Beauty and the Beast

[spb_column width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] By, Jacob Krueger [/spb_text_block] [/spb_column] [divider type="standard" text="Go to top" full_width="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [fullwidth_text alt_background="none" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: Is Your Idea Commercial? This week, we’re going to be looking at Beauty and the Beast. It could be argued that a virtually shot-for-shot live action remake of an animated film that premiered in 1991 is an odd choice for a screenwriting podcast. Why not just talk about the original, brilliant script by Linda Woolverton that made this movie worth watching in the first place 26 years ago? But with a record breaking 170 million dollar opening weekend, make no mistake, Beauty and the Beast is going to shape the future of big budget Hollywood movies. And that means it has  a lot to teach us. On the one hand, there’s some cause for concern. The Hollywood trend over the last few years of remaking old movies, rather than investing in new ones, has been troubling, not only for studio writers, but also for many producers, who have watched a great migration of top Hollywood writers into Independent Film, Self Production, and of course TV, where they have more opportunities to be challenged artistically, work creatively and develop original material. But recently, we’re starting to see a shift with original movies like Get Out, La La Land, Manchester By The Sea, Moonlight and Arrival not only winning awards, but also hugely exceeding box office expectations. We’re also starting to see a trickle up effect, as companies like Amazon and Netflix have started entering the feature film market-- reinvigorating both writers and producers for the potential of a renaissance in feature films that can mirror the one in TV. Which is why Beauty and the Beast’s success scared the crap out of so many big budget writers and producers, especially on the cusp of what seemed like a potential tipping point in the Hollywood model. But though this may mean we’ll have to endure live action remakes of everything from Bambi to The Lion King over the next few years, I actually think the tremendous success of film musicals like Beauty and the Beast and La La Land suggests another step in the exciting disruption we’ve been seeing of the traditional Hollywood business model. And that’s exciting news if you’re a screenwriter. Back when I was coming up in the industry, selling a musical was darn near impossible. I developed one with Robbie Fox, writer of So I Married An Axe Murderer, but even the powerful production company I was working for couldn’t get any investment. I wrote another with Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg, writers of Broadway’s Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, which at one point had some even more famous directing and producing attachments. It seemed an inch from production before it all fell apart. I even wrote one with four-time Academy Award Winner Michel Legrand. Yup, same story. These projects didn’t fall apart because they weren’t great stories, or because they didn’t have great writers behind them. Everybody loved these projects. They fell apart because it was common knowledge in the industry that film musicals just “don’t make money.” Because “adult audiences just aren’t into film musicals anymore.” You see where I’m going with this. It starts with 170 million dollars over one weekend. Does that mean you should run out and write a film musical right now? Not necessarily. Film musicals like La La Land and Beauty and the Beast succeed because of the love these writers have for the material. Not because they’re out there chasing the next Hollywood trend. What it does mean is that if anyone ever tells you what’s commercial or not commercial, or if anyone ever tells you that your idea is commercial or not commercial, there’s one thing you know for sure. That person is lying to you. And they’re also lying to themselves. Hollywood is a lot like high school. Trends come in, and trends go out. But it’s actually the rule breakers who set these trends-- the scripts that blazed their own trail, and proved that they could be successful doing something new. Unless you’re literally on the phone every day finding out what’s fashionable today (which is what producers, agents and managers do professionally), you can be pretty sure you have no idea what’s actually commercial or not today. And even if you did, by the time you finished writing the script that chased the trend, that fashion would have already changed. Anyone remember Z Cavaricci pants? If you’re my age, you do. They were the hottest thing ever for about 2 weeks back in the early 80s. Ridiculous things with flaps and buttons that made no sense at all. But if you were an 8 year old, and could get your hands on a pair, it meant you were going to be the hottest thing in elementary school. I remember begging my mom for a pair of Z Cavaricci’s-- saving up my pennies for months until finally I had enough (with a little help from her) to buy a pair. And then I finally showed up at school, feeling like the hottest thing on the planet, and pretty much convinced that this was going to be the day those other kids finally realized that I was super cool and that they should accept me as a cool kid like them.   Yeah, you guessed it. By the time that happened, those stupid pants were already out of style. Unless you’re a huge agent or manager, by the time you get word of what’s happening in Hollywood, you’re usually already two years behind what’s actually happening today. Even producers who read the trades every day know they’re getting information that’s already many month’s old-- deals that have been in the works forever that are only just now being announced. Information is currency in Hollywood, just like it is in elementary school, and people tend to sit on the real stuff for as long as they can, to make sure nobody can get the scoop on them! So often as writers, we feel out of breath, chasing these trends, and always feeling like we’re just a few steps behind, a few moments too late to have the career we actually dream of. But the truth is, what kind of script are you going to write under that much pressure? Most likely a crappy one. And you’re not going to have much fun writing it either. Because instead of writing the thing you are desperate to write, you’re going to be writing the thing you think you should write. Instead of going on an unforgettable journey with yourself and your characters, you’re going to be retreading the same ground other writers have tread. And since that journey didn’t evolve naturally from you, it’s likely it’s going to be filled with cliches. So it’s time for a little tough love, that may scare you a bit, but also hopefully will set you free from this breathless trend chasing, and allow you to put your focus back on what really matters in your writing. Even if you spent every day at the studio lot, following famous producers around and listening in on exactly what everyone wants in Hollywood right now, by the time you came up with the idea, wrote the first draft, and revised it to a place where it was actually ready for professional eyes, those producers are already going to have moved on to the next hot idea. That may sound depressing, but I think it’s freeing. Because once you realize that you can’t time the market, it frees you up from all that pressure, all that feeling that you’re behind where you’re supposed to be, or not writing what you should be writing. It allows you to put your focus back on what really matters to you: not writing the script that “everybody wants” but rather, the one that only you can write. At a recent First Fridays event here at the studio, we had a wonderful guest speaker, Alex Fumero, the VP of Programming for HBO. Alex had something profound to say about what he’s looking for when a writer comes in for a pitch meeting. For him to be interested, he doesn’t just have to feel like it’s a great idea with great execution. As VP of Programming for one of the most sought after networks in the world, he sees great ideas and great scripts every day. For Alex to be interested, he needs more than a great script. He needs to know why you are the only writer in the world who could have written this project in exactly this way. In other words, Alex isn’t just looking for great scripts. He’s looking for something much more important-- great voices. And voice is not something you discover writing the thing you “should” be writing. It’s something you discover writing the thing that you want to write, even if it doesn’t yet make sense to anyone but you. (For an example of a hugely successful professional writer who did exactly that, listen to my Podcast on Arrival). The truth is, trends come and go, and then cycle back around again. Some scripts (remember Juno) get picked up overnight and propel their writers to instant stardom, and others (remember Dallas Buyers Club) kick around for 20 years until finally the astrological conditions change, and “impossible” becomes “in demand.” That means your success as a screenwriter is going to take some luck. So as much as you’d like to feel like you’re in control. And as much as a million different gurus would all like you to think they have the formula for success. The truth is that formula does not exist. The truth is, for success to happen, you’ve got to get a little lucky. You’ve got to have the right script, and get it to the right person at the right time. And though you can’t control the events that will make that happen, you can make that luck a lot more likely to happen, by developing yourself as a writer, and writing the scripts that only you can write,