“What sells a script? Hollywood exec weighs in”

The good folks over at Scripped.com had a recent Q&A with an anonymous studio exec. An excerpt:

Q: How would I go about selling a movie idea to a studio?

There are some things that will help sell a movie to a studio (in no particular order):

 — The bigger/simpler/catchier the idea, the better.
 — The more complete the package, the better. I.e: a script is better than a pitch, script with a director attached is better than a script, etc.
 — The international marketplace is becoming a bigger and bigger driver of a movie’s success, so whatever you can do to add international appeal (loosely defined), will help.
 — Any sort of underlying material (article, book, remake, toy, life rights, etc.) will help.
 — Attaching an influential producer usually helps.

I have discussed each of these, some of them frequently:

#1 points out — once again — how important you story concept is. Bigger, simpler, catchier = High Concept. 

#2 and #5 speak to the shift over the last decade or so where studios increasingly want producers and reps to bring a strong package to the table. This reflects how at least some of the studios prefer to focus not so much on development, but on distribution and marketing. This dynamic ebbs and flows, however, as sometimes, especially when a new regime takes over, a studio may want to take more control over projects starting early in the development process.

#4 is that whole pre-branded brand phenomenon.

#3 reflects the continued growth in international box office, currently representing on average around 65% of a movie’s revenues, a percentage that figures to go up even more in the coming years.

Which all goes to show… I ain’t making this stuff up.

For the entire Scripped interview, go here.