鈥楾he thrill of discovery was gone.鈥� After strikes, will movies get creative?
Have Hollywood movies run out of original ideas? Not if Nathan Graham Davis can help it. As an alternative to the endless sequels, remakes, and familiar name brands, the screenwriter recently polished up a script titled, 鈥淐ongratulations, It鈥檚 an Alien.鈥�
The action-comedy is about a woman who gets pregnant during a one-night stand only to discover that the father is an alien in human form. She tries to find her lover. But an unstoppable killer is on her trail. In short, it鈥檚 鈥淭he Terminator鈥� meets 鈥淜nocked Up.鈥� Budget: $100 million.
The Massachusetts-based writer knows he鈥檚 unlikely to find a studio willing to midwife such an unconventional screenplay. But amid the writers strike 鈥撎齞uring which Mr. Davis completed two other unsolicited screenplays 鈥� he posted it online.听听
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onAfter past strikes, writers with original scripts found themselves in demand. Will there be a boom in creativity in Hollywood?
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of buzz that original scripts might have a little bit of a boom and be coming back,鈥� says Mr. Davis, whose action movie screenplay 鈥淎ftermath鈥� was filmed last year. 鈥淲e鈥檒l see if that happens.鈥�
Hollywood is gearing up to make the greatest comeback since Norma Desmond. This week, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists resumed its negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Screenwriters are back at work following a successful contract resolution. On the production side, idea pitches and script sales are back on. So are power lunches at Soho House in Los Angeles.听
However, it isn鈥檛 business as usual. Hollywood is struggling to tamp down runaway production costs and also trying to figure out how to make streaming profitable. At a time of contraction, many believe Hollywood will be tempted to get back on track with familiar formulas.
On the surface, conditions may not seem ideal for original storytelling. But the convection currents of creativity deep in the mantle of Hollywood continually create tectonic shifts. Sometimes it鈥檚 a gradual movement of the plates. Other times it鈥檚 an earthquake that reshapes the landscape.听
鈥淭wenty years ago it was a lot of the same lamentation and rending of garments about, you know, 鈥楾here鈥檚 nothing original and everything is sequels; it鈥檚 all presold, and there鈥檚 nothing new under the sun,鈥欌�� says Dade Hayes, the business editor at Deadline, a Hollywood trade publication. 鈥淗ollywood just is continually wrestling with that question.鈥澨�
Studios have long banked on movies based on recognizable characters such as Tarzan, Robin Hood, and, well, Moses. During the 1930s and 鈥�40s, they invested in franchises such as 鈥淭he Thin Man鈥� and 鈥淟assie.鈥� At the same time, American cinema developed into a vitally creative art form for original stories, often influenced by European film. The 1970s听brought what some call a听golden era for highbrow masterpieces by auteurs such as Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese, as well as inventive popular blockbusters by the likes of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. The two strands, sometimes intertwined, lasted through the 1990s.
鈥淚 broke into this business in 1995 by selling three original spec feature film scripts within the span of six months,鈥� says Jeff Vintar, a screenwriter for the 2004 Will Smith blockbuster 鈥淚, Robot,鈥� in an email. 鈥淣ow if that sounds like a whole different world, it really and truly was. ... Original work, challenging screenplays, great motion pictures are simply not a goal of the major studios the vast majority of the time.鈥�
The tension between conservatism and risk played out at the U.S. box office this past weekend. The top earners were the latest entries in the kid-friendly 鈥淧aw Patrol鈥� franchise and the definitely not kid-friendly 鈥淪aw鈥� franchise. By contrast, the sci-fi film 鈥淭he Creator鈥� fell short. So did 鈥淒umb Money,鈥� a true story about an upstart investor who beat Wall Street at its own game.
But the macro picture of the 2023 box office presents a more complicated picture. Many recognizable properties 鈥� 鈥淕uardians of the Galaxy,鈥� 鈥淭eenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,鈥� and 鈥淔ast & Furious鈥� 鈥� performed well. But audiences were less enthused by the latest from the 鈥淚ndiana Jones,鈥� 鈥淢ission: Impossible,鈥� and 鈥淭he Flash鈥� franchises. Instead, they flocked to Barbenheimer 鈥� with original stories about a doll (鈥淏arbie鈥�) and a nuclear scientist (鈥淥ppenheimer鈥�) scoring more than $1 billion and $800 million worldwide respectively. The most improbable box office hit of the summer: 鈥淪ound of Freedom,鈥� a biopic about combating human trafficking.
鈥淎udiences are really signaling that they want more original content, but they do like tried-and-true as well,鈥� says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.听
Some producers work within those commercial parameters to develop inventive blockbusters. 鈥淏arbie,鈥� which is campaigning for best original screenplay at the Academy Awards, is one example. 鈥淛oker,鈥� a psychological portrait of a villain in the Batman universe, is another.听
Junior executives and talent agents are constantly on the hunt for original scripts, sometimes on behalf of actors seeking challenging material.
鈥淲hat was missing during the writers strike is that the thrill of discovery was gone from the business,鈥� says writer Dean Bakopolous (HBO鈥檚 鈥淢ade For Love鈥�), who penned two scripts during the work stoppage. 鈥淔or the producers and creative executives, discovering a new writer, discovering a new project, or finding a writer you鈥檝e worked with who鈥檚 done something that鈥檚 mind-blowing 鈥� that鈥檚 what everyone wants.鈥�
There鈥檚 an online venue for remarkable screenplays that haven鈥檛 found a home. It鈥檚 called . Hollywood insiders nominate and vote on overlooked scripts in an annual survey. In 2019, Harvard Business School associate professor Hong Luo the box office performance of Black List scripts that ended up getting made. She found they tended to generate 90% more revenue than other movies with a comparative budget.
鈥淟ess-experienced [writers] are actually much more likely to be on the list than experienced people, which is not entirely surprising, partly because experienced people are less likely to write spec scripts to start with,鈥� says Professor Luo in a video call.听
Some predict that Hollywood will be awash with original features and pilots created during the nearly five-month writers strike (which is allowed by the Writers Guild of America). But when strike captain Jessica Sharzer chatted with her agents at United Talent Agency last week, they told her that perhaps only 10% of their clients wrote scripts during the work stoppage. Most were too exhausted by daily marches on picket lines. For their part, studios and streaming companies may be cutting back on expenditures. To the extent that they are spending on acquisitions to make up for lost production time, it鈥檚 on independently produced movies that were hits at festivals such as in Venice and Toronto.
Indie films, often made for less than the tire budget of a 鈥淔ast & Furious鈥� movie, remain a vital outlet for truly original stories. For example, 鈥淓verything Everywhere All At Once,鈥� 鈥淐ODA,鈥� and 鈥淣omadland鈥� all won best picture at the Academy Awards. A24 Films is a big player in this space. So are streaming companies. The likes of Amazon and Apple TV+ have helped audiences who don鈥檛 venture to art-house cinemas develop a taste for more adventurous fare. Case in point: Netflix will release 鈥淢ay December,鈥� directed by Todd Haynes and starring Oscar winners Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.
鈥淭hey shot it in 26 days,鈥� says Mr. Hayes, the Deadline editor, whose most recent book is 鈥淏inge Times: Inside Hollywood鈥檚 Furious Billion-Dollar Battle To Take Down Netflix.鈥� 鈥淚t was very much an indie production. Of course, it ended up getting acquired for $20 million and made a big noise at the festivals.鈥�
Mr. Davis, a former bank employee, spent years submitting scripts to social media before he scored a breakthrough. 鈥淎ftermath,鈥� about terrorists who commandeer Boston鈥檚 Tobin Bridge, was made for $10 million and is now seeking distribution.
鈥淭hat $5 [million] to $15 million spot is a range where movies get made and they鈥檙e still profitable,鈥� says Mr. Davis, who posted 鈥淐ongratulations, It鈥檚 an Alien鈥� on his website as a writing sample. 鈥淭hey can pay a writer well enough that they might actually have a chance at making something approaching a living.鈥澨�
