Re-Writing

By: Brian Fleming

Why, you want to know, do producers, agents, directors, actors, etc. insist on changing the screenplay you have spent so much time laboring over? After all, they knew what they had when they bought it, right? If they didn’t like it, why did they spend money on it? Well, yes and no. There are a lot of reasons people want to change your script, some more noble than others.

In the best case scenario, a producer or director or agent will see a way to improve on your script that you, as writer, have not seen before. They’ll see the unnecessary fat you’ve fallen in love with and convinced yourself is vital to understanding the characters and story. Or maybe they have an idea that will make a good script great. This is the best situation to be in, one in which everyone has the quality of the work in mind and is on the same wave length, with a good creative rapport. This is a scenario without egos. But even then, there may be problems the writer has to contend with, such as the sheer financial reality of turning screenplays into feature films. When the money isn’t there, the producer may turn to you and ask you to re-write a scene in keeping with the financing available. This is a reality that’s hard to refute, especially when you’re not the one putting up the cash, but that’s no reason to let the producer off easy. If you’re convinced, and can convince the producer, that an expensive scene is vital to the story, fight for it and make the producer fight to get more money. That said, be willing to compromise and cut other scenes that are less vital. The key to great moviemaking is understanding where to save $100 and where to spend $100,000.

Things get more difficult when egos are involved. First, there are the actor’s ego. They don’t want to play a character who would say or do a thing such as you have written, but otherwise love the story and character, of course. Or else they fancy themselves a better writer than the writer. This, of course, can be true, since there are some bad writers getting paid to write scripts. But there are far more actors who have no clue about writing who believe otherwise. On the other hand, as a writer it’s important to see your work performed to know what works and what doesn’t. Things just sound different when spoken than when read. Accents fall differently. One liners come off as flat. Sentences go on too long or are too formal and rigid. Don’t scoff at actor’s suggestions, but don’t let them re-write your script either—without getting fired, that is.

Then there is the ego of the director, who’s ideas don’t necessarily improve your script, but simply make it his or hers. Maybe this director loves your idea, but has in mind a different execution. This is a matter of taste and is the unfortunate side of handing over creative control. But then, if you want to retain creative control, direct it yourself. Or even better, come up with the financing, since it’s money that ultimately pulls all the strings. Which brings me to another point. A producer may have bought your script solely for the idea with no intention of making the film you’ve actually written. By owning the script, however, he or she protects himself from a potential lawsuit claiming that he or she stole your idea. (and this doesn’t even touch on the studio practice of buying scripts simply because they are similar to a film already in production at the studio and which the studio has no intention of actually making.) In the case of a producer requesting re-writes of a completely different nature from the script you wrote, you’ll either have to comply or be replaced—though if you’ve negotiated your contract well, you should be able to retain a "story by" credit and even get a sizeable monetary compensation.

I recently was involved with a project in which the production company, a major cable network, supplied the writer with twenty-five pages of detailed script notes that basically re-wrote the entire script start to finish for the express purpose of forcing the writer off the project. They’ve now turned to a new writer the movie they wanted all along, instead of the one they bought. Which brings me to the practice of producers being so quick to bring in a re-writer, often almost assuming that a re-write by another will be necessary before even looking at the script. The problem is really one of human nature. Humans, simply, are inclined to pigeonhole one another, e.g. an actor can’t write; a producer can’t direct; a writer can’t re-write, etc. The thinking is that, you, as the originator of the script, are just that, an originator. What the scripts needs, in the minds of the powers that be (a.k.a. the money people) is a re-writer. Someone who knows dialogue, for instance, if your dialogue is flat, or action if your script is lacking in that regard. They don’t view you as someone who can do it all. On top of that, it also makes them look like they’re actually doing something to justify their large salaries—hiring and firing writers. Such, alas, is the nature of those with insecure position, i.e. anyone involved in the movie industry.

Filmmaking is a collaborative business of risk takers, entrepreneurs and idea people, from the lowest P.A. up to the head of the studio. It’s why they’re in the industry, because, truth be told, it’s easier to make money in steel than in film, but where else can you see your idea come to fruition before the eyes of hundreds of millions of people. It all comes down to people trying to get a piece of their own dream up there on the screen. And, in truth, it’s a minor miracle when it actually happens.

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