking of writing a comedy, seriously consider making it an action comedy. Remember, comedy doesn’t travel well. People in Myanmar don’t laugh at Seth Rogen getting high jokes. Central Intelligence, Spy, Tropic Thunder, Rush Hour, the upcoming The Spy Who Dumped Me. That’s where comedy is going right now.
Shout Out To: Male-Female Team-Ups. In the past, all we got for action comedy was male team-ups. More recently, we’ve focused on female team-ups. This leaves one slot left to take advantage of: a team-up with a man and a woman. They’re doing this with the upcoming Night School. Expect more of this in the immediate future.
10) Old IP – Old IP is IP that’s now in the public domain and can therefore be used by anyone. This is one of the biggest cheat codes there is in the business. You get to write about someone that everybody in the world knows and don’t have to pay a dime for it. Last year they made a King Arthur film. Later this year we’re getting a Robin Hood movie. There are several other Robin Hood movies in development. You’ve got Shakespeare. You’ve got The Count of Monte Cristo. The Wizard of Oz, Tom Sawyer, The Three Musketeers. Hollywood will always buy this stuff if you can come up with a fresh take.
Shout Out To: Anyone who can take these characters and place them in the modern day in a cool way. I’ve seen so many Robin Hoods set in 1740. I’m numb to that image. But a Robin Hood set in the present? Or the future? That I would be into.
One final thing before I go. If you have THE GREATEST MOVIE IDEA EVER and it doesn’t fall into any of these categories, you should still write it. A good movie idea is a good movie idea. But do me a favor and run the idea by a couple of friends (or me, if you want someone who’s heard every idea imaginable) first. At least one of them should be bonkers excited and agree that the idea is amazing.
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. 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!
