Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

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  • Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

    Does anyone know of the writer or writers reaction to their scripts being recognized on the Blacklist but once it got made, maybe not being a
    big or moderately big success critically or financially?

    I.E. Lars and The Real Girl, Juno, In Bruges, Up In The Air, The Wrestler, Michael Clayton vs. Hall Pass, Yes Man, A Thousand Words, Gangster Squad, Abduction, The Back-Up Plan.

  • #2
    Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

    Does it matter?

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    • #3
      Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

      I'm sure that in the time between when these scripts were on the Black List and the time the movies got made, all of these writers had since moved on to numerous other projects and moved forward with their lives and careers.

      That's not to say these projects didn't mean anything to these writers, but you don't get anywhere in any business by dwelling on the past or obsessing about the outcome of one particular project. You have to be constantly moving forward. If you can't keep that momentum going, you're dead in the water.
      Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Courier12

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      • #4
        Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

        Originally posted by DR Bostic View Post
        Does anyone know of the writer or writers reaction to their scripts being recognized on the Blacklist but once it got made, maybe not being a
        big or moderately big success critically or financially?

        I.E. Lars and The Real Girl, Juno, In Bruges, Up In The Air, The Wrestler, Michael Clayton vs. Hall Pass, Yes Man, A Thousand Words, Gangster Squad, Abduction, The Back-Up Plan.
        I dont know but I feel some people consider In bruges and Juno, cult films.

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        • #5
          Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

          "WORLDBEATER: One that is markedly superior to all others, as in the ability to succeed."

          In my experience, everyone I've ever come across who projected a "worldbeating" attitude was either an egomaniac, a con artist, or a massive disrespecter of his or her fellow workers. Never have I seen a business better off after hiring a worldbeater, though I have seen several improve after a worldbeater left.

          That's just anecdotal, of course. The list of films given above (from "JUNO" on down) as NON-worldbeaters, are films that, with a couple of exceptions, (like "ABDUCTION") anyone of us would be proud to be associated with.

          Want a worldbeater of a film, go write the next "TRANSFORMERS" or "MOVIE 43."

          Want a good film, write the next "IN BRUGES" or "UP IN THE AIR."

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          • #6
            Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

            You wouldn't be proud to be associated with Abduction? A seven-figure script deal that got put on one of the fastest possible tracks to production? A script that gets you gigs writing the remake of The Man from Nowhere and adapting Stuff of Legend for Disney?

            You must have penned some really successful movies to look down your nose at a very talented writer who's working at a high level.

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            • #7
              Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

              I saw ABDUCTION. Matter of fact, I've seen most of the movies (listed above).

              While I'm happy, to be sure, at the success of the writers of ABDUCTION, it is not a movie I'd be particularly proud to be associated with. In itself. (I thought the concept of the movie was sound, but they didn't go far enough fast enough with it).

              I'd also be glad to be given a script assignment by Lucasfilm. But that doesn't mean, when I post here as M.O.S., I'd have anything good to say about the post-Indiana Jones George Lucas. It's another reason why I go under the nom de doom M.O.S.

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              • #8
                Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

                Juno cost about 8 million to make and earned about 140 million at the domestic box-office and won the Oscar for best screenplay. You're a meth head.

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                • #9
                  Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

                  Originally posted by Max Otto Schrenck View Post
                  I'd also be glad to be given a script assignment by Lucasfilm. But that doesn't mean, when I post here as M.O.S., I'd have anything good to say about the post-Indiana Jones George Lucas. It's another reason why I go under the nom de doom M.O.S.
                  So you're saying that you'll trash the post-Indiana George Lucas (I'm not sure what time period that covers, but I think I get your point) under a fake name because there might be a chance you'd get to work with George Lucas?

                  Stand up for your comments, good or bad.

                  Sorry for the tangent, but this is why I post under my own name now. Posting under a false name does not relinquish responsibility for what was said, and certainly isn't something to hide behind so one can 'trash' or judge something.

                  By the way, for the record, I thought the fourth Indiana Jones movie was not good at all. And if I'm in a room with George Lucas and he asks my opinion of it, I'd go into a little more tactful detail as to why I felt that way. If it costs me a job, so be it. But I can't work with someone I'm trying to hide my real thoughts/opinions from, and I wouldn't think he'd want to work with me, either, if he can't trust I'm telling him the truth.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

                    Originally posted by Richmond Weems View Post
                    So you're saying that you'll trash the post-Indiana George Lucas (I'm not sure what time period that covers, but I think I get your point) under a fake name because there might be a chance you'd get to work with George Lucas?

                    Stand up for your comments, good or bad.

                    Sorry for the tangent, but this is why I post under my own name now. Posting under a false name does not relinquish responsibility for what was said, and certainly isn't something to hide behind so one can 'trash' or judge something.
                    There's some truth to what you say. Unfortunately -- as witness the imbroglio over at amazonstudios the past month, and at zoetrope almost all the time -- when you ride around advertising your "own name," you're basically playing Russian Roulette with trolls who, when riled up, are liable to expend amounts of time no working writer should ever have on their hands to sift through everything you did or said, to make you the centerpiece of their own show trial.

                    If they don't come after you directly. (After confronting the Big Troll on amazonstudios, I found both my search engines corrupted with pages that crash, then invite me to download malware to fix the problem. A coincidence, I'm sure. Paranoia on my part, almost certainly. But what if it isn't --).

                    I don't see any reason to be "answerable" to trolls, ogres, and nutcases. In any event, anyone with initiative could easily find out my "real name." But somehow the psychology doesn't work like that. They go after the name you've given on the site.

                    The fact that I gave my "real name" (which is as plain-bread as "John Smith", another reason I use a psuedonym), on amazonstudios shortly before my search engines started crashing also makes me wonder --

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                    • #11
                      Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

                      I understand where you're coming from, MOS, and I'm not saying that you have to use your real name...I'm just saying that one has to stand behind statements made while using a pseudonym.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

                        My feet are at least 50% clay, whether I'm using a psuedonym or not. I was being ironic about being offered a job at Lucasfilm, but it's a disconnect I've noticed in myself and other screenwriters: the fact that a lot of us, including myself, have a negative attitude toward many of the "winners" in the industry -- yet we'd eat a hundred pounds of crow if we were offered advancement by those same winners, and would in fact cooperate fully with them, in so far as we're capable. That's supposed to be "professional" you see.

                        But it's bad faith, methinks.

                        Yet in the "non-industry" world, how many times do we work for owners and managers we don't respect, and may in fact despise? How many times do we start out respecting our bosses, and end up having nothing but contempt for them?

                        I look back over my own working life, and I can think of only one "owner" I had any regard for -- this poker-faced Jewish guy who owned about half of Providence, Rhode Island, and whom everybody including his employees hated with a bright clean fury. THAT was someone I respected, even if he was a skinflint capitalist. Because he had a sort of self-invented integrity, and gave no one including himself anything but a well-earned break (the fact that he lived in a Mafia/Democratic-machine area and got by without the Mafia or the Dems also gave him credibility).

                        There aren't many of those around, loved or hated. So what do you do when you're hired by a jerk -- as most people who hire you are? Never mind a world-class aszhole like George Lucas?

                        Figure out the answer to that, and you may see your road and role in the film business bright and clear ahead -- and still be unable to get to it, because you didn't catch that lucky break....
                        Last edited by Max Otto Schrenck; 02-17-2013, 11:27 AM.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Black List Scripts That Weren't Considered Worldbeaters

                          Originally posted by DR Bostic View Post
                          Does anyone know of the writer or writers reaction to their scripts being recognized on the Blacklist but once it got made, maybe not being a
                          big or moderately big success critically or financially?

                          I.E. Lars and The Real Girl, Juno, In Bruges, Up In The Air, The Wrestler, Michael Clayton vs. Hall Pass, Yes Man, A Thousand Words, Gangster Squad, Abduction, The Back-Up Plan.
                          Not sure what that list of movies is supposed to signify? Many of those were both critical and commercial hits, some of them really big ones.

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