Exclusive GITS Q&A: Greg Russo (Part 1)

In March 2010, I posted this:

Broke the news Wednesday night here:

“Down” to Relativity is 1408 in an elevator — written by first timer — greg russo

Now here’s THR’s report from yesterday:

Relativity Media has optioned the original screenplay “Down” from freshman scribe Greg Russo. Described by one person who read it as ” ‘Buried’ meets ’1408,’ ” the supernatural thriller centers on a guy trapped in an elevator.

Russo, a Vassar graduate who is new to the business, is repped by Manage-Ment.

Another contained thriller.

Always nice to hear when a spec sells, but especially so when it’s ‘first-timer.’ Greg emailed me last night, so I was able to congratulate him directly.

I interviewed Greg here. And clearly due to the good karma he received from doing that interview, this happened in August 2011:

Inferno buys action-thriller spec “Autobahn” from writer Greg Russo. Per THR:

Autobahn is the story of a washed-up ex-Formula One driver who wakes up trapped inside a BMW on the side of the Autobahn, Germany’s famed high-speed roadway, which has no general speed limit. He answers a phone ringing in the glove box, only to be told that he has 90 minutes to deliver the bomb-rigged car to a target or his wife and daughter will be killed.The setting of the project was switched from the United States’ Eastern seaboard to Germany in order to court the international marketplace. Inferno would look to cast a star ahead of the American Film Market in November and pre-sell the film.

So two spec scripts sold within 18 months. I figured clearly we needed to delve into Greg’s mindset to learn more about his writing process, and he kindly agreed to do a second interview. Here is Part 1:

Let’s pick up where we left off. In March 2010, you sell the spec script “Down” to Relativity Media. Now that you’ve had some time to reflect on the whirlwind of meetings subsequent to that sale, what did you learn from all that?

Be ready with a follow-up script. Or if you don’t have a script, have a rock-solid idea that you know works, that you’ve vetted with your “brain trust” and that you can tease in the subsequent meetings. In other words, no one’s gonna hand you “Die Hard 5” off one script. You need to have a second (hopefully larger and stronger, but still the same genre!) script ready to go. If you’ve played your cards right, and good fortune finds you, then you’ll have that second script ready to rock by the time your first one goes out. Since I didn’t have a second script ready, I had to quickly get my shit together and write one. Lesson learned!

Did you go up for OWA’s (Open Writing Assignments)? What were those experiences like?

The waters will slightly churn for you off one sale, but don’t expect the seas to part. You need to show that you can deliver again and again. Then people will start to become “fans” of yours and trust you with their OWAs, aka, their money. So I looked at a few, but I was pretty much only focused on getting my second script out there, which, if you’re following the timeline above, took me until about September 2010. By the way, the first OWA I ended up getting, was luckily enough the first one I really wanted and went for. That came much later though in March 2011, an action flick at Paramount.

Did you go out with any pitches? If so, are there any lessons you can share about the pitching process?

After I wrote my second script and got some goodwill off of it, I decided to test the waters with a pitch. As a rule of thumb, I won’t pitch anything unless I’m beyond confident that I can nail it and even more confident that it will play to the market. I had something that met those criteria, so I started pitching it in the room around November. We sold it in December 2010. The script is just now finished, and God, man, I am so excited for this one to go out. It’s so much fun! As for pitching lessons? People write books on this. So I’ll just say- Be yourself. And be enthusiastic. You better want to see that fucking idea as a film! And it better show. No bullshitting, buddy! Cause let’s be honest, if you’re not genuinely excited about it in the room, how the hell do you expect someone else to be?

Apparently not satisfied with selling just one spec script, you decided to go after another one. Originally called “I-95,” what was the genesis of that story and why did you decide to write it on spec?

I chose to write it on spec because I really wanted to show people that I could write something bigger. The genesis was simple. I was back East. I saw the road sign. I thought, that’s a cool fucking title for an action/thriller. What can I build around that? Started researching. Found the terrorist tactic known as the “proxy bomb” which was heavily employed by the IRA in the early 90’s. Knew I could modernize that high-concept idea and give it a “Taken x Speed” spin so it would play to audiences today. Got excited. Sat ass down. Wrote.

The script originally went out in September, 2010, but it didn’t get officially picked up by Inferno until August of this year. I’m guessing there’s an interesting backstory there. First off, what was the initial response to the script and how did Inferno get involved?

That script really did more for me than anything else, and in hindsight, I think I know why. Because I was genuinely passionate about it. I was like a kid on Christmas when I would talk about the idea prior to writing it. And I was driven, no pun intended. I felt like I needed to prove to people, most likely to myself, that I wasn’t a one-trick pony (or in the case of “Down”) a one-setting pony.

Long story short, lots of people expressed lots of interest. Inferno had a plan to make it work and that’s why they’re involved.

Side Note: The nicest thing that happened with that script is something I never expected. There was an end of year list (not yours☺) and 97! people voted for my script as the best of the year. 97 people who I’ve never met, who had no cause to vote, no benefit from it. I think I finished in the top three. And all around me were these multi-million dollar spec sales. Man, that made me smile for a good couple days. If any of those people are reading this, thanks!

Here is how the story is described in the trades:

“Autobahn is the story of a washed-up ex-Formula One driver who wakes up trapped inside a BMW on the side of the Autobahn, Germany’s famed high-speed roadway, which has no general speed limit. He answers a phone ringing in the glove box, only to be told that he has 90 minutes to deliver the bomb-rigged car to a target or his wife and daughter will be killed.”

Who decided to make that change from the U.S. to Germany and why? Was that a tricky transition for you, shifting the story setting to Germany? How much and what type of research did you do to familiarize yourself with the autobahn, Formula One racing, and so on?

It was a joint decision between myself, Inferno, and our director Mark Steven Johnson. We knew the concept worked. The trick with something like this is, how do you make it play to the widest possible audience? Naturally, the way to do that is to open it up to the ever-important foreign marketplace. So, the Autobahn felt like the perfect fit. Almost too perfect. More importantly, it wasn’t a superficial change. It made sense for our story and our characters and made it stronger. It was a tricky switch of course. But if my core concept, themes, and characters are transferrable, I can make it work. All that research came in the subsequent rewrites. Oh, and I had access to a German expert too!

Tomorrow: Part 2 of the interview with Greg Russo.

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