How Michael Arndt wrote “Little Miss Sunshine”

He wrote the first draft quickly, but then…

In the foreword to the book version of the script for Little Miss Sunshine (Newmarket Shooting Script series), Michael Arndt detailed how he wrote the screenplay.

On Tuesday, May 23, 2000, at 4:27 p.m., I sat down to write LMS [Little Miss Sunshine]. I wrote twelve pages the first day, thirty-seven pages the second, and — pulling an all-nighter — fifty-four pages on the third day. I finished the first draft at 9:56 a.m. on Friday, May 26. Then I spent a year rewriting it.

On July 29, 2001 — a Sunday — I heard from Tom Strickler (Mike’s agent).

On December 21, 2001 — the Friday before the holidays — the script was purchased by producer Marc Turtletaub.

Principal photography began on June 6, 2005, and ended — after thirty shooting days — on July 18.

The film had its world premiere on January 20, 2006, at Sundance, and was bought by Fox Searchlight the next day.

Little Miss Sunshine opened in theaters on July 26, 2006.

As of this writing (November 6, 2006), it has grossed $75 million worldwide.

So the film has “succeeded,” and I have (temporarily, at least) escaped from the jaws of failure.

Some may read this anecdote and zero in on this: Hey, he wrote the script in three days! Cool! As if you could do the same thing. Knock out a script in a weekend. Get the movie made. Win an Academy Award.

However, the more astute reader will lock in on this: Then I spent a year rewriting it. That is a more accurate take on what life as a screenwriter is like.

This approach is one where the writer breaks the story in the process of writing the story. Nothing wrong with that as Little Miss Sunshine eloquently displays as it’s a fantastic screenplay.

If you have all the time in the world, even an entire year, sure… get a story idea… type Fade In… then find the story along the way.

A more prudent approach would be to break the story before you go to pages. In fact, if you want to survive or thrive as a Hollywood screenwriter, you are well advised to develop a repeatable process:

Story Prep → Write Pages → Revise Pages

If you sell a pitch or land an OWA (Open Writing Assignment), you don’t have a year to turn in your draft. Instead, you’re looking at twelve weeks which you can maybe stretch out by a month or so depending upon how long it takes for business affairs and legal to get contracts drawn up for you to sign.

[There are situations where a writer is hired to work on a movie project for months as at Pixar, but that is less common].

Whatever works. Some writers simply prefer finding the story as they write it. Fine. If you’ve got the time, go for it.

But if you aspire to be a working Hollywood writer — and especially if you want to work in television — you’d best get comfortable with breaking story before you type Fade In.

Here is a trailer for the movie Little Miss Sunshine:

You may read the screenplay here.

Michael Arndt has put together some excellent videos on his website here. Highly recommended!