Tag Archives: screenwriting

Films

What is it like when your own film tanks?

Conan, a reimagination of the popular Schwarzenegger franchise, was released last week and tanked. One of the credited screenwriters, Sean Hood, was gracious enough to answer a question on Quora on what it’s like when your film flops at the boxoffice:

A movie’s opening day is analogous to a political election night. Although I’ve never worked in politics, I remember having similar feelings of disappointment and disillusionment when my candidate lost a presidential bid, so I imagine that working as a speechwriter or a fundraiser for the losing campaign would feel about the same as working on an unsuccessful film.

It’s insightful and honest. Read the whole thing here.

TV

“And his EYES. His FUCKING EYES.”

Here’s a fun little article from about three years ago about the writing style of the LOST screenplays. (DISCLAIMER: If you happen to not like LOST and/or don’t give a fuck about what goes on behind the scenes, stop reading this article and peruse some of the other offers my blog provides). Anyway, apparently J.J. Abrams likes to use profanity to make a point when writing scene directions:

J. J. Abrams (the series creator) established this style in the pilot with phrases like “HE SCREAMS BLOODYFUCKINGMURDER” and “this guy is a Class-A prickfuck” (wha-?!). Since then it appears to have become part of the show’s template. Most LOST scripts read as if the writer has just hit his thumb with a hammer.

Read the article here.

I do wonder what LOST would have been like had it been bought by a network like HBO which let’s characters use actual, you know, language.