In January 1991, Jeffrey Katzenberg, then the head of Disney’s motion picture divisions, wrote a memo that ended up being circulated throughout Hollywood. Even though it is 21 years old, it is remarkably relevant to the current movie business. For example, the United States was in a recession as we are today. The movie industry was confronted by numerous financial challenges tied to technological advances and cultural shifts, also as we are today.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting the entire memo. If you have any interest in screenwriting or working in the film business, you should read it. Why? Because it gives you a wide-open view of how studio executives think. After all, any script you write and circulate in Hollywood doesn’t exist in a vacuum, rather it funnels through a system, one that operates based upon the business principles and practices of studio heads like Katzenberg.

Today: Getting Writers Who Can Tell the Stories

Getting Writers Who Can Tell the Stories

One reason for our quick and early success upon arriving at Disney was that we established a stable of writers under long-term contracts. These were talented individuals whom we could work with and who felt they had a stake in this studio. Just as our marketing division’s success is in part attributable to the fact that the people there are part of the give-and-take of the ongoing creative process here, so, too, did this group of writers that was integrated into our operation function particularly well.

Now the stable is nearly empty. We should fill it again.

I know that many will argue that this just isn’t feasible anymore. Agents won’t let their clients sign long-term contracts because the spec script market is too lucrative.

All this means is it will be tougher. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

We need to somehow find the writers and convince them that an association here is in their interests. And this may not be as difficult as it seems. If and when the $3 million dollar scripts turn into box office duds, the speculative bubble will quickly pop and long-term contracts at a stable studio will regain some of their lost luster.

But we shouldn’t wait for this to happen. All the big time writers have one thing in common. They were all once unknown and thrilled just to make a sale. The future big time writers are out there and would be grateful just to be considered by our studio. To find them, we have to search harder, dig deeper… and be there first.

So here’s how this would work back in the day. Disney would do overall deals with a stable of writers. They would buy pitches and scripts on the cheap or develop ideas internally. Then they would invite writers not under contract to come in to pitch for open writing assignments. We’re talking anywhere from 10, 20 or more writers vying for one project. Then as if by magic, the person who would invariably end up writing the project was one of the writers they already had a deal with. And also as if by magic, some of the ideas that those non-contract writers lobbed the studio’s way during their pitches somehow migrated from those meetings into the actual movies. The studio always had an out simply by saying, “Hey, that idea Writer A pitched? We already had hit on that in our own development process.” How could a writer disprove that?

Things change. Nowadays top writer-producers like Steve Zaillian, Chris Morgan and others still have deals, but I think it’s fair to say that writer deals at studios are nowhere near as prevalent as they used to be.

Meanwhile the spec script market which had been pretty moribund in 2009 and 2010 rebounded nicely in 2011 and has gotten off to a rousing start this year. Maybe we’ll never get back to the heady days of 1991 which saw spec sales like Basic Instinct [Joe Eszterhas] and Medicine Man [Tom Schulman] for $3M later and Forever Young [J.J. Abrams] for $2M. But the buyers still recognize the value of a well-executed spec with a great story concept.

To read Part 1 of the Katzenberg memo, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

Part 3, go here.

Part 4, go here.

Part 5, go here.

Part 6, go here.

Part 7, go here.

To read the entire memo, go here.