7 Hollywood Gatekeepers on What They Look for in a Script
Insights into how the people who say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ think when reading a script.
Insights into how the people who say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ think when reading a script.
Excerpts from a recent Vulture article with seven Hollywood executives and producers about their thought process when it comes to assessing a screenplay.
Gatekeeper: Michael Barker
Title: Co-President, Sony Pictures Classics
Notable Credits: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, All About My Mother, Midnight in Paris
The most annoying trend in screenwriting: “American screenplays tend to be very long in a way that’s really irritating. Screenplays we get from European writers like Michael Haneke are generally shorter. Scripts are also irritating when, if after 15 or 20 pages, you’re still like, ‘What is this? What’s going on?’”
Gatekeeper: Jason Blum
Title: Producer, Blumhouse Productions
Notable Credits: Paranormal Activity, Whiplash, Get Out
Should a script follow a traditional format? “Not at all. Almost everything we’ve done, starting with Paranormal Activity, breaks the mold. That was an 80-minute movie with a 45-minute first act, and the first big scare happens over halfway through. In tentpole movies, it’s too risky to break the three-act structure. But almost every movie we do challenges the notion that there’s a formula to screenwriting.”
Gatekeeper: Kristin Burr
Title: Producer, Burr! Productions; former executive VP of production for live-action film at Disney
Notable Credits: Sweet Home Alabama, The Proposal, The Muppets
The most promising trend: “Scripts that show empowering female characters with sincerity and complexity. I don’t need another story about women that doesn’t run deeper than romantic woes or petty differences.”
Gatekeeper: Michael DeLuca
Title: Founder, Michael DeLuca Productions; formerly the president of production at both New Line Cinema and DreamWorks
Notable Credits: The Social Network, Moneyball, Fifty Shades of Grey
The stories I most want to tell right now: “I love escapism, but what gets me really excited are true-life stories; movies like I did with [producers] Scott Rudin and Dana Brunetti — Social Network, Moneyball and films like Zero Dark Thirty, and Argo.”
Gatekeeper: Helen Estabrook
Title: Producer, Right of Way Films
Notable Credits: Up in the Air, Young Adult, Whiplash
What I look for in a character: “I think a lot about E.M. Forster’s delineation of round and flat characters: A round character acts and speaks as a real person would, and increases in complexity throughout the story; they’re capable of contradiction and change, and we see their emotional and psychological development as the story progresses. I think a lot of unlikability for the audience is born out of flat characters.”
Gatekeeper: Lynda Obst
Title: Producer, Lynda Obst Productions
Notable Credits: Sleepless in Seattle, The Fisher King, Interstellar
What I look for in an ending is: “Relief and resolution of something, if not everything. It depends on the genre. But always remember that your test number is highly determined by the feeling at the end of the movie. I learned this working on Risky Business.”
Gatekeeper: Will Packer
Title: Producer, Will Packer Productions
Notable Credits: Think Like a Man, Straight Outta Compton, Girls Trip
My go-to way of telling someone I don’t like his or her script: “I try to respond as quickly as possible. I have a lot of respect for writers, so I treat them as such when I’m interacting with them, even if it’s saying, ‘I can’t move forward with your project.’ I have such an appreciation for how hard their job is.”
Every studio executive or producer is different. Same goes for agents and managers. Each has their own unique interests, concerns, perspectives, irritants, and passions. But in Hollywood, they have one thing in common: All of them are looking for writers who can craft a good story.
Your goal: Be that writer.
For the rest of the article, go here.