As for the quick responses...I'm swamped right now. Normally I wouldn't even look at the website when busy like this but with so much work writing the change of topic has been a needed escape. I won't always be so quick.
As for what Hollywood is looking for...there really is no way to gage that other than look at the movies that are hot at the moment. Execs will tend to repeat themselves depending on what's currently big at the box office.
Over the last year or so, Horror has been big. And for the most part it's still the cheapest genre. Although there are A List writers working in horror these days it is still the easiest genre to break in to. There are dozens of companies out there looking for simple, low budget horror. Five to ten million.
I'm not sure anything really "stands out". Each reader is different with different tastes and likes. It's a crap shoot really.
Just read as many scripts as you can get your hands on. There are no rules but there are...standards or cliches that readers will look for. Perhaps not look for but if the elements are missing then they may dump the script.
You want your plot to be clear by page ten. You want the reader to know what kind of movie and what the goal is early on. You can certainly change that goal later but there needs to be a clear direction written out by at page 10 at the latest 15.
As long as you have the basics down then everything else is bonus. Everything else is what sets you out from the pack.
Character development is great. Execs and readers love that stuff.
I tend to shine in dialog (which is a shame considering nearly all of my dialog was rewritten after I left the JX shoot). And I'm pretty smart with action. So you use what you are good at to your advantage. If you are good at Character Development then never shy away from it.
How much power does the writer have once the screenplay is purchased?
None.
JX was a little unique for a couple of reasons. One, I'd worked for Cunningham for 3 years...so we did have a relationship. I'd also known the director for a number of years. Since I was paid such small money, Sean had always agreed to give me full access to the set and how things worked. This is not normally the case. So I was very hands-on during JX. However, after week two of the production, I flew back to LA and the script started undergoing massive dialog rewrites.
And as bad as that may seem, I was still way more involved on JX than I have been on any other script I've written.
Apparently "Scarecrow" is shooting now...or will be any day now. But I have no info. No one is calling me. No one is keeping me in the loop.
I wrote the original for Revolution Studios.
I walked into a meeting to get notes on the first draft and was introduced to the director. I had not been informed that a director was being hired. I was not a part of the decision to choose him.
Working closely with the director, I wrote the contracted rewrite for them.
Then I was replaced. The director, who oddly enough I grew close too, is the one who informed me. Had he not done that the studio wouldn't have told me. I would have learned about it in the trades.
Stuart Beatty (Collateral) was brought in. He did a rewrite. Again, information I found out from the director (as we were becoming friends).
Stuart turned in his draft. I read it. But only because the director emailed me a copy. The studio would have never done this and most likely would have frowned on my even seeing the thing. But the script was pretty good. Stuart is a good writer. But I didn't like the notes he had been given to act upon. A lesser writer would have failed miserably.
Revolution read the latest draft and decided not to make the movie. The director was let go and the script went into Turn-Around. This means, they shop it to other studios. They tabulate their costs and that's what another studio would have to pay to take the project over. Due to the high costs, Turn-Arounds rarely get bought and rarely get made.
However, Senator working with Sam Raimi's Ghost House picked the script up in Turn-Around a year later.
Thus, once I turned in my second draft, I heard nothing from the studio. My involvement was over. All of the above information I gathered from either the director or my agent...or the trades.
The Pang Brothers (The Eye) were hired to direct. I got this info from the Hollywood Reporter.
Later, from the previous director, I heard that the Pangs were doing their own rewrite.
Later still, from a producer friend I was working with on another project, I heard that the Pang Draft was sort of "out there" and tossed out. Mark Wheaton (whose credits I'm not familiar with) was brought in to pow-wow on what to do. Wheaton told my producer friend (being unaware that the producer and I were friends) that of all the drafts he told Ghost House that the they've had the perfect script all along, the original. Thus the other drafts were thrown out and his rewrite was based on mine.
Now, this means next to nothing. No one from the production called me, this got me no brownie points. The rewrite proceeded and Wheaton has since done at least one production rewrite. And from what my producer friend told me, the film starts shooting any day now if it hasn't already.
And this is the norm. Once you have sold the script...or once you have turned in your final draft...you are out.
At some point I will "hear" that the movie has actually started shooting or I will read it in the trades. At some point I will get a letter concerning the arbitration. Basically the producers will turn in to the guild, "Who they think should get the credit". I wrote the original, Stuart did a draft, the Pangs did a draft and now Wheaton. If it's true that both Stuart's and the Pang scrips were toss then I'm guessing the Producers may request that Wheaton and I share the credit. But no reason to speculate until I get the official letter.
At that point, any of the four writing entities will have the option to arbitrate for the credit.
But it's a big deal either way. If I have to share the credit then I lose half of my back end. I will also split residuals depending on how many of the other four entities end up being attached.
Best case scenario, Wheaton did, in fact, do a polish of my original draft. A polish which consisted of his changing less than 50 percent of that original. If that's the case I will end up with sole credit. If he changed more than fifty percent then I'll share the credit with him.
Worst case scenario: His draft was a mixture was based on the Pang's "Out There" draft. Leaving the end result so far removed from the original that I only get "Story By".
As the original writer you can never get less than "Story By"...that much is guaranteed. This happened to Stuart on "Pirates of the Caribbean". He wrote the original, but it changed so much over the years that he only got "Story by".
More info than you asked for but this stuff sort of writes itself.
As for writing myself a part...never happens. Well rarely happens. When the original director signed on to Scarecrow and while Stuart was doing his draft, the director talked about casting Stuart and I in small cameos. And it would have happened because this is a director decision. And JX was a similar situation.
In those rare instances when the writer does remain close to those actually making the film then your input and possibilities are more open. But this is rarely the case.
You sure this is what you want to do for a living?
Because, there is and will always be a quiet dislike of the writer. Directors don't normally want the writer looking over their shoulder. Producers and Executives tend to be resentful of the writers. We are the only ones who create something from nothing. We start the whole process. In an attempt to feel important, everyone with a fart canal will start changing the script to add their two cents. And they can because everyone has more power than the writer.
There are producers and Execs out there who can and will make a script and story better. But for the most part, the majority is just trying to feel important and as a result the script will change for egotistical reasons rather than story improvements.
Welcome to Hollywood.