Max Landis article on Deadline

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  • #16
    Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

    Originally posted by madworld View Post
    I'll be honest, it's just remarkably hard. I think most people quit at this stage of limbo I'm in, I'm no Max Landis in terms of sales or output. The hardcore reality is that most people pop, get a sale or two and then nothing. Crickets. And they're either working in the studio system or most likely, back to speccing until something else lands. But the guys and gals who quit today don't succeed tomorrow. You just have to keep at it (and obviously have some aptitude.)
    Nice reality check. It's so hard to break in, it can be easy to forget how hard it still is once you get inside. Us writers are masochists, I swear.
    "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

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    • #17
      Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

      Originally posted by FoxHound View Post
      But this happens all the time. Prod Co's and Studios are a business. They can't sit around and wait for a SOURCE CODE to go on the market before buying. They're forced to scoop up all the mediocre (though professionally written) scripts from known writers. I mean, American Ultra was pretty mediocre. How did that sell? It's not like Landis is penning INCEPTIONS here.
      I'm not saying mediocre scripts don't sell - they most certainly do. But it's not that companies say "Guh, this script "American Ultra" is lame, but he's the son of a 1980s director so let's spend a sh*tload to buy it so that we can... you know... say that we did." No, someone saw something in the script they thought could work as a movie, famous last name or not. Studios certainly aren't "forced to scoop up all the mediocre scripts from known writers". Plenty of established writers can't sell everything they write, not even close.
      https://twitter.com/DavidCoggeshall
      http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1548597/

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      • #18
        Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

        Originally posted by UpandComing View Post
        Nice reality check. It's so hard to break in, it can be easy to forget how hard it still is once you get inside. Us writers are masochists, I swear.
        Man, no kidding. All I can say is that when you get an agent or two and you make the rounds, see how the business functions, a couple things happen:

        1. You will have to fight to stay positive about the job. Fight. You will literally have to train yourself not to check your email ad nauseum, to be present when around family and friends, to be okay being embarrassed and failing in public and to peers.

        The above has various stages of grief, acceptance, rebirth, redemption and DRAMA. 1%er problem yes. At the end of the day you will have to remind yourself of what you love outside of this thing, because if you don't, you'll be disappointed. This is just a job after all. Not a definition. Unless you let it be.

        2. You really get humbled. You become much more forgiving about the positions of other writers, their frustrations, their battle to have what they consider to be great content. You start to understand the beast.

        So that said, Max Landis is a young man with some fire, attitude, aptitude, and he's out trying to slay the dragon. I like that. I like when he pushes back. Writers should not be devalued.

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        • #19
          Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

          Originally posted by madworld View Post
          Man, no kidding. All I can say is that when you get an agent or two and you make the rounds, see how the business functions, a couple things happen:

          1. You will have to fight to stay positive about the job. Fight. You will literally have to train yourself not to check your email ad nauseum, to be present when around family and friends, to be okay being embarrassed and failing in public and to peers.

          The above has various stages of grief, acceptance, rebirth, redemption and DRAMA. 1%er problem yes. At the end of the day you will have to remind yourself of what you love outside of this thing, because if you don't, you'll be disappointed. This is just a job after all. Not a definition. Unless you let it be.

          2. You really get humbled. You become much more forgiving about the positions of other writers, their frustrations, their battle to have what they consider to be great content. You start to understand the beast.
          Printing this out and hanging it on my wall
          "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

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          • #20
            Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

            For what it's worth, CHRONICLE was his big break. And he wrote CHRONICLE after Trank asked him to. So obviously, that break had a lot to do with already being inside and knowing a director like that. If he's a potato farmer from Idaho, he never catches that break, in all likelihood.

            There definitely is something in a name. I'm not sure if Landis fits into that mold at this point in his career. But generally speaking, if you put Joe Schmoe on a script and you put Aaron Sorkin on the exact same script, people are going to react to the exact same words differently because they approach it with different expectations. And being able to say, "Well, this writer already wrote some good stuff that audiences responded to," is absolutely worth something when people read their new stuff.

            I feel that's a reflection of people admitting to themselves that they really have no idea, the same logic behind making things based on IP. It's just a safer bet. Hollywood is a reactionary business. THE BIG BANG THEORY actors got their big contracts just last year or whatever it was. But really, they got paid for what they'd already done, not what they're doing after those big deals (though viewership is still high). Which has the kind of kooky effect of people getting paid the most for the lowest levels of quality, as a show like that is past its prime at this point.

            Just how it works. Professional sports are the same. The young stars make relative peanuts and the over-the-hill former greats make $20m a year to hit .200.

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            • #21
              Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

              Originally posted by ProfessorChomp View Post
              I'm not saying mediocre scripts don't sell - they most certainly do. But it's not that companies say "Guh, this script "American Ultra" is lame, but he's the son of a 1980s director so let's spend a sh*tload to buy it so that we can... you know... say that we did." No, someone saw something in the script they thought could work as a movie, famous last name or not. Studios certainly aren't "forced to scoop up all the mediocre scripts from known writers". Plenty of established writers can't sell everything they write, not even close.
              Yeaaaah. This argument is based off the concept that executives can tell a good script from a mediocre one or that it's what they're looking for. Imagine you're in development for a company and you're told "I have one script that's a Blacklist winner about a butter carving competition in Iowa and another that's about a woman dating a hitman written by Max Landis." Do you think they'll even really consider the first one? Maybe they'll bring the writer in to see if he/she would work for other assignments, but that's not going to make your bosses any money.

              I'm sure Max Landis is great in the room. He's full of energy. He gets to tell executives to "forget everything you know," which the love. "It's Fantastic Four's the THING, but he spends 90% of the movie just as a football-sized rock head." Original! Out of the box! Completely unwatchable.

              And you know what. If I had no job/money issues and an endless supply of Ritalin, I could bust out a hundred scripts a year. I bet 7-8 of them would be good enough to sell, too.

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              • #22
                Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

                Originally posted by madworld View Post
                But here is an example of this guy's output:

                http://www.maxlandiswrites.com/a-lis...gh-to-read-it/

                Now if you've read the above, he said out of all those specs, his reps have seen 25 or 30 of them - and decided to go out with only 7.

                Why is that important? Reps don't go out with everything their clients write. I discovered this my first year with an agent, and it was a rude awakening - but it is the reality.

                So let's say you write one script a year. That may not even go out. You need more content. So one of the big reasons this guy can sell things is because he's a machine.

                I mean truly, I get in 5 pages a day on a good day. That doesn't include the time it takes to outline/ break a story. I've got a lot of eggs in one or two baskets a year, like most people with kids. But this is what we're up against.
                I'm not sure I buy his output.

                Also, depends on the story. I've written a feature in two weeks. And 4 weeks. This last pilot I was lucky to get a page a day, much harder story/dialogue/premise/everything.

                Still, 70-something scripts? Not buying it. 20-30 or so I buy.
                DOPE CITY

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                • #23
                  Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

                  Originally posted by UnequalProductions View Post
                  And you know what. If I had no job/money issues and an endless supply of Ritalin, I could bust out a hundred scripts a year. I bet 7-8 of them would be good enough to sell, too.
                  You may have hit the nail square in the nut sack.
                  DOPE CITY

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                  • #24
                    Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

                    Originally posted by ProfessorChomp View Post
                    I disagree that someone connected can sell anything they write, even if it's mediocre. No studio exec stakes his/her reputation (and the studio's $$) because a writer is related to a director who peaked decades ago. That's an easy way to get fired.

                    Surely the name opened doors for him at first and made people more inclined to read his material, but that's not how giant spec sales happen. Those happen through smart ideas, good timing and deft maneuvering. Max's advantage was that he got to skip past the "I want to be a screenwriter but don't know anybody who will read me" part of his career, that's all. Everything since then is him.
                    ^TRUE^

                    It's never nepotism past the "whatcha got for me kid..."

                    It's never a blank check. Far from.

                    Unless your daddy is a director/producer pushing the fvck outta your script to direct your first indie film. Then.... well.... idunno.... helps. Studio gigs? NEVER.
                    DOPE CITY

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                    • #25
                      Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

                      Originally posted by UnequalProductions View Post
                      Yeaaaah. This argument is based off the concept that executives can tell a good script from a mediocre one or that it's what they're looking for. Imagine you're in development for a company and you're told "I have one script that's a Blacklist winner about a butter carving competition in Iowa and another that's about a woman dating a hitman written by Max Landis." Do you think they'll even really consider the first one? Maybe they'll bring the writer in to see if he/she would work for other assignments, but that's not going to make your bosses any money.
                      It's just not true that buyers only want Max Landis hitman scripts and ignore more artsy fare. It depends on the buyer. Go to Participant with that hitman script, see how you do. Go to Disney, Weinstein Company, Fox Searchlight, Annapurna, CBS Films, Focus Features, so on and so forth. The butter carving script has a better shot at any of those. Just because huge studios don't go nuts for beautifully written butter-carving scripts doesn't mean there are no buyers. There are quality movies coming out all the time, and somebody bought them and made them. If you're mad that butter-carving scripts don't get read as quickly by huge studios or sell for millions of dollars, buy more tickets for butter-related movies and maybe they will. In the meantime, take that script to a place that actually makes that kind of movie. They're out there.
                      Last edited by ProfessorChomp; 05-19-2016, 01:20 PM.
                      https://twitter.com/DavidCoggeshall
                      http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1548597/

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

                        Originally posted by ProfessorChomp View Post
                        It's just not true that buyers only want Max Landis hitman scripts and ignore more artsy fare. It depends on the buyer. Go to Participant with that hitman script, see how you do. Go to Disney, Weinstein Company, Fox Searchlight, Annapurna, CBS Films, Focus Features, so on and so forth. The butter carving script has a better shot at any of those. Just because huge studios don't go nuts for beautifully written butter-carving scripts doesn't mean there are no buyers. There are quality movies coming out all the time, and somebody bought them and made them. If you're mad that butter-carving scripts don't get read as quickly by huge studios or sell for millions of dollars, buy more tickets for butter-related movies and maybe they will. In the meantime, take that script to a place that actually makes that kind of movie. They're out there.
                        Yes. Most of the places you mention would like something more than one of 70 scripts a person has written in a year.

                        There are quality films bought and made by people who love cinema, and they're on the shelves next to the dozens of bad action films made as cash grabs.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

                          Originally posted by surftatboy View Post
                          I'm not sure I buy his output.

                          Also, depends on the story. I've written a feature in two weeks. And 4 weeks. This last pilot I was lucky to get a page a day, much harder story/dialogue/premise/everything.

                          Still, 70-something scripts? Not buying it. 20-30 or so I buy.
                          He might be able to burn through a script but how good is it? It could be 1st draft, 72 pages, unfocused dribble for all we know. I geniuinely don't understand how this guy has the career he has. Don't get me wrong though, good on him for getting to where he is and more power to him but I'm not a fan of his work and neither are the majority of people so it seems. He's probably just a really good salesman.

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                          • #28
                            Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

                            CHRONICLE made ten times its budget. Fairly straightforward reasoning. That's basically the same return TITANIC got. Except it was probably an even better return, because TITANIC definitely spent more on advertising.

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                            • #29
                              Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

                              Originally posted by juunit View Post
                              CHRONICLE made ten times its budget. Fairly straightforward reasoning. That's basically the same return TITANIC got. Except it was probably an even better return, because TITANIC definitely spent more on advertising.
                              And the rest have barely broke even or made a profit. What's your point?

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                              • #30
                                Re: Max Landis article on Deadline

                                Originally posted by juunit View Post
                                CHRONICLE made ten times its budget. Fairly straightforward reasoning. That's basically the same return TITANIC got. Except it was probably an even better return, because TITANIC definitely spent more on advertising.
                                Which is a fair point. I hate to admit that I've never seen CHRONICLE, but based off the opinions of people I trust, it sounds like a good film that deserves to earn Max Landis a fair amount of credence. And I appreciate that he's using what credence he has to advocate for writers.

                                But the films that he's written since then -- AMERICAN ULTRA, MR. RIGHT, ME HIM HER -- all seem to be these adolescent boy fantasies. I see him as a bad photocopy of Quentin Tarantino. All the same flash and style with none of the depth of understanding and love of cinema.

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