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Next stop, Hollywood

TorqueWheeler

An enormous amount of muscle.
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76,168
Well, the first thing to tip you off he’s either lying or being fed a bunch of malarkey from a grifter is that he claims there’s way more money in screenwriting. If you’re Aaron Sorkin or the Coen Brothers then sure. If you’re a fucking nobody who wrote a couple of books that nobody outside of a community of MAP’s knows about then not so much. The days of massive fees for screenplays are long gone and nobody is getting Shane Black deals anymore.

Unfortunately for him, Pat is the type of bottom feeder who thinks The Matrix is a little known arthouse flick so he wouldn’t know enough to even convincingly lie about it.

I could go into the tedious minutiae of it all but there were studio agreements put in place after the writers strike so after you deliver at least a treatment, a first draft, a final draft and pay percentages to your agent, your lawyer, the producer and, in this hypothetical case, the book publisher, you’d come out with about 65-70% of the total purchase price. If the studio signed the WGA agreement they must buy the screenplay for between $72k up to around $130k Give or take a few hundred bucks. But that payment comes in installments so if we like the idea but not the actual screenplay and only want a first draft, you’ll only earn around $36-45k and then you’re off the project completely outside of your credit.

Divide that by two with the mystery writing partner who never gets tagged and you’re looking at a likely best case return of $18-23k for a first time sale spec script. If that’s really a lot more than your book sales then I suggest applying at McDonalds and working your way up to manager, Pat. You’ll earn more and you can probably take home the leftovers to fill your trough.
 

TorqueWheeler

An enormous amount of muscle.
Forum Clout
76,168
I hope a producer decides there's enough of a hint of a high concept in Pat's script to make something of, but he brings in an actual screenwriter to completely rewrite the script and totally cut Pat out of the deal.

In fact, fuck it: @Twatsmash get your hands on the rights to that screenplay, I'll rewrite it for half union scale and points on the back end.
If I didn’t fear being laughed out of town by people thinking I really believed in the concept then I’d actually consider it.
 
G

guest

Guest
If that’s really a lot more than your book sales then I suggest applying at McDonalds and working your way up to manager, Pat. You’ll earn more and you can probably take home the leftovers to fill your trough.

I didn't know what "coverage" meant in terms of script writing. It sounded like something Pat made up to seem like he was making progress and when I skimmed a few pages on it, that's exactly what it seems like. Correct me if I'm wrong, but "coverage" sounds like when people decide whether or not a script is even worth anything. 16, dick, Hollywood but I'd be willing to wager a large amount of money that this script gets a "Pass" rating.
 

TorqueWheeler

An enormous amount of muscle.
Forum Clout
76,168
I didn't know what "coverage" meant in terms of script writing. It sounded like something Pat made up to seem like he was making progress and when I skimmed a few pages on it, that's exactly what it seems like. Correct me if I'm wrong, but "coverage" sounds like when people decide whether or not a script is even worth anything. 16, dick, Hollywood but I'd be willing to wager a large amount of money that this script gets a "Pass" rating.
You’re right. Script coverage is essentially a service where you send a screenplay to a professional reader who will judge the screenplay and give you feedback/notes. If you don’t yet know what you’re doing it might be useful; as long as whoever is doing the coverage is reputable in their own right but, if anything, the idea of someone else sending your screenplay out for coverage means they know your script needs plenty of work but they can’t articulate it to you.

I would never personally waste my time with a screenplay like this so even if we pretend Pat is telling the truth his “producers” are nobodies who have probably never closed a deal on anything worthwhile. Even if they have an in on touting it around it will almost certainly be tossed in the trash.
 
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guest

Guest
It would actually be great for his shit writing to get made into a movie. Of course, no studio would be dumb enough to do that, so maybe like a Sci Fi Channel original turd or one of those crappy direct to video companies that make movies like Transmorfers could pick it up. The reboot of Mystery Science Theater looked like complete dogshit, but I bet the fellas here would give it a good beating.
 

stealthygeek

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50,964
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Contest? Nice employment opportunity, stupid.
 
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