Top Highlights

• I brainstormed for two days and came up with fifty ideas. I then narrowed it down to ten, any of which I would have been happy to write. My notes are incomplete, but here’s what I do have of my ten original movie ideas: Test Pattern. Nuclear explosion in space destroys television. Silencer. Murder in the deaf community. Bad guys chasing an innocent...
• So why didn’t I just write Time Machine? Well, it wasn’t about anything. Not yet. The premise was fun, and it clearly had comedic and even some character growth potential, but at this point it was only a gimmick. In fact it was less than a gimmick; it was a situation without any idea which gimmick had produced it! If I had committed to the idea, pe...
• Breaking into the movie business is filled with Catch-22 type hurdles for screenwriters. Most producers won’t read a screenplay unless it is submitted by a registered agency. Most agencies won’t read a screenplay unless you are already a client. Nobody will buy your screenplay unless you are a member of the Writers Guild, and the Writers Guild won’...
• If there is a personal connection, no matter how tenuous, people are very friendly and anxious to help.
• I have come to trust that whenever a Hollywood door inexplicably closes, a Hollywood window somewhere magically opens.