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I've read some great screenplays, but they all weren't necessarily fun to read. Some had kick ass dialogue or were laugh out loud funny or had a cool story or a fascinating protagonist. But they weren't fun.
What was a fun screenplay? Two by Shane Black: THE LAST BOY SCOUT and THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT. Quentin Tarentino's stuff is fun especially his latest KILL BILL--all 202 pages of it. (That's right. 202. It breaks all the rules of polite screenwriting society. And it works. But that's another story). EXIT ZERO by Kurt Wimmer was a blast to read. I could name a few more. Some have been made, some are in pre-production or development. Some have been written by former students and friends of mine.
The key word being "few." I have to believe that if I were an agent or producer I would love to find a screenplay that isn't so much as a business decision, but 90 minutes of pleasure. Of fun. If you're job is to find screenplays to sell or produce or convince studies to finance reading scripts is indeed a "job." And if most of them are bad or so-so or derivative it becomes boring, frustrating and maddening.
So when a screenplay arrives that reads a little different or starts in an imaginative way or just hooks you from the first line or image or scene and maybe you smile or think "This is different" or "I haven't seen this before" it rejuvanates you and you settle back to actually read something for pleasure (along with the hope that it'll be good enough until the last page so you can sell it).
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