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Interesting stuff on the script from the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/mo...tml?ref=movies
"Hereafter- was written by Peter Morgan, better known for his films about British royalty - "The Queen,- "The Other Boleyn Girl- - and for his play "Frost/Nixon,- which he later turned into a movie as well. His involvement in a project about the afterlife is in many ways even more remarkable than Mr. Eastwood's, and his script, as it happens, underwent a near-death experience and then a resurrection.
...
Normally an obsessive outliner and reviser, he began writing a screenplay without any clear idea of where it was going. "So much of what I usually do offers solution or explanations, but this time I wanted to write something open ended,- he said. "I didn't want answers. I wanted to ask questions.-
...
Hoping just for a reaction, he passed the script to his agent, who instead sent it off to the producer Kathleen Kennedy ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,- "Jurassic Park-). Seeing a resemblance to "The Sixth Sense,- she in turn showed it to the director of that film, M. Night Shyamalan. Later she happened to be on the soundstage of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- while talking to Mr. Shyamalan on the phone, and she was overheard by Steven Spielberg, who according to Mr. Morgan said, "I like the sound of that.- He liked the sound of it so much that he read the screenplay and made extensive notes, which Mr. Morgan immediately addressed in a revision.
But Mr. Spielberg thought the revision was not as "humble- or "pure- as the original, Mr. Morgan said. "He told me, 'I think I've ruined your screenplay.' Then he said, 'Can I show it to my friend Clint?' -
"So now we're really in the realm of the absurd,- Mr. Morgan said. A couple of months later he was further bewildered when he learned that Mr. Eastwood, who had purchased the rights to "Hereafter,- was already filming off the original script. Though known for writing on spec and resisting the traditional development process, Mr. Morgan had been looking forward to working with Mr. Eastwood.
"I imagined we'd have all sorts of conversations about the characters, about the plot,- he said. "But we never did. What you see on the screen is this thing I wrote very sketchily in the mountains of Austria.-
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Geez, I wish Steven Spielberg would ruin one of MY scripts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/mo...tml?ref=movies
"Hereafter- was written by Peter Morgan, better known for his films about British royalty - "The Queen,- "The Other Boleyn Girl- - and for his play "Frost/Nixon,- which he later turned into a movie as well. His involvement in a project about the afterlife is in many ways even more remarkable than Mr. Eastwood's, and his script, as it happens, underwent a near-death experience and then a resurrection.
...
Normally an obsessive outliner and reviser, he began writing a screenplay without any clear idea of where it was going. "So much of what I usually do offers solution or explanations, but this time I wanted to write something open ended,- he said. "I didn't want answers. I wanted to ask questions.-
...
Hoping just for a reaction, he passed the script to his agent, who instead sent it off to the producer Kathleen Kennedy ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,- "Jurassic Park-). Seeing a resemblance to "The Sixth Sense,- she in turn showed it to the director of that film, M. Night Shyamalan. Later she happened to be on the soundstage of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- while talking to Mr. Shyamalan on the phone, and she was overheard by Steven Spielberg, who according to Mr. Morgan said, "I like the sound of that.- He liked the sound of it so much that he read the screenplay and made extensive notes, which Mr. Morgan immediately addressed in a revision.
But Mr. Spielberg thought the revision was not as "humble- or "pure- as the original, Mr. Morgan said. "He told me, 'I think I've ruined your screenplay.' Then he said, 'Can I show it to my friend Clint?' -
"So now we're really in the realm of the absurd,- Mr. Morgan said. A couple of months later he was further bewildered when he learned that Mr. Eastwood, who had purchased the rights to "Hereafter,- was already filming off the original script. Though known for writing on spec and resisting the traditional development process, Mr. Morgan had been looking forward to working with Mr. Eastwood.
"I imagined we'd have all sorts of conversations about the characters, about the plot,- he said. "But we never did. What you see on the screen is this thing I wrote very sketchily in the mountains of Austria.-
-----
Geez, I wish Steven Spielberg would ruin one of MY scripts.
Why did all these big names get involved with it if the script was so weak? 
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