The myth of the overnight screenwriting success
One of the choice members of the Mystery Hollywood Twitter community is @MysteryBritExec. She is candid, can be wickedly funny and has a wonderful way with the English language, apparent even at 140 characters per tweet. She also offers keen insights into the business.
To wit, earlier today MBE went on a short rant. I thought it was well worth spotlighting in full:
I REALLY NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS ARTICLE. Novice Screenwriter on Selling His First Script to Steven Spielberg.
Because elsewhere on the internet, this story as been sold as a real overnight success piece of bullshit.
As though one minute he was writing on a small UK comedy show. The next minute, TA-DA, Big Shiny Hollywood Surprise!
Don’t be sucked in by the dream machine. Matt has been working relentlessly at the highest level in UK TV/Film and US film for a LONG time.
They fucking LOVE this story. But it hurts writers to sell this nonsense.
He has re-written projects at the highest level. He doesn’t stop working.
Matt Charman is about as far from being a novice as the world is sane right now. ACTUAL END.
Here are some excerpts from the article in question found in The Hollywood Reporter:
Steven Spielberg typically works only with the most in-demand writers — from Tony Kushner to David Koepp. But don’t tell British playwright Matt Charman, 35, whose first screenplay is the director’s next film.
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Charman, who lives in London with his wife and 18-month-old son, talked to THR about his improbable move from pitch to production in less than a year and being part of Hollywood’s most exclusive inner circles.
What was the genesis of this screenplay?
I love the Kennedy administration and that period in American history. I found a footnote in a history book. It referred to James Donovan and the fact that he was a lawyer whom JFK had sent in to negotiate with Castro. There was a little asterisk, and down at the bottom of the page, it mentioned that he was also responsible for the prisoner exchange of Francis Gary Powers [an American pilot whose spy plane was shot down] for [Soviet spy] Rudolf Abel. And I thought, “This guy’s a lawyer, right, and how does that work?”
When did it come to Hollywood?
I pitched it to DreamWorks [senior vp production] Jonathan Eirich in October. I met him in a waffle shop in Los Angeles. He said, “Look, I’m going to go in right now and repeat as much of this as I can for Steven Spielberg because I think he’ll love this.” And by the time I landed back in the U.K., I had an amazing phone message saying, “Steven Spielberg would like to talk to you.”
Describe that feeling?
It was the most exhilarating and nerve‑racking experience in my life. Suddenly, his voice is there on the phone: “Matt, I heard you’ve got a great story to tell me. Shoot.” I gave him the pitch, and I talked him through the whole story. I got to the end of it, and he said, “How fast can you write it? Because I’d love to direct it.”
How fast were you able to write it?
I turned the first draft around in about eight weeks. Next thing I know, I’m at lunch with Steven Spielberg.
The impression is that a “novice” can stumble upon a story, somehow manage to tell it to an exec at a random waffle shop, line up a phone pitch with a major filmmaker, knock out the script in two months, then voila! Immediately become part of the Hollywood in-crowd. It’s that easy!
@MysteryExec, a leading light of the Mystery Hollywood crowd, followed up with his own observations on Twitter:
Yearrrrrrs of work before success usually. Sometimes a decade. Sometimes more.
It’s a ‘sexy’ story to say something happened overnight for a creative person. But it’s 100% bullshit.
Tragedy happens overnight. Success doesn’t.
You aren’t given some miracle career by selling one spec. Nor is one script an indicator of a writer’s ability to have an entire career.
You forge relationships, continue to work hard, and the best of the bunch never stop pushing to do better work.
You wanna be rich? One script isn’t going to do it.
Here’s how you win the lottery: you play the lottery. Filmmaking is not an easy path to cash. Especially not now.
This echoes something I have been preaching since I started this blog in 2008. There are no short cuts. There is no magic formula. Beware hucksters who try to sell you anything resembling the ‘keys to a million dollar spec script’. Because you know what? It’s not just about the script. You need to learn the craft: Think Concepts. Watch Movies. Read Scripts. Write Pages. Live Life.
Your goal is not to sell a spec script. It’s to build a career. A great spec script can be crucial, but that is a means to an end. Once you break into the business, you want to be in a position where you know your chops and have a fundamental grasp of the craft, you understand something about yourself as a writer and a person, you have taken the time to learn about the entertainment business and a writer’s place in it, you have solid writing habits in place and have developed your own approach to cracking and writing a story under deadline.
Being a novice-who-breaks-into-Hollywood makes for great copy. Shrinks the distance between Tinsel Town and Your Town.
But as @MysteryBritExec and @MysteryExec point out, this is essentially a myth. And even if it were true, it’s not where you want to be. Rather when you break in…
You. Want. To. Know. Your. Shit.
The only way to do that is through years of immersing yourself in the craft… living life as fully as possible… and doing the hard work of ass-on-chair writing day after day after day after day…
If you aren’t following the Mystery Hollywood crowd on Twitter, you absolutely should. Consider it part of your education. For a list of many of the denizens of that mysterious community, go here.
And special thanks to @MysteryBritExec and @MysteryExec… for laying the truth on us!
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