Readers aren’t trying to steal your creativity. It’s just that if you make the process of reading your script far too arduous and time-consuming, then all you are doing is giving development people — all of whom are always pressed for time and always have a million other scripts to read — an excellent excuse to give up on your screenplay and move on to the next one in the pile.
I recently finished reading for the Big Break™ screenwriting contest, something that I do every year. Over the course of this months-long assignment, I evaluated approximately 300 scripts, which gave me the opportunity to see what’s going on out there in spec-script land.
The Dino De Laurentiis’ production of King Kong premiered on December 17, 1976 and I was first in line to see it. I was not disappointed. As promised, in John Berkey’s striking illustration for the poster, the film made spectacular use of the World Trade Center as the stage for Kong’s heroic last stand.
Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to attend a 30th anniversary showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark at AMPAS. From a screenwriting perspective, I was impressed all over again by Lawrence Kasdan’s terrific script. It’s a textbook example of great screenwriting.
In the last installment of Meet the Reader, Ray Morton took screenwriters to task for the lies they tell themselves. In the current installment, he responds to readers’ comments and tackles yet more lies.
At the Second Annual Hero Complex Film Festival, Warren Beatty, John Favreau, Nicholas Meyer, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mike Mignola, and Richard Donner gathered to celebrate filmic (Wrath of Khan), comic (Superman), and screenwriting (Tom Mankiewicz) heroes. Ray Morton was there.
Your producer is entitled to NOTHING. And if a producer suggests working out some kind of financial arrangement before pitching your show… RUN.
We came. We conquered. We connected. – That’s how the night felt after our first-ever Script Magazine Los Angeles Meetup this past Tuesday (2/8) night. Judging by our Facebook RSVP list, we thought we’d get maybe 30 or 40 readers and friends of the magazine to show up. But 7 p.m. hit and right away the bar at the Cat ‘N Fiddle on Sunset Blvd. was all ours…
