{"id":11085,"date":"2018-01-24T07:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T07:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=11085"},"modified":"2018-01-24T07:00:22","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T07:00:22","slug":"writingadvicewednesday-spec-scripts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/writingadvicewednesday-spec-scripts\/","title":{"rendered":"#WritingAdviceWednesday – Spec Scripts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Writing Advice Wednesday<\/h3>\n

Advice from The L.A. Times<\/h4>\n

The once-mighty movie \u201cspec\u201d script, long a source of some of Hollywood\u2019s most-beloved films, was pronounced dead after a lengthy illness. As befits many screen legends, the spec script died alone and in search of validation from a fickle, what-have-you-done-lately kind of town.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So-called specs, unsolicited screenplays that writers submit to producers in hopes of bypassing the studio system, resulted in such celebrated movies as \u201cButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,\u201d \u201cThelma & Louise\u201d and \u201cGood Will Hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
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\u201cYes, the spec feature script is pretty much dead,\u201d confirmed David Howard, a tenured professor of screenwriting at USC who, as a writer himself, was close to the deceased.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s been kind of a Balkanization,\u201d explained former Sony executive and independent producer Elizabeth Cantillon. \u201cThe original screenplay is now a Sundance movie.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOriginality is lost,\u201d bemoaned Nicholas Kazan, a longtime screenwriter who concentrated on specs throughout his long career. \u201cI basically made a living writing specs because it lets me tell the story I want to tell while keeping me fresh and enthusiastic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"WILLIAMS
Robin Williams<\/a>, left, and Matt Damon. Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n
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\u201cReal loss is only possible when you love something more than you love yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Robin Williams, in \u201cGood Will Hunting,\u201d a spec script<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Don\u2019t look for any candle-lit shrines along Hollywood Boulevard, or weepy tribute pages online. The spec made countless contributions to the industry but lived behind the scenes \u2014 like grips and best boys \u2014 unglamorous and barely known.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There were no next of kin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Autopsy reports were pending, but sources close to the subject blamed market forces for the demise of the specs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Primarily, the industry\u2019s desire for previously published works, from novels to comic books, took much of the blame for the collapse. But economic forces, from globalization to the downfall of the rental DVD market, were also cited as factors in the death of the spec; talented writers\u2019 increasing preference to work in television is considered another factor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Another culprit: Hollywood is making far fewer movies than it did even 10 years ago. Coincidentally or not, Hollywood box office receipts in 2017 slipped to their lowest level since 1995, amid summer flops and a dearth of fresh ideas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The spec, if nothing else, was the ultimate triumph of the blank page. Like Marilyn Monroe, it came from nothing. It also had a troubled start.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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According to lore, the spec was born in 1933, when legendary scribe Preston Sturges sold \u201cThe Power and the Glory\u201d to Fox for $17,500, plus a portion of its profits. Not to be confused with the more-renowned Graham Greene novel seven years later, the movie failed to find an audience, and Sturges went back to writing what the studios wanted until he could resurrect his career.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Throughout the \u201940s and \u201950s, cognizant of Sturges\u2019 failure with a spec and filling their pockets with studio projects, writers tended to shun specs. Projects were assigned to writers, who would take the idea and develop it into a feature film script.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When the studio system began to break down, that same sequence continued. Writers would either receive an assignment from a studio or producer or pitch an idea in advance, then go off to write.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a sense, writers had become carpenters rather than architects, at the mercy of executives and producers, who weren\u2019t necessarily elite storytellers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cNobody knows anything,\u201d is screenwriter William Goldman\u2019s famous quote on what will and won\u2019t work in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Well, Hollywood knows one thing: Goldman, as talented a writer as the industry has ever known, single-handedly resurrected the spec script. Without him, the genre may have smoldered for decades more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The rebirth came in the \u201960s, when Goldman decided to write a Western buddy film with a modern sensibility. Critical to the project, he thought, was to be able to shape the story without a studio\u2019s interference in tone, plot, character, and dialogue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So he wrote it \u201con spec,\u201d creating \u201cButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,\u201d which would go on to become the highest-grossing film of 1969 and win a screenwriting Oscar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Butch
Robert Redford<\/a>, left, and Paul Newman, as Sundance and Butch 20th Century Fox<\/a> \/ Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Goldman\u2019s memorable script featured dialogue like this:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Etta Place:<\/strong> Why is there never any money, Butch?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Butch Cassidy:<\/strong> Well, I swear, Etta, I don’t know. I’ve been working like a dog all my life and I can’t get a penny ahead<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Etta Place:<\/strong> Sundance says it’s because you’re a soft touch, and always taking expensive vacations, and buying drinks for everyone, and you’re a rotten gambler.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Butch Cassidy:<\/strong> Well that might have something to do with it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Goldman\u2019s vision resurrected the genre.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe modern spec script era started with Butch Cassidy, and execs saw they could make a hit movie with no development and no expense,\u201d Kazan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If that was the spark, the writer\u2019s guild strike of 1988 was the gasoline truck. The strike gave writers time away from their staff jobs and script rewrites to generate piles of original screenplays. Studios, freed from development costs and eager to re-fill their script pipeline after the long strike, began to spend freely on specs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhat happened was capitalism at its worst,\u201d recalls Kazan. \u201cFear and panic and greed took over.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cA script would go out on Friday, and you\u2019d go to your kid\u2019s soccer game on Saturday, and you\u2019d see an exec go off to make a call to up an offer\u2026.It became this feverish thing. People bought a lot of stuff that didn\u2019t get made,\u201d Kazan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Yet, the spec script soon became the tech-startup if its day. By 1990, stories of million-dollar paydays were rampant. A young UCLA-trained writer from Pittsburgh, Shane Black, generated headlines, and fed the frenzy, when he made $1.75 million for \u201cThe Last Boy Scout.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When \u201cBasic Instinct\u201d became box office gold, the spec bull market increased, gathering juice throughout the decade. By the mid-\u201990s, even lawyers and school teachers \u2014 and of course underpaid journalists \u2014 were joining the treasure hunt with scripts written during their off-hours.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Chad Clough, chief executive of Script Pipeline, a writer development business, remembers arriving in Hollywood in 2000 to \u201cridiculous spec sales, three a day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThey weren\u2019t going for $250,000 either,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were going for a million.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What happened was capitalism at its worst. Fear and panic and greed took over.
\nNicholas Kazan, screenwriter<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Then, as quickly as the spec script flourished, it began a Norma Desmond fade.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A series of spec disappointments \u2014 including \u201cRadio Flyer\u201d and \u201cThe Long Kiss Goodnight\u201d \u2014 was partly to blame, as was the decline in the DVD rental market and the explosion of HBO and other high-end cable outlets. It was as if the once-mighty spec script had fallen out of a plane.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe studios believe that it\u2019s very hard to sell original screenplay ideas that are not based on original intellectual properties,\u201d said Cantillon, the former Sony exec. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to hit a global home run, then you\u2019re not going to be able to do that with an original screenplay.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Specs are often \u201ctoo American,\u201d she said, for overseas audiences in need of less homespun, or personal stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Consumers might ask if the decline of the spec is such a loss, given the growing quality and reach of premium cable channels and streaming outlets such as Netflix and Amazon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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USC screenwriting prof Howard, believes current trends are \u201cseparating us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThree hundred people in a movie theater, all enjoying something together, that\u2019s the loss,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kazan says: \u201cThere was a flawed system, and now there\u2019s a different flawed system.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A silver lining? \u201cI think the feeding frenzy era is over, and that\u2019s a good thing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI think there\u2019ll be a turn back,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen a spec goes out now, people pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Exhibit A in Kazan\u2019s case: The script for \u201cThe Post,\u201d an Oscar contender about the Washington Post that was based on a spec by Liz Hannah. (Director Steven Spielberg brought in screenwriter Josh Singer, an Oscar winner for \u201cSpotlight,\u201d to work on the rewrite).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Clough, of Script Pipeline, says the spec market could be \u2014 like old vinyl or vintage guitars \u2014 a thing of the past and the future. He cites an increasing voracious marketplace, as evidenced by Netflix\u2019s pledge to produce 80 new original movies in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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So could the corpse soon rise from the dead, for a surprise Hollywood ending, even a fresh life? Perhaps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cRight now, the industry wants original voices,\u201d Clough said. \u201cThere\u2019s still a need for an excellent script.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
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Chris.Erskine@latimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Save<\/span>Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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