Daily Dialogue — March 14, 2019

Griffin Mill: So, what’s the story?
Walter Stuckel: Twenty-five words or less? Okay. Movie exec calls writer. Writer’s girlfriend says he’s at the movies. Exec goes to the movies, meets writer, drinks with writer. Writer gets conked and dies in four inches of dirty water. Movie exec is in deep shit. What do you think?
Griffin Mill: That’s more than 25 words and it’s bullshit.

— The Player (1992), screenplay by Michael Tolkin from his novel

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Hollywood Insiders.

Trivia: Screenwriter Michael Tolkin had a film company ring him up and try to option “Habeus Corpus,” the blatantly ludicrous film that is pitched within the movie.

Dialogue On Dialogue: One of the best Hollywood insider movies. Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) plays a studio exec who murders a screenwriter… and gets away with it. The “25 words or less” is a reference to ‘high concept,’ a story idea which can be told succinctly, common to the nomenclature of Hollywood development circles back in the 80s and 90s.