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In My Own Words
Josh Becker has written and directed three independent feature films: "Thou Shalt Not Kill . . .
Except," "Lunatics: A Love Story" and "Running Time." He also directed the pilot TV movie for the series
"Hercules: The Legendary Journeys," as well as seven episodes of "Xena: Warrior Princess," and has written
two others. Josh sold a spec script, entitled "Cycles," to Beacon Communications, producers of "Air Force
One." Josh has his own website, www.beckerfilms.com, where many more of his cynical, snotty, curmudgeonly
articles and essays can be found.
"WRITING AND SELLING A SCREENPLAY"
By
Josh Becker
I am one of the very few people that I know of
that's sold a spec screenplay. I know a number of people that have made a lot more money than me writing
screenplays, but they were all commissioned or developed. The script that I am referring to is called
CYCLES and it was purchased by Beacon Communications (producers of AIR FORCE ONE). Although I have
recently heard that CYCLES is on the development "fast-track," it has not been produced, nor do there
seem to be any immediate plans to do so. Nevertheless, I did sell it.
This essay is in response to all of these WRITE A
SCREENPLAY THAT SELLS books in the bookstores written by all these people that have never sold a script.
I've written 28 full-length feature scripts. I've written many scripts with the explicit idea of selling
them and none of those sold. I wrote CYCLES strictly because I thought it was a good idea that would
make a cool movie. I dismissed all concessions to what anyone else might like, writing the script
entirely for myself. This was (and is) a movie that I would very much like to see.
Since that time I have tried to write all of my
scripts with exactly the same attitude. I think it's the way to go. Write what matters to you; write the
movies that you would really like to see. Ignore the trends. If you can see that there is a trend, it's
over. You, and numerous others that are much further along than you, are all too late. It's only the
first two or three films that caused there to be a trend (sci-fi movies in 1997, for instance) that are
any good and make all of the money. Everything that comes out thereafter will suck and bomb. Then every
script in that same genre, in all their various stages of development, all get shitcanned.
Take westerns in the 1990s as an example. Two
good westerns came out in a row (admittedly a year apart, but no one had been making any westerns for a
long time), DANCES WITH WOLVES then UNFORGIVEN, which both made a lot of money and each won the Oscar
for "Best Picture." All of the westerns that followed in the next year or so sucked and bombed(BAD
GIRLS, TOMBSTONE, WYATT EARP, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, GERONIMO, WILD BILL, et al). And of all the films
that failed in the wake of the two hits, at least one hundred times that many western scripts were in
development. By 1995 nobody in Hollywood would bother to read a western script, let alone consider
buying it or producing it. That's until somebody else makes a good western because they love westerns,
not because it is or ever was a trend.
In 1983 or '84 I saw a documentary called HELL'S
ANGELS FOREVER. In the film a fat, bearded biker in his late 30s or 40s (it was hard to tell) told the
story of how he became a biker, which was because his dad was a biker. He then went on to quickly
explain the history of motorcycle gangs, which were begun right after World War Two by disenfranchised
veterans, among whom was this biker's father. I thought to myself, "That's fascinating. I didn't know
that"
For the next nine years this idea rattled around
in my head.
In 1992, for no known reason, the idea resurfaced
in my mind. I pitched it to a couple of different friends who each responded exactly the same way I did
when I heard the idea: it seemed like a great idea on an interesting subject that no one knew anything
about.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine told the story to a
friend of his who has a small production company with his brother. They liked what they'd heard of the
idea and asked me to come in and pitch it to them, which I did. Afterward, they nodded saying they did
indeed like the idea, then they said exactly what every other producer in Hollywood will say under the
circumstances, which is, "We'd love to read it when it's written."
So I wrote the script. Since half the story takes
place in Texas, I began studying the dialect and made a glossary of "Texas-isms:" ("Do you reckon?" and
"I don't cotton to that," etc.). Since the story also took place in 1946, I began to study the period
dialog, mainly through watching movies, and made another glossary of "40s-isms:" ("Was it rugged?" and
"Are you hep?" etc.). I stuck both glossaries on the wall in front of my face while writing.
CYCLES went through three drafts in the course of
four or five months.
When it was written I gave it to the two brothers
and they promptly optioned it for, I am ashamed to say, 3 years.
The two brothers then turned right around and
optioned CYCLES to Beacon Communications, who, at that point, had produced: THE ROAD TO WELLVILLE,
PRINCESS CARIBOO, and SUGAR HILL. I didn't even know that you could re-option a script to a third party.
You can.
Then the sands of time blew over the giant stone
pyramids, wearing them slowly to dust.
Two years and ten months later, having never
communicated with Beacon Communications, nor with the two brothers in over a year, I figured I was
getting my script back, which was fine with me. I liked that script.
Then Beacon contacted my lawyer and subsequently
bought the script. I blush now in recalling that I actually went to some difficulty getting a "best
effort" clause so that they would have to use me to do rewrites. I've always imagined that the dialog at
Beacon (if indeed there was any) went something like this:
EXEC#1: OK, let's get this new project, CYCLES,
rewritten, pronto.
EXEC#2: Hey, C.B. There's a "best effort" clause
in the contract saying we have to use the kid that wrote the script to rewrite it.
EXEC#1: Oh, yeah? Fuck him! That's my best
effort, now get a real writer.
I hear it's gone through eight or nine different
writers and God knows how many drafts. I also hear that Phil Kaufman ("The Right Stuff," "The Unbearable
Lightness of Being") was attached for a while, but he's moved on to bigger and better things. I also
hear that the title has been changed to "Griffen." There was no one named Griffen in the script when I
wrote it.
This brings up an interesting question should the
film ever get made. Who gets the credit? It will certainly go to Writer's Guild arbitration and they
will ultimately decide. I don't think it's possible to ever entirely remove the original author, but,
God only knows? They may make it into a science-fiction musical, for all I know. Even with the aid of my
lawyer I haven't been able to get anyone at Beacon to talk to me.
And even though I sold a script to a Writer's
Guild signatory company, using Writer's Guild contracts and following Writer's Guild rules - which, to
my limited understanding, is sufficient for getting into the Writer's Guild - I did not get into the
Writer's Guild. This was based exclusively on the fact that I did not sell the option to Beacon. Of
course, when Beacon finally wanted to purchase the script they had to deal with me, since I was the
copyright owner. However, in the eyes of the Writer's Guild, I never did business with Beacon. The fact
that they wrote a check to me to purchase the rights from me did not cut it with the Writer's Guild. And
then they made me feel bad about it, too, like I was trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
I then spent most of the money I made selling
CYCLES to finance my film RUNNING TIME. Now, if they'll just make CYCLES and I get screen credit, I'll
make more money and be able to shoot another low-budget movie.
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