If you’re looking for a simple analogue for this… the screenwriter’s job is to run towards the edge of the cliff and then to jump off that cliff in the most spectacular and entertaining manner possible, regardless of the consequences. …. I think this fear of badly behaved writers is is short sighted. I think producers and script editors need to toughen up a bit… I think they need to encourage bad behaviour in their writers and to relish the tantrums. I think they should learn to enjoy having having an antique typewriter slung across a table at their heads, whilst having their family, penis size and genetic heritage questioned! (Even when they don’t actually have a penis) Actually, I don’t really believe this, at all (I just really like the idea, visually, of throwing a typewriter at a producer, any producer). More important than that, writers have forgotten this as well. The vast majority of writers who I met and speak to are only really interested in understanding what the rules are… so, they can apply those rules successfully to their careers. My question to writers who aspire to that is “Why did you become a writer?” I honestly believe that any writer whose sole ambition is to be well behaved and compliant really has picked the wrong job, or perhaps has forgotten why they started writing in the first place.
One of the most common failings of a lot of movies, appears to be when the scriptwriter has not understood that their role is to challenge and vex the script editor’s understanding of how to tell a story. These days it is increasingly common for writers to be “well behaved.” Personally, I blame producers for this. We have raised a generation of producers who are predisposed to hire writers who are easy to work with… writers who are compliant… writers who know how to play the game. Pussies, I believe is the collective noun. As a result of this, unknown writers strive really hard to become pussies. I don’t see this as being a good thing. I’d much rather see the industry encourage writers to be innovative and bold story-tellers.
On one level, I can understand why producers and script editors want to hire pussies… it is easier and it must seem that they get what they want, which is creative control and a safe, predictable product. Producers and script editors don’t like to be called idiots in script meetings, they don’t like writers who throw things, they find the relentless contempt of a sulky creative hard, bloody work. They really don’t like to sell risk and innovation to investors.
I do believe that the industry and the public’s experience of movie going, is made less vibrant, simply because the industry has forgotten that the writer’s job is to be a brilliant, but profoundly annoying arsehole, as they work as an advocate for creativity and innovation.
