Hollywood Tales

“Sometimes they [other screenwriters] want to be [rewritten]. Or they go, ‘You know what, I’m tapped out.’ Or sometimes they’ll say, ‘Look, I don’t want to be rewritten, but it’s gonna happen.’ What I’m talking about is, I won’t rewrite someone who really doesn’t want me to do it. It’s not worth it to me. I don’t want to do that to someone’s work. But most of the time when it gets to a situation where they’re asking you to rewrite, the writer knows. So just calling the writer, they usually feel more comfortable having me do it, because I say to them, ‘This is what I’m thinking of doing. What were you setting out to do?’ I try to honor the work they’ve done ahead of me.”

 — Ed Solomon (Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Men In Black)

From The Dialogue Series