Urgency

-originally published Fall 2000

For your spec script to raise eyebrows, it must not only be well-written, but the story and its characters must have urgency. Urgency is that quality that makes people want to read your story and go see your film. It’s the topicality of your subject matter. It’s the uniqueness of the dramatic conflict. It’s the uniqueness of your protagonist’s occupation. It’s the theme that’s been on everyone’s mind and you’re the first person to write about it. It’s what creates word of mouth; it’s what makes people relate to your protagonist’s struggle. A film like American Beauty is very much a product of its times. Can you imagine that film coming out in 1989 rather than 1999? Probably not. The story spoke to American audiences at the end of the Millennium. It was specific to its time.

Ideally, you want to write a spec that addresses a hot topic or issue plucked from today’s headlines — but be wary, it may be so hot that no major studio will touch it, yet. For example, no studio will currently make a film that depicts gun violence amongst high school kids. (Miramax would not release a film like Kids today; the climate is different now for various reasons.) But since violence amongst kids is such a hot-button topic, you may get major notice if you write a unique and intelligent spec on the subject. Just know your goal — in this case, forget the big spec sale and focus on getting meetings with quality producers in Hollywood.

Urgency applies to GENRE more than any other element. You need to be aware of which genres are “dead” in Hollywood now and which are “hot.” Consult the lists I’ve made below. Pay attention to magazines and websites that list spec script and pitch sales, like Done Deal. The general rule to remember is this:

If something is currently known as a “hot genre,”
then it’s already dead in the spec market in Hollywood.
They’re looking to next year’s hot topic; the current ones are done

It’s up to you to write a powerful script that confidently informs them what the next great trend is. They want to know what’s the next big thing? They need only read your screenplay! Your work must have passion and it must have a unique twist on its genre; something we haven’t seen before. This can’t be a story we’ve seen before beat for beat; first time screenwriters are not established on cookie-cutter “calling card” scripts. It helps for your screenplay to feel somewhat familiar to a classic story or film we know, but it should also reinvigorate and reinterpret that classic story.

If you can’t answer the question
“Why does this story need to be told?”
then you probably shouldn’t write it

We don’t need another buddy-cop movie with a cop on the edge and his mismatched partner; we have the Lethal Weapon films and Rush Hour. But if you can find a new spin no one’s thought of yet, relate it to an urgent topic that happens to be on everyone’s mind in the year 2000, and write it in a fresh style — then go for it! We don’t need another self-referential teen slasher pic — we have the Scream trilogy. So focus on a different aspect of the horror genre and come up with a fresh stylistic hook (but hey you can still populate your story with teens because they’ll never go out of style). And those Merchant Ivory- esque costume epics? They’re sorely in need of resuscitation — but no one has yet to find a successful lifesaver.

Urgency is now. Urgency is the water-cooler topic of today. Not yesterday’s topic or last year’s topic. The Cold War is over; so please stop writing about it. Sure, there’s cocaine drug cartels in Central America and The Middle East — but does the general public today want to see a new film about them? Well, we’ll see how Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic is received — but keep in mind it took a filmmaker of his stature to get that film going and he still had trouble signing a major star. Its fate is still up in the air.

Urgency is always linked to recent hits at the box-office, pop culture trends, today’s headlines, or last week’s spec or book sales. E.g., the Harry Potter fantasy book series is very hot right now and there are high hopes for it as a film franchise — this helped writer/director Clive Barker to recently make a huge multi-million dollar deal on his pitch for his own franchise that finds a young character transported to a fantasy world. The same exact pitch probably would not have even sold two years ago because fantasy was considered dead! Going further, it seems like “twist endings” are hot right now after The Sixth Sense. Not that I’d recommend throwing in an arbitrary twist in your climax just to please a studio executive; make sure it’s logical to the story. Readers always look for command of craft first before considering commercial potential.


Here’s a short “DEAD TOPIC” list, followed by a film that in my opinion either represents the tail end of this trend or the big bomb that sealed its fate:

and a couple more genres that could use resuscitation:


Here’s the “ALMOST DEAD but not yet” list, which means you should probably not begin a new script in one of these categories:


Now here’s the “HOT” list!, followed by the hit film or upcoming film that makes it hot:

Urgency of subject matter doesn’t always ensure that a film will find an audience in theaters, but it is one of the major factors in getting a script sold and a film greenlit. Thus, it is of great significance to screenwriters. Consider two recent box-office disappointments, both with strong screenplays: the comedy Office Space and the drama Boiler Room. Both featured topical settings in the modern workplace: a tech company and a stock market brokerage. Neither film made a huge splash at the box-office, but both gained critical praise and helped greatly to establish the film careers of the two writer/directors, Mike Judge and Ben Younger, respectively.

So, you ask: What about a very familiar story like Titanic? Keep in mind that while Titanic did not really have urgency of subject matter, considering numerous other films have treated the sinking of the famous ship, it had urgency of spectacle — it gave us a wide-screen CG spectacle we’ve never seen before. Same with Gladiator — the film promises us the spectacle of the Roman Coliseum as never before seen on film. The “hook” of the digital set piece helped greatly to get the film greenlit and was a big part of the initial word of mouth on the film. Also, I think it helps that gladiator movies are just dead enough to have slipped out of our public consciousness — thus making it a prime target for revival ! That’s the theory, anyway.

The musical is a genre Hollywood has been brainstorming on how to revive for a while now. Pop music and dancing has seen a major revival with young audiences — just look at those Gap ads or pop phenoms like Ricky Martin and Britney Spears. Thus, it’s no coincidence that Dirty Dancing 2 was just announced, and the hook is to set it in Miami and give it a Latin flavor.

Now, what about a film like Being John Malkovich? Were people standing around office water-coolers saying “Man, I really wish there were a film about a quirky puppeteer who finds a tunnel into John Malkovich’s brain!”? No, but people were talking about how they wanted to see another film that broke the rules in an exciting year for movies that saw formulaic Hollywood fare like Star Wars compete with the experimental The Blair Witch Project. Audiences are more open now than ever to irreverent storytelling.

So, I ask you: what’s urgent about your screenplay? Why do you need to tell this story, and why does Hollywood have to buy it?


-Daniel Calvisi
www.actfourscreenplays.com
copyright © Daniel Calvisi 2005-2006

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