Spider-Man Reboot Underway

Nektonic said:
It is really beginning to seem like a waste of time to put all the effort into writing an original spec screenplay, unless your name is Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, or James Cameron.
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But I'm not even talking about spec screenplays. I'm talking about original screenplays that the studios commission themselves. Orci and Kurtzman aren't really writing original stuff for films. Cameron is the lone exception (although originality isn't Avatar's strong suit).
 
I'm still waiting for the studios to make a movie with old charachters and call it 'movie title 6.0' so they can reboot after one movie. Why not.
 
diego1235467 said:
I think they need to redo Apocalypse Now. And Taxi Driver. And The Departed. And The Godfather.

;)
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Then we'd get Apocalypse Now Redux Redux. Or how about Apocalypse Now, the double redux version?

SPZ said:
No, they need to redo Forrest Gump, Citizen Cane, Pulp Fiction, Psycho， 2001，The Raging Bull, etc. ;)
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Or, how about some sequels and remakes with clever twists and maybe even some product tie ins?

Forrest Gump 2: Gumpment Day -- would be the action packed sequel where Gump would go back to Nam to rescue some comrades who are still there as POW's. Chuck Norris could make a cameo, or maybe even be the villain.

Citizen Candy Cane -- a Christmas-themed remake of Citizen Cane. Somebody get PIXAR on the horn ASAP.

Pulp Free Fiction -- a sanitized animated Disney film that sets Tarantino's characters and nonlinear plot in Florida amongst bugs that live in Orange trees. If PIXAR balks at the Citizen Candy Cane idea, we'll nab' em with this one.

Psycho -- already been remade as a shot-for-shot version in color. Might as well just do that again, but with younger and hipper actors. Maybe they can make a SAW type of franchise out of this... with a different group of teens staying at the Bates Motel in each film.

2101: A 3D Space Oddyssey -- change out a zero for another one, and we end up with the futuristic sounding 2101. If dumbing down a classic piece of science fiction worked for Star Trek, then why not 2001? Just don't make it so gal darn slow. Kubrick's pacing could put an insomniac on crack to sleep. And does HAL have to be such a stick-in-the-mud? Can't he rap or something?

The Raging Bull -- change the film's locale to Spain, and make the film about a hunky bullfighter and his feisty lover instead of an overweight boxer. The upshot is that the female audience will see this just as much as the male one. As long as the proper balance of gore and romance is there, then I'd say we have a box office champ in the making here folks. Oh, and don't forget the obvious Taco Bell and Red Bull tie-in opportunities.

Deepfocus88 said:
They totally need to re-do District 9, the Harry Potter Series, Iron Man for sure and have they re-booted the Incredible Hulk.....lately?
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Hulk? No. That was ages ago, way on back in 2008 I believe. 2008. What a time to live in. Those were the good old days, back when I was young.

Batutta said:
But I'm not even talking about spec screenplays. I'm talking about original screenplays that the studios commission themselves. Orci and Kurtzman aren't really writing original stuff for films. Cameron is the lone exception (although originality isn't Avatar's strong suit).
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I guess I have a tendency to lump specs and commissioned pitches into one big "original screenplay" category. But you're right, they are a bit of a different beast. Thing is, that means the news has gone from bad to worse for spec writers.

Orci and Kurtzman sold a spec not that long ago I believe. Thing is, they still have a snowball's chance in hell in that their recent box office successes probably garner them some extra attention and consideration when they pitch a non-tie-in or reboot script to a producer or exec.

As for the Avatar comment, I didn't mean it was the most original script out there, but that it is at least something he thought up, wrote the script, took it to the studios, and eventually got the damn thing made. But most of us have nowhere near the amount of clout and background of someone like Cameron, so he still isn't really a good barometer for us aspiring scribes and auteurs anyways.
 
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Richard J. Johnson said:
There has to be a original stories lying around in hollywood somewhere in script form.
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"Hollywood" is not about stories, it's about selling tickets. As long as people keep going to superhero movies, they'll keep making them.

If enough people start going to see "original films", then Hollywood will start making those.

Hollywood reacts to what is hot, and gives us more of it.
 
ChipG said:
Original stories are great for little indies, you guys should turn your scripts into movies.
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My problem is that I tend to write scripts that need gajillion dollar budgets. I've tried writing little indies, but it's just not my inclination.
 
Why do people write gajillion dollar movie scripts for Hollywood when they have thier own proven people they use for that?

I'd cap you scripts budgets at $5M and try to get them to where they could be made for $1M, about the only market today.
 
Because if you write a little script, Hollywood won't buy it. They're not interested in making little-budget movies. They're about making the spectacles, so if you want someone to buy your script for a million bucks cash, you'd better supply them with a film that they can make well on a hundred million.

If you want to make it yourself or sell it to a small production company, then yeah, a smaller-budget script is more appropriate. But you won't make the big bucks selling it to hollywood if you go that way.
 
ChipG said:
Why do people write gajillion dollar movie scripts for Hollywood when they have thier own proven people they use for that?

I'd cap you scripts budgets at $5M and try to get them to where they could be made for $1M, about the only market today.
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Because they have to replenish the talent pool eventually, and it's always good to have samples. Keep in mind I wrote most of those 12-15 years ago when the spec market was hot. But, to be honest, I'm just not that interested in writing smaller films, much as I admire them. As I said, it's not my inclination. You wouldn't ask Woody Allen why he's not writing huge blockbusters, would you? It's just not what he does.
 
Yea, most the studios have not bought an expensive $100M+ blockbuster script from a first timer in a long time if ever. I think they have bought a lot of smaller $30M budget scripts but those were usually from proven directors/actors/producers who decided to write.

The market today is about a zero chance an unproven outsider will sell a script to them and expect them to spend $150M on it.

The top proven writers who know how to write for the studio are 'made guys' who they go after.

I'm not saying this won't change in the future, it might but for now and what looks like many years to come it's not going to happen. I was told this by a guy who has green lit more hollywood movies than most, about 20-30 movies a year for 10+ years.
 
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Of course what this demonstrates is that no one is reading the scripts based upon the actual merits of the work: a winning piece of work remains a winning piece of work regardless of its author.

And in the mean time - I see this at first-hand way too often - the 'proven' people are handed hundreds of millions of dollars and every available resource...without even *having* any script in hand, *at all*. We're presently months and several million $$$ into a studio feature project for which we *just* got a maybe-acceptable draft of the script. Maybe.
 
Yup, well put and very true.

Proven writers are better than unknowns writing a $100M budget movie becuase they know the business so well they can est this scene will cost $3M, this scene $1M etc. The econimics have changed from the old days of I gotta script, let's throw $100M at it to really ham it up. It's tough for an outsider to write when they don't know how the studios operate and spend now a days. It's been a new ballgame for the last 5 years.

New writers best chances are a $1M-$5M movie without all the hollywood effects, explosions etc. Somthing where they can get a good grip on what each scene will cost for a small cast/crew of 20-50 people.
 
Budget estimation is all fine and well but I don't perceive that as a screenwriter's first (or second, third, fourth, or fifth) proper priority. That's why studios have staffs of estimators, accountants, et all.

The screenwriter - theoretically - is there to tell the story on the page so that the rest of us have the necessary armature around which to build the film. Looking at an awful lot of the recent big-budget studio projects it's painfully obvious that whatever the writers have been up to - bean-counting, maybe - they have not been making any serious efforts toward constructing stories worth filming, let alone worth watching...
 
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