Advice on selling a trilogy

R

rc444

Well-known member
Hi everyone,

a bit of an unusual question. I have read the FAQs.

I have written a treatment for a time travel trilogy. This started as a hobby at primary school in 1990 after I saw Back to the Future III. It then became a novel. I continued chipping away at this until at age 19, I made the decision to turn the novel into a film treatment. One thing lead to another and 9 years later, I decided to expand the treatment into three films. I've done this because no filmmaker to my knowledge has ever attempted to follow up on Back to the Future -- if you excuse the cartoons -- not that I intend to knock Back to the Future from it's perch.

I am now in an interesting position where at age 30, having revised my material, I realize I could pitch this as a trilogy. I only want to work as a writer on this and as such, sell this trilogy to a producer and director team interested in time travel films, but also sensitive enough to want to work on a project of this duration.

This project is similar in concept to the Back to the Future mega structure but is a completely different trilogy. Nevertheless, finding a director interested in directing a time travel film or who loves Back to the Future is another thing. There is also the question of finding actors. So I know what I need to do having written this, but am not quite sure what order to go about things from this moment onwards.

What advice would anyone give to me at this stage?

Thanks
rc444
 
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From what I heard, some producers may want to buy the first part to see if it does well before buying the other parts.
 
The first one MUST work as a standalone film, i.e. have a decent ending of its own and be enjoyable in itself. Having 2 preplanned sequels is nice, but irrelevant unless people like the first film alone. You can't just say 'oh yeah, that bit doesn't make sense yet but is all explained in film 3'.

About the only exception i can think of is 'Lord of the Rings', where the first film had quite an inconclusive ending - but that was a pre-built trilogy with a very solid reputation as a book beforehand.
 
I think you have to be comfortable with a bit of risk. Even if a company acquires the rights to your entire trilogy, they won't produce the latter installments unless the first entry turns a healthy profit. It might be good writing, but there is, of course, more to box office success than just raw story.

Also, I'd encourage you to be careful in what you reveal about the history of this story. My understanding (from Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's blog) is that many producers become cautious when they know a writer has been working on one project for an extended period of time. Plus, people might think that since you started this project in your teens, that it must be an early foray into storytelling, and consequently won't be good.

Even if it's amazing, which I hope it is, at least a few people will already have these nagging concerns in the back of their heads. My policy is to try not to give people excuses to put down my story before they read it.

That said, congratulations on finishing your trilogy. It's longer than anything I've ever written!
 
I was in a similar boat as you. I wrote a sceenplay that I consider one of the best things I have ever written. Started out as an idea I had in highschool and snowballed into a screenplay later on. When it was written as a standalone film, it won a few contests and even went as far as an Academy award winning directors door step.

That's when I got creative (arrogant) and thought it would be great as a trilogy. Don't get me wrong I love the new version of the story, but the current draft can barely make it past quarter finals in SP contests because it relies heavily on the fact that most trilogy's, the first film IS the set up. Look at The Fellowship of the Ring... in reality thats only the first act of a movie.

So it goes... one day I will get back to rewriting my film and give it a conclusion it deserves. I just have this feeling in side that I don't want it to end up like The Matrix, where it's an awesome first film and while the second film was entertaining, it felt forced.

Point of my rant being, listen to the others find an agent that can pitch it as a trilogy, or give the first one in the series a solid conclusion. Just remember this the film Serenity (based on the show Firefly) was sold as a trilogy... and we only got 1.
 
Nobody buys trilogies - they buy a single script and make it into a movie, and if it a huge success, they think about sequels. And, once they buy your first script, they own the story... and can hire anyone they want to write the sequels. It's rare that the original writer gets to write the sequels. POTC is one of the few cases where the writers of the first film, which was a hit, were given the job of writing the 2nd & 3rd films (which were made back to back).

I have had two films that spawned sequels, and got to pitch my sequel ideas for each... but they went with another writer (in one case, the sequels were just stupid - but I didn't write them).

Look at big name screenwriter Shane Black (a great guy) - he wrote LETHAL WEAPON. It made a bunch of money for WB, and they let him pitch the sequel... and even hired him to write it. Then fired him and brought in someone else. Shane did not write any of the sequels.

The only film that started out as a trilogy was LOTR, because there were 3 books. Everything else began as a single film that became a hit, so they decided to make sequels.

So, write one great script and sell it.

- Bill
 
RockmanX3 said:
This is where I would say make an original trilogy and film it all yourself.
Click to expand...

Not that I want to knock your idea, but wouldn't that be ridiculously expensive? Almost to the point that it might become counter-productive do try and so such a feat on your own?
 
Thank You everyone for your advice. It's convinced me that I'm going to put all my concentrations into just the first film, and to pitch the first one as a stand-alone script. This is the feeling I get reading these posts, so thanks again for your honest advice! Cheers rc444
 
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