Franklin Leonard

[StoryWriter]

Re: Franklin Leonard

And saying that story "quick" was just not in the cards.

I guess I like words, lots and lots and lots of them, too much.

[StoryWriter]

Re: Franklin Leonard

I guess he took it out as 8 kids means nothing to me...

4 boys, than four girls.

(I'm trying not to be offensive to anyone.)

[finalact4]

Re: Franklin Leonard

I prefer the numeral... always... and I'll use it every time. A number isn't a word.

That's the way my dyslexic/OCD brain sees it: It's "1" not "one"... I don't care what any writer snob says, I'm writing it as "1." I get what the rule is, but I'm gonna ignore it so that it LOOKS correct to my brain.

ps... No one's ever complained about my numbers. "Bruh, it should be "one" not "1." My response would be "HAHAHA! Fukk off. Not happening! What's your next note?"

Agreed. Tho, sometimes you might prefer the actor to say "twenty-twenty," some dipshit might mess it up and say, "two-thousand-twenty." haha.

Welcome back and Happy ****ing Birthday, dude.

[Mark Somers]

Re: Franklin Leonard

My competition is Fitzgerald, Shakespeare, and Homer.

And honestly, they need to step up their game. It's been a while since they wrote anything on my level.

Homer is more my level, drinks beer, watches TV, is late to work, has a strange boss, etc. I don't know about those other two guys.

[GucciGhostXXX]

Re: Franklin Leonard

Welcome back, Gucci. I was getting worried about you.

Ha! Thanks! Was just moving. Previous to that it was my birthday, so I split town for a week to party.

[sc111]

Re: Franklin Leonard

I prefer the numeral... always... and I'll use it every time. A number isn't a word.

That's the way my dyslexic/OCD brain sees it: It's "1" not "one"... I don't care what any writer snob says, I'm writing it as "1." I get what the rule is, but I'm gonna ignore it so that it LOOKS correct to my brain.

ps... No one's ever complained about my numbers. "Bruh, it should be "one" not "1." My response would be "HAHAHA! Fukk off. Not happening! What's your next note?"

Welcome back, Gucci. I was getting worried about you.

[GucciGhostXXX]

Re: Franklin Leonard

It's still there. He correctly spelled out "eight" while I incorrectly used the numeral.

I prefer the numeral... always... and I'll use it every time. A number isn't a word.

That's the way my dyslexic/OCD brain sees it: It's "1" not "one"... I don't care what any writer snob says, I'm writing it as "1." I get what the rule is, but I'm gonna ignore it so that it LOOKS correct to my brain.

ps... No one's ever complained about my numbers. "Bruh, it should be "one" not "1." My response would be "HAHAHA! Fukk off. Not happening! What's your next note?"

[Vango]

Re: Franklin Leonard

Wow, 42 page thread is too much to read through.

Is the Blacklist worth it if one believes they can get an 8? Or is it another pay to play thing that should be avoided based on random downloads, high costs, and unqualified readers?

[sc111]

Re: Franklin Leonard

I guess he took it out as 8 kids means nothing to me...

It's still there. He correctly spelled out "eight" while I incorrectly used the numeral.

[finalact4]

Re: Franklin Leonard

I don't use the service, but I think the last few posts some or all the numbers are wrong. Isn't it $30 bucks to host per month?

Yes, but if you had a script hosting uninterrupted before the price increase they grandfathered you in. My billing was for $25/month.

[Bono]

Re: Franklin Leonard

I guess he took it out as 8 kids means nothing to me...

[sc111]

Re: Franklin Leonard

Storywriter: My mind was blown at 8 kids. Wow. I just spent 5 hours clothes shopping with a 17 yo because she was off from school. That times 8 kids? I can't imagine.

[StoryWriter]

Re: Franklin Leonard

That's a good payday for a non-union gig. Nice. If you don't mind sharing, I'm curious - how will it pay out? Some amount up front, rest when it films, or the whole amount to write the script?

I'll try to make this quick. First off, this was around 15 years ago. My brother, a guy I got acquainted with from Oklahoma and I would write shorts all the time on Misc.Writing.Screenplays, when they used to have newsgroups. It wasn't just us. A lot of people were writing stuff. Most of it wasn't very good, but we had contests and sometimes even pros would write something.

But it was a pretty cynical bunch and when someone showed up offering to pay for a script, most people insulted him. Oklahoma (not his real name) and me and my brother were the only ones that asked what he was looking for.

What he looking for a sequel to "The Living Dead". He thought he had an agreement, that if he came up with an acceptable script he would be allowed to film the sequel. He had one of the lead actors from the original movie, on board, who said he could make that happen.

My brother and I had absolutely no interest in "The Evil Dead" and Oklahoma was a huge fan, so we told him to go for it. The money guy was a French doctor, who had several doctor friends. Between them they had close to $10 million to film the movie. (I don't know what it was worth but the French doctor had actually taken lessons in film budgeting and film production.)

Anyway, the doctor offered Oklahoma around $20,000 to write the film and even put him up in his cabin in Tennessee, so they could work together on it. So for three months he paid for his food, lodging and unfortunately alcohol.

Which brought me and my brother back into it. (Mostly my brother, who is a better writer and far better editor than I am.) When Oklahoma would get stuck he'd hit the bottle and get depressed. So the doctor started getting a hold of us to help out.

To make a long story short, eventually the script got written (mostly because my brother found the fixes). We took notes from the lead actor and eventually he was very satisfied with it. It seemed similar in tone to the original movie, so I thought it was good to go.

Except the when the lead actor presented it to the people who actually owned the rights, they just said "WTF are you talking about?!" And that was the end of that.

Oklahoma was paid in full and I don't think there was any contract. The doctor was just good for his word.

He still had the bug to make a movie and he asked my brother and me if we had a horror movie idea. I had one that was half done and wrote that terrible synopsis for it. I liked (still like) the idea -- it's original but nowhere near the tone of "The Evil Dead".

He offered to pay half up front and half in three months or when the script was finished. (Which is how he paid Oklahoma, so I figured he was good for it.) At the time I was out of work and didn't have much to lose.

An hour later I got a call to install a new phone system as the lead telephone tech, at a military base in California. Six-thousand a month, plus overtime for a year contract. With eight kids, I had to take it. Since I was able to get my brother to work with me, I suggested another screenwriter to the doctor.

I don't know if a movie ever got made. I heard he invented an improvement for artificial heart valves or something like that.

Maybe the amount is unusual, but I've had other people interested in paying me $4 to $5 thousand for a script. Always people who approach me because they saw me on a newsgroup or at MoviePoet or somewhere. I'm fairly convinced that I'm their tenth (or so) choice, but probably the first one who listened to what they had to say and didn't treat them like sh*t just because they weren't paying the WGA minimum.

But who knows. I got optioned for a one-page short once, got an offer as staff writer for a Canadian start-up on a show that never happened and someone wanted me to write a screenplay from a "non-fiction" book about an Indian Windwalker. I read the book and told him that there's about 15 minutes of movie here. And they weren't that excited about me anymore.

I just think non-pros need to be more open, maybe less cynical, because there's opportunities out there.

[GucciGhostXXX]

Re: Franklin Leonard

I think if writer's look around with that kind of mindset, instead of dreaming of going to directly into the big leagues, they would feel better about their odds of working as a writer.

I think one of my problems is that I don't know anyone in the indie world, and no one I know knows anyone in the indie world to refer me to (big agents and such will literally tell you "Yeah... I don't know anyone to call in that world. Sorry." Everyone I know is pretty far up the ladder in the studio world... which can actually HURT you.

I think I fukked up by not building relationships early on in the indie world (TOO!).

Good luck on your project!

[Bono]

Re: Franklin Leonard

My competition is Fitzgerald, Shakespeare, and Homer.

And honestly, they need to step up their game. It's been a while since they wrote anything on my level.

Solid joke, but it's funny you picked one of the best examples of a famous writer who still couldn't write screenplays in Hollywood. That Homer didn't know sh%t about act breaks...