EXCLUSIVE: Early notes from screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin on “Ghost”
The good folks at the Writers Guild Foundation know that this site is all about the craft of screenwriting. So they have been kind enough to provide us with an exclusive look at the earliest development notes by screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin and his hugely successful 1990 movie Ghost.
Background
Bruce Joel Rubin is a longtime screenwriter with multiple movie credits including Jacob’s Ladder, My Life, Deep Impact, Stuart Little 2, The Last Mimzy, and The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Ghost was his first big hit grossing an astonishing $506M worldwide, made all the more remarkable by the fact its production budget was a reported $22M.
Plot Summary: After being killed during a botched mugging, a man’s love for his partner enables him to remain on earth as a ghost.
Cast: Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg.
Courtesy of the Writers Guild Foundation, here in Rubin’s own handwriting is the “very first notation about a film about ghosts” [circa 1979/1980]:
Partial Transcription: “GHOST STORY. REAL GHOST. Haunts [??] of his past which present reality collides with his [??] & visions. Search for release. Suicide shocked to discover that he still exists — wants desperately to return to life — communicates with a sensitive, [??] her life — she is sympathetic but grows to fear him & his desperation for life, his terrible regret, a kind of love story evolves.”
Sounds very much like the movie. But check out Rubin’s first story treatment:
Bill Murray and Eddie Murphy. Track down a killer. A thirty day ticking clock. Obviously a story in transition. Now consider the first page of Rubin’s 3rd draft, dated November 1, 1983:
Much more like the movie, although no indication yet as to the money-laundering scheme and that threat posed toward Molly.
There’s a lot of takeaway from these notes and here’s one important thing: 11 years. That’s approximately how long it took to get the movie Ghost produced from Rubin’s first creative spark of a story concept. Imagine if at some point, he had given up on the idea or lost interest. Instead his persistence and vision led to one of Hollywood’s most enduring love stories.
Many thanks to Bruce Joel Rubin and the Writers Guild Foundation for allowing the GITS community exclusive access to this content. Please join me in comments to show your appreciation and provide your thoughts about the development process for the movie Ghost as evidenced in this material.
The Writers Guild Foundation is a fantastic resource. Their library alone is worth the visit with an incredible collection of scripts and story notes, much like what you see in this post.
Reminder: The Writers Guild Foundation is hosting an all-day event on June 29th in Beverly Hills called “Craft Your Future: Surviving and Thriving as a Screenwriter” featuring many top screenwriters and the Black List’s Franklin Leonard among others.
You can find out more information about it here.
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