The Business of Screenwriting: When getting fired can be good news

No one likes to get rewritten, but sometimes there’s a silver lining.

When you break into Hollywood as a screenwriter, it’s a bit like entering a reality akin to George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” with the Seven Commandments of Animalism, where up is down, war is peace, and all animals are equal… but some are more equal than others.

One Hollywood Commandment of Screenwriting is this: “When you get rewritten, that can be good news.”

Now let’s be clear, when you write a project for a studio or a producer, and you are informed you are being rewritten, the simple fact is you have been fired. Terminated. Tossed off the project. And in most parts of the world, that is a bad thing.

Not necessarily in the 405–101–110–10 bubble. When your reps inform you the studio has “decided to go in another direction,” you barely have time to process that startling information before they leap in with, “But they’ve hired so-and-so to rewrite you.”

And then the ironic twist: “And that’s a good thing.”

Why? Because if a studio decides to hire someone else to rewrite you, that means they are still committed to the project, they believe in it.

Think about it. They have spent money on you. Probably spent money on writers before you. And now they’re spending money on writers after you. If they didn’t feel like there was something there, why would they be plunking down all these dollars?

Moreover by bringing on another writer, it means the project still has a chance to get made. And this is your goal because that’s when (A) you get a production bonus and (B) you have a chance to get a writing credit.

So you see how that Orwellian dialectic works? When the studio fires you, then hires another writer, that’s actually a positive for you because it keeps the project alive and possibly moving toward a green light.

The Business of Screenwriting is a weekly series of GITS posts based upon my experiences as a complete Hollywood outsider who sold a spec script for a lot of money, parlayed that into a screenwriting career during which time I’ve made some good choices, some okay decisions, and some really stupid ones. Hopefully you’ll be the wiser for what you learn here.

For more The Business of Screenwriting posts, go here.