OldBoy

I mean I don’t know how some of this shit makes a theatrical release. Are writers just instructed to right some crap by the studio that copies everything from every movie, with errors galore and not an ounce of for lack of a better word good writing? I mean what is the process? Do they sit back and say, “you know, I just wrote a hell of a good movie.”?

My case, and this is probably bad to start off with is Jason X. Now, this is a bad bad movie. The writing is terrible and littered with blatant errors. Right in beginning when they wake Lexi Doig up, the Dr. says its 2455. We saw her with Jason before the freeze in 2010, as it said it in beginning. So the Dr. is waking up his seller on black market friend saying he found 2 reanimated whatever. And then says she’s 455 to to exact. So she and Jason would have to be frozen in 2000. Fine. I can deal with a stupid blunder or two in a stupid movie.

Then these students are supposed to be training to be drs of some sort. And the one examining Jason is wearing a half a shirt and is hot as hell. While Jason is thawing out, virtually the whole crew is having sex. This is written stuff. How does something like that get the green light? It’s just amazing.

Now, I should disclaim that Jason X is my #1 fav guilty please, but it’s a bad movie. Not Friday the 13th: Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan bad, but pretty damn close.

Ever wonder how this shit sees light of day?

inri222

Sometimes it's not entirely their fault. The director and the producer can affect the writing process.

With a good script, a good director can produce a masterpiece. With the same script, a mediocre director can produce a passable film.
But with a bad script even a good director can’t possibly make a good film.

- Akira Kurosawa

Bluelitespecial

I think the writers of Road House are geniuses but I'm sure other people would say otherwise.

OldBoy

That last Akira’s line is what I’m saying. It’s the script. I’m not blaming actors or director. But the writers are writing this stuff and actors just reading.

Why So Blu?

Todd Farmer wrote Jason X and I think it's awesome. He also co-wrote the reboot to My Bloody Valentine 3-D, Drive Angry 3-D, and Trick, which for all intents and purposes, are low budget genre films. I give leeway to these of films, because I know what I am getting myself into.

Also, the fact that you love Jason X but use it as your primary example is weird, so...

Michael Corvin

Aren't most of the most dreadful movies the ones that went though a dozen writers & rewrites? Hard to blame one person in cases like that.

bluetoast

Tell an actor they’re “just reading” and they’ll throw you out the window

tanman

It's like any other job right? They can't all be auteurs. There are bad doctors, engineers, maybe one or two bad politicians. Not every movie can be a masterpiece. And just like other professions I'm sure there are varying degrees of self delusion.

ddrknghtrtns

Probably a majority of the time, screenwriter's expect the movie to be meh and are caught by surprise when a movie is well received by both critics and audiences alike. For example, the screenwriters for Casablanca probably thought they were writing the screenplay for a typical WWII propaganda movie.

OldBoy

just because i like it as a guilty pleasure, doesn't make me oblivious to the fact that it is a fucking awful movie with bad writing, direction, acting. i like it like i like watching a trainwreck. not really, but i think i made my reasons apparent in first post...

Josh-da-man

I think when someone is scripting something like a Friday the 13th sequel, they are under no illusion that they're writing for Masterpiece Theatre.

But when someone is writing a script for something like Ishtar or Showgirls, almost everyone involved with the movie -- the screenwriter, actors, director, producers -- thinks they're crafting a masterpiece. At least until they see a workprint...

IBJoel

I think maybe not every writer thinks they're writing a good movie, but most likely believe they are writing an effective movie. What I mean by that is, what is the goal of the screenplay? Is it to win an Oscar? Make a bunch of money? Make a passable entry in a franchise to maintain the rights? Simply get sold? There could also be cases where a writer makes something they think is bad, but for whatever reason, an executive eats it up and greenlights it.

And as Michael Corvin says, there are hardly any scripts these days that aren't touched up, at the very least.

GoldenJCJ

I’m sure it’s similar to fiction writers. You have your J.D. Salingers and James Baldwins who are legitimately great writers and have earned numerous awards. Then you have your Michael Crichtons, James Pattersons, and Stephen Kings who have been very successful in writing fun, entertaining stories that are well received by consumers but don’t necessarily write hoping for a Pulitzer. Then you have your trashy romance writers (I don’t know any of these writers so I’ll just say your “Joan Wilders” ). They know exactly what they’re writing but are making a decent living and having success with their niche.

The biggest difference in movies is that you have a studio willing to spend $200 million on movies but will roll that money into a shitty script. You’d think for that kind of money studios would make sure they the best script available before dropping that kind of cash.

I guess there’s a place for all types of movies and all types of writers. Who says every movie needs to be Citizen Kane?

milo bloom

I have to think it's all the people touching the script along the way that can mess it up. I'm sure we've all heard the stories of a how the studio has notes, the producers make changes, the actor on set wants to do something different. They may start with a great story, but along the way it gets too many tweaks and loses whatever it had that made it good.

Finisher

So a lot of the time you're mainly writing what you think a studio will buy. You're deliberately writing with an eye toward commercial prospects and budget.

Troy Stiffler

To answer the OP: yes and no.

You should try sometime. I’ve done it. And taken a shot at producing independently. It didn’t get far but it was an experience. And I plan to try again when I have money to back it again.

johnnysd

I would push back on Crichton, he was a fantastic writer. Just because he wrote books to be commercially succesful doesnt mean he was not a brilliant author.

Ash Ketchum

I recently read all of Peter Bogdanovich's interviews with Howard Hawks and it's the best thing of its type I've ever read. Hawks contributed to almost every script of every movie he did, rarely if ever taking credit. He had trouble on every script and recruited all sorts of writers, William Faulkner included, to help him out. When it didn't work out the way he wanted he usually blamed himself but sometimes the casting. But it's fascinating to read just how difficult the process was back in the Golden Age when they had tons of writers under contract and how the studios have the same problems today, when they have to hire "script doctors" for way more than they paid back in the studio era.

Nick Danger

I read an article by the guy who wrote Casablanca. They were only a day or two ahead of the shooting schedule, getting pressured, and were stuck on what to do next. When he came up with "Round up the usual suspects" the rest of the story fell into place.

I've also heard a story about Golan-Globus productions. If the shoot was behind schedule, Menacham Golan would storm onto the set and tear out pages of the shooting script until they were caught up. No wonder some Chuck Norris movies didn't make any sense. It wasn't the scriptwriter's fault.

Troy Stiffler

It was the 80's. Snort enough cocaine and your brain will fill in the holes.

Michael Corvin

I was thinking this the other day. There were probably plenty of coked up writers thinking they were writing the next Oscar winner.

RichC2

People usually don't set out to make boring movies. Good or bad? Depends on their goal.

GoldenJCJ

And then you have Aaron Sorkin who needed to be coked up to write an Oscar winner...

Troy Stiffler

I think the modern thing is kale smoothies and adderall.

GoldenJCJ

I’m certainly not knocking Crichton. He’s been one of my favorite authors since I was a teenager. I think he got kind of stuck in his plot structure with evil corporation/man vs. nature/ etc. but the guy had an amazingly creative mind and his ideas were always wonderful to watch unfold.

My point was that although he was an awesomely entertaining writer, no one was expecting him to be picking up the Man Booker International Prize for any of his novels.