Yesterday I explained a few things about the TV industry. Since I work for both a Television agent AND a Feature agent, I thought I would explain a similar process that happens in film.
The benefit of being a writer of features over TV is that feature has no "seasons" really. There's no rush to get our writers onto a series. The only rush comes to try and get a feature before the job is given to someone else - and the jobs happen all-year round.
This is where OPEN WRITING ASSIGNMENTS (OWA's) come in:
OWA's are for feature scripts on their way to being produced that needs another writer attached or needs a new writer altogether. This includes projects that are sometimes shelved for years and never produced until a young exec digs it up and wants to go for it again.
The project can be an original concept that a studio or production company executive has come up with and needs a writer to make his ideas become reality (The Hangover was an original idea based on an executive's wild night in Vegas). It can also be for an existing property that is being turned into a feature (one of my favorites is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World which was based on a sweet graphic novel
series. ) And of course - there's always the amazing spec script that was good enough to be bought by the studio, but not quite there yet (Book of Eli was amazing, but some things were definitely changed).
series. ) And of course - there's always the amazing spec script that was good enough to be bought by the studio, but not quite there yet (Book of Eli was amazing, but some things were definitely changed).
This is happening right now with the Fraggle Rock Movie. Writer/Director Cory Edwards has been working on a new take of the fantastic Jim Henson Company tale (so jealous by the way), yet he has been told by The Weinstein Company (who are producing) that they are searching for another writer.
Mr. Edwards wrote recently on his blog:
Not to be too alarmist, but I am struggling to stay in control of my own movie at this point. The Weinstein Company gives me no confidence these days. Why? For starters, they have begun the search for a new writer, presumably to rewrite my entire script from scratch. Now I’m a big boy — I can take the blow if my skills are not up to the high, high standards of the Weinstein Company (he said with too much sarcasm in his voice). But this is happening behind my back, without consulting me or even asking my opinion. I enjoy working with other writers and have no doubt that the RIGHT person could help make any script better. But to not even ask me? Adding insult to injury, the search is basically an open assignment. This means the net has been cast wide, virtually posting in the “classifieds” of the movie business. The Fraggles do not deserve such treatment.
I understand his frustration. It sucks to be undermined like that. Here's the thing though: All films, even really really really wonderfully written ones, get other writers added. Sometimes more than two, sometimes close to a dozen.
You won't see these other writers on the credits at the beginning of the movie though. The ones you see on the big screen had spent a great deal of time and had a good percentage of their writing in the final shooting script (which changes each day of production). It also helps to have a really good agent who negotiated a bunch of guaranteed steps (more on that in a later post).
It is very surprising how much or how little these "extra" writers actually do. Sometimes they are brought in for a day of punch-ups where they sit and discuss dialogue that could be better or jokes that could be funnier. Sometimes they are given the task of revisions and they spend a week or so reworking the script.
Then there are the extreme cases - the kind that Mr. Edwards is describing on his blog. In those cases, the studio doesn't like the direction the writer has taken the property at all and wants a page one rewrite. This happens far more often than you would think, but it doesn't mean the previous writer did a bad job or is a terrible writer. All it means is the executives had an idea of where they wanted it to go and the writer delivered a different take than what they wanted.
Sometimes it can be nasty though: the executive hated it, the executive owes someone a favor, the writer offends the executive, the writer tells the company he's going to write one way but then changes directions. Any number of reasons why the studio or production company would
toss the writer and get a new one. I'm hoping that's not what Mr. Edwards did. From what he said on his blog, this probably wasn't the case, but he should watch out with what he says. He could easily get kicked off this project if the Weinsteins aren't happy with him.
'Memba when Megan Fox said something nasty about Transformers and Michael Bay?
Hope it was worth it!
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