06-15-2006, 12:30 PM
Think I'll just sticky this and hope it works. On average, I'd say I get two emails a week from someone with either a great idea for a "Friday the 13th" script or a great script they've already written. On average I say. Some weeks I get nothing, other weeks I get ten.
I've created a standardized email for just the occasion. I'll cut and paste the name and hit send. But I'm getting lazy and am hoping this may cut some off at the pass.
The Big Question
Are you writing (or have you written) a F13 script to break into the screenwriting biz?
OR
Are you a ravenous fan who just wants to get the story straight?
Either way, you are screwed.
Here's the Bad News
Your F13 script will never get made.
Of course, there are no definites in Hollystupid but I feel pretty confident saying "never".
Here are the Exceptions
1. You have an established relationship with New Line or Sean Cunningham.
Dean Lorey wrote "Jason Goes to Hell" not based on an F13 script he'd written but based on a relationship he had with Sean.
I wrote "Jason X" not based on an F13 script I'd already written but based on having a three year relationship with Sean Cunningham (on a side note, this relationship does not need to be sexual in nature but of course it helps).
Mark and Damian wrote "Freddy vs. Jason" because they'd already written two other scripts for and had a good relationship with New Line.
I was a nobody. I didn't have a credit. Neither did Dean when he got JGTH. Nor Mark & Damian when they started FvsJ...but we had all been in the business, written other scripts and had relationships with the people with the power to say yes.
2. You are Quentin Tarrantino, Michael Bay or someone established.
If you have a proven track record (and an agent) and you have an idea and a passion toward the material then your agent hops on the phone and you end up with a meeting.
Even if you fit the above two exceptions...
It still ain't gonna be easy. Truth is, it's just not easy to get a movie made. Never has been. Probably never will be. Even when you have everything going for you, it's an uphill battle.
If you don't have either a track record in the biz or a relationship with those who can yes an F13 film then your chances are even less.
If You've Written or are Writing an F13 to Break into the Biz...
Then either stop or shelve it. Write an original screenplay. Specs sell in the genre market. Especially now with the successes of Hostel and Saw and going all the way back to Scream. In the old days Hollywood sneered at Horror. They were physically embarrassed by it. Not any more my friends. Every studio and production company now has one or more genre executives who do nothing but read horror scripts.
Money talks. Make them for 5 to 10 million and watch the money roll in. There has never been a better time to write a horror spec.
Write something original. Blow their minds. Sell it. Once you have established yourself. Proven yourself. Then have your agent make the call.
If your goal is to become a screenwriter than going the F13 route isn't playing the numbers very well. Because at the end of the day, it's a numbers game. If you write something original then your chances soar. You could set it up anywhere. You could get 50 passes from assorted companies and still get it made.
If you write an F13 then you got one shot and one shot only. Even if you kill yourself getting it to Cunningham or New Line, if one says no then you're toast. It's over. All that work down the drain.
Write something original.
If You've Written or are Writing an F13 because you are a great fan and want to get the story straight...
Dunno what to tell you. It's just not going to happen.
I worked for Cunningham for three years. And from time to time a fan written F13 would come into the office and within 30 seconds was in the trash. Unopened. Unread.
How I Did It
Simple really. I was in Texas. A friend of a friend was living in LA working on a kid's TV show. I gave her a call. Told her I wanted to write. She had a producer friend who wanted a low budget fantasy script. Being naive, I wrote one. Sent it to her. The producer vanished (it happens). My friend gave it to her roommate (who happened to work for Dean Lorey). At the time he had a first-look deal at Universal. She gave the script to Dean. He read 40 pages and tossed it in the trash because I didn't have a clue how to structure a screenplay.
But he saw some imagination. Gave me a call. Asked if I had any other ideas. I told him I wanted to write a Bigfoot movie. He told me there was already "Harry and the Hendersons". I told him, not a family comedy, but a horror movie. That made him grin. We got to work on it. He structured the story and I wrote it. And more importantly, I learned. I wrote it for 1000 bucks against 200k if it got made. 500 bucks to start writing. 500 when I finished.
During the process he told me if I really wanted to do this for a living I would have to move to LA. So, Melanie (now my wife) stayed in Texas and I moved to LA, slept in my friend's hammock for two months.
After I finished the Bigfoot script I was running low on cash. Met Dean at a bar in LA. The Speakeasy. A real dive. Got him drunk and said, "So, what are we gonna work on next? He told me this idea he had. Vampires at a Youth Camp. Another option for 1000 bucks against 200k. 500 to start. 500 to finish. A month later I was, of course, broke again.
But I'd gotten my own apartment and Mel moved out. Returned to the Speakeasy with Dean. Got him drunk and said, "So, what are we gonna work on next?" He told me this other idea he had.
This time, Dean wanted to direct it. And he had a plan. He'd written two films for Sean Cunningham and had a relationship. We'd take the idea to Sean with the deal that Sean would produce, Dean would direct and I would write. And that's what we did.
Sean liked the writing and ended up hiring me as a Creative Executive. Big fancy name but I was essentially a staff writer. Got paid two grand a month to sit in the maid's room and work on whatever turned his little blue crank. I wrote dramas about delinquent teens in Spanish Harlem. I wrote a law drama. I wrote an action script. A vampire flick in gang driven LA. I rewrote whatever I was told to rewrite. I rewrote early drafts of Freddy vs. Jason. I was the writer on staff. I was the local monkey with a keyboard. But more importantly, I learned.
Three years later, frustrated that FvsJ was still languishing in development, Sean decided to make another F13. Sean, Noel (his son) and myself, along with Jim Isaac (who had a relationship with Sean) sat in a room and bounced ideas. In the end we settled on Jason in the future or what later became known as Jason in Space or Jason X.
And I wrote it. Sean had a deal with New Line. We went to DeLuca. He genuinely seemed to like it but who really knows. In the end, had DeLuca passed then Sean was free to go to another studio and Paramount was chomping at the bits to reacquire the franchise. If we ran off with Jason then that would have severely screwed with FvsJ. So, whether NL made Jason X because they loved it or because they were pressured...only a handful really know for sure. And I'm not one of them. But in the end, the movie got made. And that's how I did it.
You see, simple.
In Closing...
Wish I had better news for you. Writing an F13 is a dead end. Just the breaks, kid. If you want to be a screenwriter, write something original. If you just want your F13 story told, write a fan script and post it on any of a dozen horror sites.
Just don't shoot the messenger
I've created a standardized email for just the occasion. I'll cut and paste the name and hit send. But I'm getting lazy and am hoping this may cut some off at the pass.
The Big Question
Are you writing (or have you written) a F13 script to break into the screenwriting biz?
OR
Are you a ravenous fan who just wants to get the story straight?
Either way, you are screwed.
Here's the Bad News
Your F13 script will never get made.
Of course, there are no definites in Hollystupid but I feel pretty confident saying "never".
Here are the Exceptions
1. You have an established relationship with New Line or Sean Cunningham.
Dean Lorey wrote "Jason Goes to Hell" not based on an F13 script he'd written but based on a relationship he had with Sean.
I wrote "Jason X" not based on an F13 script I'd already written but based on having a three year relationship with Sean Cunningham (on a side note, this relationship does not need to be sexual in nature but of course it helps).
Mark and Damian wrote "Freddy vs. Jason" because they'd already written two other scripts for and had a good relationship with New Line.
I was a nobody. I didn't have a credit. Neither did Dean when he got JGTH. Nor Mark & Damian when they started FvsJ...but we had all been in the business, written other scripts and had relationships with the people with the power to say yes.
2. You are Quentin Tarrantino, Michael Bay or someone established.
If you have a proven track record (and an agent) and you have an idea and a passion toward the material then your agent hops on the phone and you end up with a meeting.
Even if you fit the above two exceptions...
It still ain't gonna be easy. Truth is, it's just not easy to get a movie made. Never has been. Probably never will be. Even when you have everything going for you, it's an uphill battle.
If you don't have either a track record in the biz or a relationship with those who can yes an F13 film then your chances are even less.
If You've Written or are Writing an F13 to Break into the Biz...
Then either stop or shelve it. Write an original screenplay. Specs sell in the genre market. Especially now with the successes of Hostel and Saw and going all the way back to Scream. In the old days Hollywood sneered at Horror. They were physically embarrassed by it. Not any more my friends. Every studio and production company now has one or more genre executives who do nothing but read horror scripts.
Money talks. Make them for 5 to 10 million and watch the money roll in. There has never been a better time to write a horror spec.
Write something original. Blow their minds. Sell it. Once you have established yourself. Proven yourself. Then have your agent make the call.
If your goal is to become a screenwriter than going the F13 route isn't playing the numbers very well. Because at the end of the day, it's a numbers game. If you write something original then your chances soar. You could set it up anywhere. You could get 50 passes from assorted companies and still get it made.
If you write an F13 then you got one shot and one shot only. Even if you kill yourself getting it to Cunningham or New Line, if one says no then you're toast. It's over. All that work down the drain.
Write something original.
If You've Written or are Writing an F13 because you are a great fan and want to get the story straight...
Dunno what to tell you. It's just not going to happen.
I worked for Cunningham for three years. And from time to time a fan written F13 would come into the office and within 30 seconds was in the trash. Unopened. Unread.
How I Did It
Simple really. I was in Texas. A friend of a friend was living in LA working on a kid's TV show. I gave her a call. Told her I wanted to write. She had a producer friend who wanted a low budget fantasy script. Being naive, I wrote one. Sent it to her. The producer vanished (it happens). My friend gave it to her roommate (who happened to work for Dean Lorey). At the time he had a first-look deal at Universal. She gave the script to Dean. He read 40 pages and tossed it in the trash because I didn't have a clue how to structure a screenplay.
But he saw some imagination. Gave me a call. Asked if I had any other ideas. I told him I wanted to write a Bigfoot movie. He told me there was already "Harry and the Hendersons". I told him, not a family comedy, but a horror movie. That made him grin. We got to work on it. He structured the story and I wrote it. And more importantly, I learned. I wrote it for 1000 bucks against 200k if it got made. 500 bucks to start writing. 500 when I finished.
During the process he told me if I really wanted to do this for a living I would have to move to LA. So, Melanie (now my wife) stayed in Texas and I moved to LA, slept in my friend's hammock for two months.
After I finished the Bigfoot script I was running low on cash. Met Dean at a bar in LA. The Speakeasy. A real dive. Got him drunk and said, "So, what are we gonna work on next? He told me this idea he had. Vampires at a Youth Camp. Another option for 1000 bucks against 200k. 500 to start. 500 to finish. A month later I was, of course, broke again.
But I'd gotten my own apartment and Mel moved out. Returned to the Speakeasy with Dean. Got him drunk and said, "So, what are we gonna work on next?" He told me this other idea he had.
This time, Dean wanted to direct it. And he had a plan. He'd written two films for Sean Cunningham and had a relationship. We'd take the idea to Sean with the deal that Sean would produce, Dean would direct and I would write. And that's what we did.
Sean liked the writing and ended up hiring me as a Creative Executive. Big fancy name but I was essentially a staff writer. Got paid two grand a month to sit in the maid's room and work on whatever turned his little blue crank. I wrote dramas about delinquent teens in Spanish Harlem. I wrote a law drama. I wrote an action script. A vampire flick in gang driven LA. I rewrote whatever I was told to rewrite. I rewrote early drafts of Freddy vs. Jason. I was the writer on staff. I was the local monkey with a keyboard. But more importantly, I learned.
Three years later, frustrated that FvsJ was still languishing in development, Sean decided to make another F13. Sean, Noel (his son) and myself, along with Jim Isaac (who had a relationship with Sean) sat in a room and bounced ideas. In the end we settled on Jason in the future or what later became known as Jason in Space or Jason X.
And I wrote it. Sean had a deal with New Line. We went to DeLuca. He genuinely seemed to like it but who really knows. In the end, had DeLuca passed then Sean was free to go to another studio and Paramount was chomping at the bits to reacquire the franchise. If we ran off with Jason then that would have severely screwed with FvsJ. So, whether NL made Jason X because they loved it or because they were pressured...only a handful really know for sure. And I'm not one of them. But in the end, the movie got made. And that's how I did it.
You see, simple.
In Closing...
Wish I had better news for you. Writing an F13 is a dead end. Just the breaks, kid. If you want to be a screenwriter, write something original. If you just want your F13 story told, write a fan script and post it on any of a dozen horror sites.
Just don't shoot the messenger
