by David Konow
Back in the ’90s, it was a great time to be an aspiring screenwriter. With the success of films like Pulp Fiction and The Usual Suspects, people realized the importance of a well-crafted script, and reports of major spec sales would regularly hit the trades. More clever scripts from fresh new voices would follow for the rest of the decade, like Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, Charlie Kaufman’s Being John Malkovich, Andrew Kevin Walker’s Se7en, and Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, to name a few. The first Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair even had a two-page spread dedicated to screenwriters, with Robert Towne, Alvin Sargent, Paul Schrader, Ron Shelton and John Milius featured in the group photo.
Yet for whatever reason, it doesn’t feel like there’s anything even remotely happening like this today. The collapse of the economy is definitely a factor, but beyond that, there isn’t the name recognition screenwriters had back then, like how Tarantino and Kaufman became poster boys for brave storytelling that broke new ground. And it doesn’t feel like there’s anywhere near that kind of excitement around screenwriting today.
In trying to assess the current state of storytelling, and where things could be headed in the near future, Creative Screenwriting spoke to a number of screenwriters and people behind the scenes to try to figure out where things stand, and where things could be headed.
William Goldman at Screenwriting Expo 3
At the Screenwriting Expo, which this publication used to hold every year, many of screenwriting’s old guard would complain that storytelling was worse than ever, until the next year of course. They wouldn’t just say it to complain, but also as a call to arms to young screenwriting hopefuls that it was up to them to save storytelling.
Of course, there will always be prophecies of doom about the future of movies, but as Max Landis, screenwriter of Chronicle, says, “Storytelling is in the state it’s always been. There are great stories and there are terrible stories. Sometimes terrible stories resonate with more people than great stories, and vice versa.”
Max Landis, screenwriter of Chronicle
Landis’s career got off to a strong start with Chronicle opening as #1 at the box office last year, and he also has many scripts set up all over town. Still he says, “It’s not the ’90s. No one is Shane Black right now. I want to be a screenwriter with a face first and foremost. I want people to recognize the giant role writers have in the creation of films. If I could be a JJ Abrams or one of those guys, it would be tremendously exciting for me.”
John Sayles, who’s been able to maintain his indie vision with films like Return of the Secaucus Seven, and has also worked within the mainstream on films like The Chronicles of Spiderwick, and a script doctoring gig on Apollo 13, says, “People are still writing lots of screenplays. What’s changed is I don’t hear much about original screenplays being made into movies by Hollywood. They’re not taking too many risks these days, and that probably does depress the general enthusiasm a bit.”
Ron Shelton, writer/director of Bull Durham
Ron Shelton, writer/director of Bull Durham and White Men Can’t Jump, adds, “The problem is that screenplays don’t have the political and financial power they used to. They don’t drive things anymore, even if they’re brilliant. Cast, concept, genre and foreign sales rule all. The writing is an afterthought for most financiers. As a craft, however, screenwriting hasn’t fallen down, it’s just that the marketplace has changed.”
One obvious reason we probably don’t hear as much about screenwriting these days is because so many top talents are moving to television. Says veteran agent Alan Gasmer, “Television takes more chances, it’s about the writer, there’s original voices and you can exhibit those voices. The TV business is writer dependent, the movie business is director dependent.”
“TV is absolutely where the most dynamic, and honestly cinematic, writing is happening,” says John August (Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). “Showrunners are the new filmmakers, and some of these showrunners are coming back to features, so it will be interesting to see if they bring a writer-driven vision with them.”
Television and cable is also more desirable for writers because as Shelton says, “TV simply has more points of distribution, which makes it easier to be heard. If it fails, it doesn’t cost a career. It’s healthier that way and like everyone I know, I’m beginning to swim in television waters while continuing to pursue features.” Jack Epps Jr., whose credits include Top Gun and Dick Tracy and who currently teaches screenwriting at USC says, “When I first began here, 90% of the students were interested in writing features, and 10% television. Now it’s probably about 50/50.”
Melissa McCarthy and writer/director John August on the set of The Nines
Besides a major shift to television, several sources tell Creative Screenwriting another big market for writers is gaming, which is sure to leave a lot of old school scribes groaning. Yet as August tells me, “The next wave of cinema is games, or more generally, immersive narrative experiences that happen on smaller screens. Right now we have AAA videogame titles like Call of Duty that are analogous to our summer blockbusters, and indie games like Limbo that are like indie films. But we’re missing a form of serialized game that compares with our great TV shows.
Screenwriter David McKenna wrote the script for the Scarface video game after Oliver Stone turned it down
“That will be the next big thing,” August continues. “Something that falls between The Sopranos and Grand Theft Auto. Whenever that comes, it will be bigger than Titanic or World of Warcraft. It will be silly to talk of doing a movie version of it, because it’s already bigger than a movie could be.” And several big screenwriters, including John Milius of Apocalypse Now fame, and American History X scribe David McKenna have already written for games.
“Game companies are hiring screenwriters,” says talent manager Brooklyn Weaver of Energy Entertainment. “To me that’s really exciting, and a lot of screenwriters are working with videogame designers as audiences are becoming more demanding on a story level. If you’re a writer, you can walk into the gaming platform, and these companies want someone who can write great characters.”
Like everything else, screenwriting took a tough hit with the collapse of the economy. But at the same time, some believe a lot of writers have been building what could become a critical mass of scripts that could flood the marketplace as the economy recovers, much like the 1988 writers strike helped launch the subsequent spec boom. “I think you’re ’gonna see a lot of material, just like during the writers strike,” says Gasmer. “The established writers don’t necessarily write spec scripts, the younger ones do, and that’s where you get fresh voices.”
Graham Yost, the writer of Speed and now the creator of Justified
Some also feel the recession hasn’t hurt people from wanting to try a career in screenwriting, in fact it may have inspired them more. As Epps tells us, “People are coming in to learn screenwriting at USC with a lot of enthusiasm: ’This is my shot to try this now.’”
“I think screenwriting’s always been sort of a dream thing in our society,” says Graham Yost, who was a hot feature writer in the ‘90’s with Speed, and who’s hot today on TV with Justified. “It’s like the English major’s lottery, and I think that will always have an appeal.”
Gamser adds, “I think there’s now more interest in screenwriting because besides UCLA and USC, there’s Chapman and North Carolina. All over the country every school has a screenwriting program, because the students demand it. There’s a lot of interest in this business that’s not just New York and L.A. centric.”
In good times or bad, it goes without saying that screenwriting is a tough racket to break into. The odds you’re facing are pretty ridiculous, and crafting a great script is never easy, even for the best in the profession.
Screenwriter Alvin Sargent (Photo by Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images)
Many screenwriters in training may kid themselves into thinking that with experience and age it will get easier, but as Alvin Sargent, who won Academy Awards for Julia and Ordinary People says, “When I think about writing, I do not enjoy writing. I enjoy writing when I’m at it. It’s not unlike exercising. Don’t like it until I’m exercising, then I’m pleased. When it’s over, I’m a writer and entitled to a stiff drink.”
As vets like Sargent and Shelton also know, breaking in is one thing, staying in the game is another. Sargent turned eighty-five this year, and he was able to join the blockbuster club a decade ago writing for the Spider-Man series. When he looks back on breaking into the business, winning the Oscar twice, and still being active in his eighties, Sargent says, “It’s the strangest thing I can imagine. Once my psychiatrist looked at me and said ‘I can’t understand how you got this far.’ He meant it and I agreed.”
“I’ve been trying to get another baseball movie made for years but the numbers don’t seem to work for the financiers,” Shelton says. “And baseball has no foreign. As for staying in the business, there’s no question that age-ism exists, but the best way to beat it is to turn out work that can’t be denied.”
For those who recall how exciting it felt when movies like Pulp Fiction made regular people aware of the importance of good writing, Sargent feels, “New bold storytellers will always arrive. Take Charlie Kaufman or Mike White (School of Rock, Chuck and Buck) who give young writers a freedom to dare.”
Mike White goes back and forth between writing for TV (Enlightened) and feature films (Nacho Libre)
Of course nobody can predict exactly what will be the next game changer, and when it could possibly arrive to shake things up. “That’s the fun of it,” says Yost. “It’s like the beginning of the NFL season. Who’s gonna be the team that’s ’gonna surprise everyone? There will always be those movies.”
Even with all the challenges and terror they will inevitably face, no one interviewed for this story discouraged any aspiring screenwriters from pursuing their dream, at least not entirely. August advises up-and-coming writers to “be prepared to work in a lot of different media. Write a feature spec, a one-hour drama, a half-hour comedy and a game treatment. Then repeat the cycle.”
And as Shelton says, “For all my cynicism, the fact is, producers are always looking for good scripts they can buy cheap, and for that reason it should be easier for writers to break in than anyone. Write well, someone will notice.”
