John August

Daniel Sauvé-Rogan

Should I worry about a competing project?

Film Industry, Producers, QandA

questionmarkI have a script about a big event in American history told from my personal viewpoint. A star is looking at it and it is a finalist at a prestigious writing lab. It is also with three important producers (including an Academy Award winner). It was always considered a “small independent film.”

Suddenly. last week an A-list producer wants my script. I asked myself why? Then I found through the trades, a major studio, producer and director are making a movie about this same event. There is a well known writer attached. But no script yet.

What should I do? Let my project die? Or go to the competition and drum up buzz? Suddenly my little personal script has become “commercially viable.” This is stuff I would discuss with an agent or manager, but presently, I have neither.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Again, thanks.

— Sung Ju
Venice, CA

I originally misread your question, and assumed that it was the competing project’s producer who was trying to buy your script — perhaps in the hopes of squashing it. That’s rare, but it does happens, and I’d have a hard time giving you helpful advice.

But since it’s apparently a completely different A-list producer who wants your script, let me lift my virtual 2×4 and smack you gently with it. Sell, Sung Ju, sell.

You have no agent, no manager, and no compelling reason to say no. If you like the A-list producer, go for it. The fact that there’s a competing project shouldn’t slow you down. In fact, it lights a fire under your producer to try to get your movie into production before the other one. And as a well-known screenwriter, let me assure you: lots of projects get started that never make it into production. (CoughTARZAN).

So go for it. Let the A-list producer hand-deliver you to an agency. Even if your script never gets made, your career has begun.

The only reason to put on the brakes would be if you intend to direct the movie yourself as a small-budget indie. If that’s truly your heart’s ambition, then don’t go with the giant producer. You need to be matched up with someone who makes movies of your size with first-time filmmakers. The screenwriting lab would likely be the place to get hooked up.

Either way, write back in six months and let us know what happened.

I would have gone with “catfishscan”

Big Fish, Projects

catfish in color
xray fish

This from Daniel Wallace, the author of Big Fish:

Big Fish is taking over a small town in Alabama (link). And in this spirit when, just the other day, someone caught another one of those big catfish you hear about. They took it to the hospital and put it under a catscan. I am not making this up. Here is the proof just sent to me. A catfish, catscanned.

Had there been a wedding ring in that second image, I would have called bullshit.

Clive Cussler really, really dislikes Sahara

Adaptation, Big Fish, Charlie, Film Industry, Los Angeles, Projects

Today’s LA Times has a lengthy article about Clive Cussler’s lawsuit over SAHARA. It’s a fun, gossipy read, partially because I’ve had beers with many of the people involved:

For those who don’t have time to read the article, I’ll summarize the moral: be very careful when adapting the work of living authors. Particularly when they go on about how much they hate Hollywood.

Cussler had unprecedented and frankly unconscionable control over the adaptation. He bitched and bullied and couldn’t be placated. And if the resulting movie was less-than-stellar, well Mr. Cussler, three fingers are pointing back at you.

But on another level, I get it. Screenwriters are used to seeing their material altered, mangled and reinterpreted. Screenwriting is part of a process, and the craft can only support medium-sized egos.

The novelist, on the other hand, is God. And God doesn’t like to be told he’s a crotchety old jerk who’s been coasting on a mediocre franchise for years. I sympathize with Cussler’s dilemma: he wanted a big movie to bring new readers to his books, without any risk of the cinematic version replacing his literary one. Dirk Pitt has black hair, damnit! It says so here on page two! He wanted Hollywood on his terms.

Have fun with that lawsuit, Mr. Cussler.

My own experiences with adaptations have been more positive. (How couldn’t they be?)

For A WRINKLE IN TIME, Madeleine L’Engel functioned through a trusted producer, and while I had some significant disagreements over what plot points really needed to stay or go, at least I wasn’t arguing with the author. BIG FISH was a love fest from the start, with author Daniel Wallace so intrigued by the screenplay form that he became a screenwriter himself. And CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY was made with the blessing of — and little interference from — the Roald Dahl estate.

What lessons should an aspiring screenwriter take from the SAHARA debacle? For starters, remember that the unhappy stories get press simply because of the train-wreck factor. Most times, the author and screenwriter have a decent relationship — if they have one at all. A smart novelist remembers that the existence of a movie doesn’t change anything about the book sold at Barnes and Noble. And the smart screenwriter remembers to praise the author at the press junket.

Craft service

Film Industry, QandA, Recycled

I have a sincere question for you. If I, as an underpaid writer on-set,
have an issue with craft services, who should I complain to? The studio
head? The star? The city health department?

–Lopa Mukherjee

A substantial portion of our readership is asking, "Wow, you’re
a writer, and you were allowed on the set?"

But seriously-and I guess your question is serious-the person to talk
with is the line producer or
unit production manager, who is ultimately responsible for hiring and
firing each of the different departments, such as craft service.

For those who have never been on a film or television set, there’s a
difference between catering and craft service. Catering handles the true
meals like lunch (which occurs six hours after the start of the day’s
filming, even if that means 2 a.m.) and second meal (which occurs six
hours later, if the crew hasn’t finished the day’s work). Catering is
a sit-down hot meal that lasts either 30 minutes or an hour, unless the
crew is working "French hours" (also called "Northwest
hours" in Seattle and Vancouver), in which case the meal is brought
to the set, and people eat whenever they get a chance.

Craft service is the food that is always available to the crew while
they’re working, and can range from a single table of cookies, candy,
cereal and coffee (on an low-budget indie feature), to an elaborate macrobiotic
spread with organic vegetables and sushi (on CHARLIE’S ANGELS).

Food is the source of half the complaints on any given production, so
smart producers will often pay a little more to get top-notch caterers
and craft service people. But within any price range, there are better
and worse people for the job, so if one craft service guy isn’t cutting
it, a different one should be hired.

(Originally posted in 2003.)