Interview (Part 6): Brad Ingelsby (2012 Black List)

Brad Ingelsby is one busy writer with at least six projects in various states of development and production including Hold on to Me and Run All Night [both on the 2012 Black List] and The Raid. Plus in a nice bit of synergy for us, he sold a high-profile pitch “Merry Men” just last week to DreamWorks.

Brad was kind enough to do an interview and we had an excellent conversation. Today in Part 6, Brad talks about working with his managers and agents. Plus Brad answers some follow-up questions I posed to him about his most recent project “Merry Men”:

Scott: Given the fact you’ve got so many projects going on, how do you manage it all, the practice of stacking projects, handling multiple projects at once?

Brad: Obviously, there are times when you have to work on two things at once. That’s just the way it is. If you’re lucky enough to be working in this business, you have to just make it work. I try to line them up back to back. I’m not good at working on multiple projects at the same time. There are writers who can go from one script to the next to the next in the same day without the quality dropping off. Not me. It takes me a really long time to figure out the characters and the world.

I want my scripts to feel rich in detail and the only way for me to achieve that is to spend time with the characters. I’ve learned that if I’m working on multiple things at once they tend to feel thin and don’t have the detail or richness that I want.

Scott: When you’ve mentioned the writing process, you’ve say the word “we,” and so I’m imagining that involves your representatives WME and Energy. Can you describe what those working relationships are like?

Brad: I’ve been with Mike Esola and Brooklyn Weaver ever since “The Low Dweller”. I think what I value the most about them is their loyalty. I had a pretty big spec sale, and following that there was period of about a year or two where I wasn’t able to get new work. To many people I was a one-hit wonder. “The Low Dweller” wasn’t going anywhere at that time and I didn’t have another spec ready to go, so I wasn’t hirable. The few projects that I thought I had never came to fruition and I was scrambling to figure out what to do.

The assignment business can be extremely difficult and time‑consuming. You’re asked to do an initial treatment. Sometimes it takes the executives a few weeks to read that treatment. Once they’ve read that treatment, you’re asked to make changes. Then it takes them another few weeks to read that. And on and on and on. And at the end of all that free work, there’s no promise that anything will go to script. There’s no guarantee. That’s the business. I understand that better now. But it can be a frustrating process, especially when there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. You feel a bit like a hamster on a wheel.

But Mike and Brooklyn have stood by me in the darkest and brightest of times. That I guess is a sign of loyalty. They returned my calls when I was making them money and they returned my calls when I wasn’t making them any money. And they believed in me when I sent them “Run All Night” as a spec. They immediately got behind it and believed in it and got it out to Roy Lee, our producer, who made the deal happen almost overnight.

It’s an incredible asset to have people who believe in your work and your ability as a writer even when you’re not working.

Scott: How much interplay do you have with Brooklyn when you’re writing?

Brad: Brooklyn is very involved. He reads everything I want him to read, really. If I’m developing an outline for an assignment, he reads that. If I’m struggling through a script and want another set of eyes on the pages, he’ll read those and offer an opinion on what’s working and what’s not. He’s very accessible and willing to dive in and try to figure stories out. It’s a huge benefit in that you don’t always feel like you’re alone. He’s a great advocate and a great ally.

Scott: One last question: What advice do you offer people who say, “How do I become a screenwriter? How do I learn the craft? How do I break into the business?”

Brad: It’s funny. A friend of mine and a very good writer, Adam Moore, teaches a class at the New York Film Academy. He asks me to come in every semester and talk to his group of writing students. He always asks me that same question and I always respond the same way, which is, “It can absolutely happen to you. You can absolutely make it in this business.” I was working as an insurance salesman in Pennsylvania when I got the call that “The Low Dweller” had sold. I had very very few industry contacts. The one contact I had, Mike Pruss, who is now a great friend and a producer at Indian Paintbrush, I met through a teacher at AFI. He sent my script to Mike and Brooklyn and got the ball rolling. But Mike was the one contact I had, really. All it takes is one champion to see something in your work and pay it forward.

Anyway, I was selling insurance when it happened to me. And “The Low Dweller” isn’t commercial and it’s not high-concept at all. The logline is basically ‘a brother seeks revenge after his younger brother is brutally murdered.’ That’s it. If I pitched that logline at a studio I’d be laughed out of the room.

But if you’re passionate about the material and the story, and you believe in yourself then it can absolutely happen to you. I’m the perfect example of someone who got extremely lucky, so I always tell aspiring writers, “If you work hard enough and believe in the story, then there’s a place for you.”

Brad sold “Merry Men” to DreamWorks after our interview. He was kind enough to respond to a couple of questions about the project I sent to him via email:

Scott: Robin Hood is an iconic figure in Hollywood, the subject of multiple movie treatments. Is there something unique you discovered in working up “Merry Men” compared to previous iterations and if so, could you give us a hint what that angle is?

Brad: You’re right. There have been countless films about Robin Hood and I wasn’t interested in telling the same story. There would have been no point. Toby Ascher and Elizabeth Buraglio, two executives at Original Film, approached me with a completely new way into the legend. To be honest, it’s not really about Robin Hood at all. Robin Hood plays a small role, but the story primarily focuses on Robin’s band of Merry Men led by Little John. We let them take center stage for the first time. And while Robin Hood isn’t our main character, all that he stands for — justice, loyalty, camaraderie — lives on in these characters. So everything that audiences have loved about Robin Hood over hundreds of years of stories and films — action, adventure and romance — will be a part of this new version.

Scott: Are we talking Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian and all the rest of the characters associated with the Robin Hood story world?

Brad: Yes. They all will play a role.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Part 5, here.

Please stop by comments to thank Brad for taking the time for the interview and post any follow-up questions you may have.

Brad is repped by WME and Energy Entertainment.
Comment Archive