On The Lot & Test Your Movie Savvy
By Therese Walsh | June 5, 2007 |
I’d decided to take a break from television following the climax of all my favorite reality TV shows. But when I needed some couch time the other night, I flipped on the tube to find–surprise–another reality TV show, one I’d heard a little about: On The Lot.
Haven’t heard of it? Here’s a blip about the show from Fox’s website:
ON THE LOT, executive-produced by Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg, will give aspiring filmmakers from around the world the chance to earn a $1-million development deal at DreamWorks…this reality-competition series features a cast of undiscovered filmmakers who will compete to win the support of the show’s viewers, as their fate will be decided by a weekly audience vote.
I was ready to turn the channel when they started talking about loglines–something they’d covered in the previous episode–and something we’ve talked up here at WU.
Drat! Should I be watching OTL? Will I learn something here? I convinced myself that it wasn’t my laziness keeping me on the couch; I had to watch the show for potentially educational purposes. In the end, I learned not so much, as it turns out. The episode wasn’t about writing; it was about taking someone else’s writing and turning it into a movie.
The next day I went over to TV Guide’s site and found this review by Surfer Girl about the logline episode I’d missed:
…as I learned from Project Greenlight, a good director and a good screenwriter are not necessarily one and the same. Having this batch of 50 wannabe filmmakers try to take a logline (and couldn’t they have called it a plotline for us nonindustry people out here watching the show?) and turn it into a story doesn’t necessarily demonstrate their directorial talents. Sure, you have to have some creativity to be a director, but screenwriters exist for a reason.
Well, yeah, they do. Which spins me, finally, to my point. Screenwriters are undervalued and nearly invisible in Hollywood.
Just to prove this (not to shame anyone), let’s play a game. I’m going to throw some names out there. See if you can marry movie with writer. Here goes:
The Flick:
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind
Titanic
Goodfellas
James and the Giant Peach
When Harry Met Sally
Misery
Dances with Wolves
ET
Amadeus
Malcolm X
Schindler’s List
Million Dollar Baby
Pretty Woman
Blue Velvet
The Bic:
Melissa Mathison
Nicholas Pileggi
Charlie Kaufman
William Goldman
Michael Blake
Paul Haggis
Nora Ephron
David Lynch
Steven Zaillian
Spike Lee
Peter Shaffer
J.F. Lawton
James Cameron
Karey Kirkpatrick
And here’s how things should’ve paired up…
Whose Bic Wrote the Flick:
* Melissa Mathison – ET (Steven Spielberg, director)
* Nicholas Pileggi – Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, director)
* Charlie Kaufman – Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, director)
* William Goldman – Misery (Rob Reiner, director; Stephen King, novelist)
* Michael Blake – Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner, director. Blake also penned the original novel.)
* Paul Haggis – Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood, director)
* Nora Ephron – When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner, director)
* David Lynch – Blue Velvet (Lynch was also the director.)
* Steven Zaillian – Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, director; Thomas Keneally, noveist)
* Spike Lee – Malcom X (Lee was also the director.)
* Peter Shaffer – Amadeus (Milos Forman, director)
* J.F. Lawton – Pretty Woman (Garry Marshall, director)
* James Cameron – Titanic (Cameron directed as well)
* Karey Kirkpatrick – James and the Giant Peach (Henry Selick directed, and Tim Burton produced. Kirkpatrick was one of three screenwriters. The other two were Jonathan Roberts and Steven Bloom.)
Howja do? There are a few easy ones there, granted. James Cameron, Spike Lee and David Lynch are three writers who direct and/or produce their own work, and so are far better known than some of the others. Were you shocked you didn’t know some of these writers’ names when their films are so well known? Were you surprised that the famous directors, for the most part, didn’t do any of the writing? Don’t you think of ET and Schindler’s List as being Spielberg’s creative work? And did you believe Million Dollar Baby came from Eastwood’s own womb?
I think it’s sad that the true creative forces behind some of Hollywood’s biggest hits and most legendary stories are unknown. It’s sadder still that the film industry doesn’t seem to embrace these people, leaving the screenwriter off the marquee for the most part. (One notable exception is Charlie Kaufman, whose unique works–Adaptation; Being John Malkovich–have set him in a league of his own.) It makes me want to look at the back of my VHS and DVD boxes to see who’s written what, then have a piece of chocolate in their honor…something, anything.
So do you know who wrote your favorite movies? What do you think of this issue? Has Hollywood put too much emphasis on the director, the producer and the actor and forgotten about possibly the most underrated star of all: the writer? And, if you’ve seen it, what do you think of The Lot?
Don’t be shy now. Speak and be heard.
Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.
Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.
Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.
didn’t watch THE LOT but i confess, i only got the nora ephron and spike lee matches. probably because they are famous in their own right. being a screenwriter is like being a mother…you raise that baby but you are way in the background rarely ever get the credit in the end. haha
TV writers have a lot more respect, and a lot of them graduate to Showrunners. Writers are literally the lifeblood of a good TV series, whereas Hollywood big wigs can replace the writer on a film at the drop of a hat whenever they don’t like something.
I think if I had to choose between film or TV, I’d choose TV.
You’re right, Eric. Come back Friday to hear Dale Launer talk about exactly that issue.
I agree with Eric. TV writers are more well-known (and appreciated) than movie writers. Scripts based on books often show little resemblance to the original work, especially after it’s been through multiple re-writes by multiple screenwriters. The original book writer often has no say so over the script and most of the time never writes a word of the script.
I agree with you, Helen. But there are original screenplays, like Little Miss Sunshine, that rock the boat in the best of ways. And sometimes, just maybe, a screenwriter who’s writing an adaptation of a novel, goes one better– like in Adaptation by Charlie Kaufman. At least that’s my opinion.
There are also novels made based on movies: novelizations. But I guess that’s another blog post. ;)
With respect to the movies, a screenwriter can contribute as little as one line of dialogue and he gets a credit (learned that listening to the Pirates/Carribean special comments ;-)).
Steve Kloves of Harry Potter fame is respected in the industry. But I agree, for the most part the writers have very little power. Sad.
Wow, that was a tough-ie.