The dumbest thing any movie exec has ever said to you?

[Aspirant]

Not an exec, but I had an agent a couple of years ago who wrote, as a note on a scene in which a bad guy is chased by the police and, after a unique and dramatic turn, ends up getting killed in a spectacular car crash, "That guy should get shot in the face."

[emily blake]

In fairness, scenes are generally more awesome when people get shot in the face.

Probably cheaper than the car crash, too.

[Aspirant]

Actually, I think he wanted every character to get shot in the face.

[emily blake]

Originally Posted by Aspirant

Actually, I think he wanted every character to get shot in the face.

Was this movie The Departed?

[Landis26]

"Put Jimmy Smits in it and you'll have a sexy Stand and Deliver."

[BurOak]

Originally Posted by CthulhuRises

"I'm thinking we make it a sexy Top Gun...or Gilligan's Island in Space."

Someone should tell him that "Gilligan's Planet" has already been done.

[beerbeastredux]

Given how many awful shows like "Gilligan's planet" actually got made over the years, I'm willing to bet you could make an awesome coffee table book chock full of truly stupid movie exec quotes. I think it'd be an entertaining ( if depressing) read.

[SCanfieldfilms]

All the same guy, I was 20, had no clue he was really this dumb.

On rewriting a script about a certain sexual fetish:
"You know, we could just scrap all the dialogue and sell it to Vivid." (He was absolutely serious)

On rewriting a new comic book-style hero script:
"I just don't see why people would care about his back story." (I believe he sent this note, against all advice, to the legendary comic creator who co-created the character)

On an A-list writer who had just brought his brother in to "help" him with the most recent draft of a script:
"We should fire him and pay his brother to talk the ideas out of him, it would be much cheaper."

I spent a week at a major studio listening to this idiot talk in a major execs office, while said exec was on vacation. Two weeks later, he was fired. Still not sure how he got the job in the first place. If they hadn't let me on the lot, with official credentials and such, I would've never believed he was there legitimately.

[Kandiman]

I was once brought in as a script doctor on something by the producer and told "we think this could be gold, it just needs the dialogue polished" - the script had no third act. Literally none. No story closure whatsoever. And it was a biopic of a guy who died, so it should've been fairly easy.

So what did I do? Polished the dialogue and cashed the cheque. I'm not an idiot.

Oh, I also pitched a teen drama TV show to a ProdCo recently only to be told that they felt the show would work better if I aged the characters up a few years. It's a teen drama. The characters need to be teenagers. That's kind of a thing with the genre.

Also, if I'd aged them up, they'd have been immature adults rather than slightly mature teens... A subtle nuance, I grant you.