| Lost in the advertising
and marketing world of bustling Manhattan, Mike Bender made a career change
and he hasn't looked back since. A writer on Not Another Teen Movie
and the upcoming Halloween comedy, A Fistful of Candy, Bender
is on his way to a successful career in screenwriting.
"I started
working at New Line as a marketing intern in New York," Bender said.
"I did not like marketing, and I started writing. I took the opportunity
of being at New Line to write and use their resources. I hoped that, if
I wrote something of value, I could get it to go somewhere."
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Mike
Bender |
Bender wrote Gigantic
- a parody of the immensely popular Titanic - and sold it to
New Line while he was working there. During preproduction on Gigantic,
he worked in L.A. He decided to stay in L.A. and give screenwriting a
shot.
Off his work on Gigantic and his evident skill at parody, Bender
got a job writing skits for the MTV Movie Awards.
"They were looking for writers to parody short films with Ben Stiller,
and I did a spoof of Mission: Impossible for them."
Off that parody work, Bender got a writing assignment on Not Another
Teen Movie. Following that film's success, Bender was able to write
and pitch his own comedy, A Fistful of Candy.
"I realized
there's never really been a Halloween kid's comedy. This movie is aimed
at a younger audience, but I hope, like A Christmas Story, it
can attract an adult audience, also. There's enough nostalgia in the story
to draw in an older following." Bender based his story on the classic
Western, Shane, and its classic themes of redemption.
"I'm drawn to comedy - comedies that have heart," Bender explained.
"But, story is the most important aspect of a movie, and a lot of
comedies overlook that. We tried to do that with Not Another Teen
Movie, but some audiences are just looking for a lot of jokes and
not as much story. So, that film headed in that direction." Now,
that Bender has a successful writing assignment and an original spec sale
under his belt, he's had to head out into the market to pitch his own
stories.
"A pitch is a challenge, because it's tricky," Bender said.
"You might think you have it all worked out, but you never know how
it's all going to come together until you sit down and try to write it."
With Fistful of Candy aimed at next Halloween, that project has
been consuming all of Bender's time. Still, his imagination stays alive
with new and upcoming concepts.
"I have
other ideas that I think about," he said. "But, when you're
on a go-project, obviously that takes all of your time."
"Right now, I'm really excited to finish the script for Fistful
of Candy because it's an original concept. The problem with writing
a parody that was successful like Not Another Teen Movie was
that I got a lot of parodies thrown at me as potential jobs. So, it was
good to pitch and get my own idea out there to avoid getting pigeon-holed
as a parody writer."
About
This Author
John
Scott Lewinski writes screenplays, sketch comedies, books, articles
and interactive media out of Los Angeles, CA. A winner of multiple screenwriting
festivals and contests, he writes both his own original scripts and on
assignment. The author of the book, Screenwriter's Guide to Agents
& Managers, his next book, the nonfiction sports title, Mi
Equipo': The Saints of Santa Ana, will hit shelves in late 2003.
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