Good Scripts written in a short period of time

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Good Scripts written in a short period of time

    I can only think of one. Basic Instinct, which Joe Esztherhaus said he wrote in
    three days. He said that he said that he sat down and tried to write the most marketable script he could. He listened to the Rolling Stones while typing for three days while doing this. Its a great Hollywood story in one of his books. As soon as his agent got it in the mail he was blown away and the script was soon thereafter a hot commodity in Hollywood.

    Does anyone know of any other script stories like this?
    The Best Impersonation of Christian Bale Freak Out!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd5631H6KuE

  • #2
    Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

    If Joe wrote Basic Instinct in three days, one can only imagine how quickly he wrote Showgirls.
    "I ask every producer I meet if they need TV specs they say yeah. They all want a 40 inch display that's 1080p and 120Hz. So, I quit my job at the West Hollywood Best Buy."
    - Screenwriting Friend

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

      Apparently John Hughes wrote The Breakfast Club over a weekend.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

        I've heard that "Crash" was written in a single night. Not sure if it's true, but it totally wouldn't surprise me.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

          Of course, "good" is a wildly subjective term, but Stallone wrote the first draft of Rocky in 3 days, I think. Took 9 rewrites to sell though, so not sure if it counts...
          "Anything can be taken apart. You just have to know where to find the screws."

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

            Originally posted by CrackDown View Post
            Apparently John Hughes wrote The Breakfast Club over a weekend.

            John Hughe's speed has always amazed me.

            THE FASTEST TIME FOR WRITING THE SCRIPT OF A FULL LENGTH FEATURE FILM was two days for Weird Science (US 85) by John Hughes, who also directed. This was an improvement on previous efforts - it had taken him three days to script The Breakfast Club (US 84), a full four days for National Lampoons Vacation (US 83), and no less than a week for Mr. Mom (US 83), although he failed to break his own record with Home Alone (US 90), he did manage to write the whole of the second half in just eight hours. "The faster I go, the better it is," Hughes declares.

            -- Source Film Facts by Patrick Robertson

            ary157

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

              Originally posted by Typewriter View Post
              I can only think of one. Basic Instinct, which Joe Esztherhaus said he wrote in
              three days. He said that he said that he sat down and tried to write the most marketable script he could. He listened to the Rolling Stones while typing for three days while doing this. Its a great Hollywood story in one of his books. As soon as his agent got it in the mail he was blown away and the script was soon thereafter a hot commodity in Hollywood.

              Does anyone know of any other script stories like this?

              No offense, but what does it really matter how fast someone else can write a screenplay? Are you asking just because you're interested in random entertainment industry trivia?

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

                I read a story, god knows where, about a screenwriter who punched out a screenplay for a John Wayne western on set in about an hour.

                Anyone else have memory of this story?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

                  Werner Herzog wrote the script for Aguirre: The Wrath of God in two and a half days. He gets bonus points though, because he wrote it on a bus full of hard drinking football players, on a typewriter. At one point the guy next to him threw up on several of the finished pages. He just threw them out, and doesn't remember what was originally written on them.

                  Aguirre: The Wrath of God turned out to be one of the greatest films ever made, if you believe myself or Roger Ebert.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

                    It probably took weeks to figure it out before hitting the typewriter, though.
                    "What's worse than being talked about? Not being talked about."

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

                      Originally posted by ShaneBlackFan View Post
                      It probably took weeks to figure it out before hitting the typewriter, though.
                      Exactly.
                      "There's one way to guarantee something won't be in the movie: put it in the screenplay."
                      -Dan O'Bannon

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

                        Originally posted by Shot Across the Bow View Post
                        Exactly.
                        Well, its Herzog... So maybe not.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

                          Yeah. Herzog is notorious for winging it. On the same movie, he:

                          - stole the camera he used from a film school
                          - had a professional crew of only 8 people
                          - did not storyboard or plan any of his shots in advance
                          - hired local Peruvians for slave wages as extras/production assistants
                          - threatened lead actor Klaus Kinski with death in order to stop him from leaving the production
                          - lost the film cans containing all of the footage from the shoot at the airport for a few weeks

                          All for US $370,000 (1/3rd of which went to Kinski)

                          So I kind of believe him when he says the script took 2 1/2 days to write. I don't really imagine a script in the Shane Black sense so much as a jumbled mess of notes written by a madman that gave him a general idea of where to point the camera.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

                            I believe Joe Straczysnki turned out many Babylon 5 episodes in relatively short times. (Most of his time was being consumed with overseeing the production of the series.) Of course, he had things fairly intricately plotted out at the beginning of each season.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Good Scripts written in a short period of time

                              Which Crash?

                              I remember reading that the Hughes Bros. wrote Menace 2 Society in a short amount of time.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X