Do screenwriters really matter?

[TheKeenGuy]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

It's it's fair to say is that a good premise is what opens a film, especially in conjunction with liked actors. Occasionally, that premise comes from the screenwriter. In those cases, a screenwriter can be an essential part of what "opens" a film and most often does not get enough credit.

However, virtually no one goes to see a film with the awareness of who wrote the script and what they may have written in the past... that is, unless the person is a director too.

[j over]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

Many more people know who Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are versus Charlie Kaufman, needless to say.

[TheKeenGuy]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

Eternal Sunshine.

An 8 million dollar opening weekend (and eventual 34 million gross) is hardly impressive, especially if it's the best example you can give for a notable (non-director) screenwriter in the business "opening a movie."

[DMNY]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

Eternal Sunshine.

Really?
So much for me thinking it was Jim Carey.

[cvolante]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

Eternal Sunshine.

[TheKeenGuy]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

Charlie Kaufman can open a movie.

He can? Which one?

[cvolante]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

Charlie Kaufman can open a movie.


It probably didn't hurt the boxoffice to put 'From the writer of PULP FICTION and RESERVOIR DOGS" on From Dusk Til Dawn. (I'm assuming they did that?)

I think we should all get little screwdrivers and open those little orange cans they have at the theaters and then we can say we opened a movie.

[sevoo]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

this is a joke. people usually talk about that writer when he
dyed.

[whistlelock]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

When was the last time the Screenwriter "opened" a film at the box office, though?

Writers need to change the HW paradigm. Change the language of the Bizness.

I suggest ... start sticking illustrations in your specs.

(It's like ... Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. flooding the jails in Alabama: overload the system, ignore the outdated expectations, and the system and the expectations break down, open up, become free.)

ofcourse, screenwriters will have to accept more of the risk. Since it costs us very little to write a movie than compared to the costs a producer has to produce a movie, we get very little recognition.

[sc111]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

And the rest of us crawl beneath the proverbial table, waiting for a crumb to fall off.

[habronic]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

i'm an idiot. =|

[Prosaics]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

I don't look at myself as "just" a screenwriter. I look at myself as a typist and a word processer.

So. I'm a triple threat.

[tabula rasa]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

When was the last time the Screenwriter "opened" a film at the box office, though?

Writers need to change the HW paradigm. Change the language of the Bizness.

I suggest ... start sticking illustrations in your specs.

(It's like ... Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. flooding the jails in Alabama: overload the system, ignore the outdated expectations, and the system and the expectations break down, open up, become free.)

[TheKeenGuy]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

A half billion?!

Alright, who's got it and why aren't you sharing?!

[deadeye]

Re: Do screenwriters really matter?

And by the time the DVD comes out, we exist in name only.

If you're lucky!

But thank the Lord for residuals.