ATTN JMS: Hollywood horror stories

[B5JMS Poster]

Subject: ATTN JMS: Hollywood horror stories
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 No. | DATE        |  FROM
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+  1: Jul 12, 1996: sls1 at cornell.edu (Shelley Stuart)
*  2: Jul 12, 1996: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)

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From: sls1 at cornell.edu (Shelley Stuart)
Lines: 20

In reading about scriptwriting, I've come across a number
 of horror stories about rewrites.  It seems that quite a 
few authors feel that their scripts have been transformed by actors, 
producers, directors and others into something totally unlike 
the original product.  Frustration is what I sense most often
 in conjunction with these tales.

It seems to me that these accounts may not accurately 
represent what writers face when authoring for the screen.  
Are these horror stories a case of bad news selling best? 
 Do new writers face this more often than seasoned ones?  
How often can a writer yank on the creative reins to keep 
his or her story in the same county as the race track?

Just hoping you might provide some insight into this situation.

Shelley Stuart




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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Lines: 47

I have known writers who feel that their work, their scripts, have been
fouled up by somebody rewriting them.  And it happens.  What power do you
have?  None, really, if you're a freelancer.  They can do whatever they
want to the script.  The only recourse if you REALLY hate what they did is
to put on a pseudonym so nobody ever knows it was you.

I've been very lucky in that I'm generally very careful about who I work
for, I check them out thoroughly, and make it clear that I *don't* like
being rewritten, and will do as much work as necessary to avoid that.  If
it's got my name on it, it should reflect my work.  I'm responsible and
accountable for that, and people have come to expect a certain kind of
storytelling from me over the years...if that's going to be changed, I
don't want to be put in that situation.

The main area where you're most vulnerable is in the spec screenplay (or
screenplay in general) area.  The practice these days is to buy a script
from person A, give it to person B to insert more gags, person C to
rewrite again for more action, writer D to do clean-up and tweak...and
what you get at the end is sausage.

Now, there are ways to avoid that.  My agent has a number of spec scripts
that I've written over the years...mostly SF, some mysteries, some
comedies, one or two horror scripts.  All for feature films.  None have
yet been produced.  But almost all of them have been optioned at one time
or another.  (99% of all scripts optioned or purchased are never
made...scary, ain't it?)  But the situation is that in all cases, the
producer buying or optioning the script must agree that all revisions will
be done by me.  If not, then we pass.  Does this end up with me not making
as much money?  Absolutely.  There were a number of times when one or the
other of these scripts were read, and we were told they'd be fast-tracked
into production...but they wanted the freedom to have it tinkered with by
others.

No, and in case it wasn't clear the first time...no.  Money's never really
meant that much to me.  You can only sleep in one bed at a time, eat one
meal at a time, live in one house at a time.  I do okay.  I'd rather wait
for someone to do the story right -- which was why I wrote it in the first
place -- than take the cash and watch it get messed up.  

The problem, I think, is that a number of writers are too quick to take
the deal and worry about the rewriting or changes later.


 jms



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