Earthly Truths About "Development Hell"

Just listen to any veteran screenwriter speak in public and before long you’ll hear the words, “Development Hell.” As used by studios and production companies, “Development” is the process to prepare a screenplay for production, usually through a series of script drafts. The “Hell” comes in when this process takes years. Far too often, original screenwriters are removed from their own projects after turning in the first rewrite, replaced by more experienced writers (or writers who work frequently with certain directors or actors). There is a fascinating video clip in the left hand column in which Michael Arndt explains his experience with Development Hell to J.J. Abrams. Yet even after countless drafts from several different writers have been created, many a project dies a slow death in Development for a multitude of reasons. Unfortunately, screenplay development is required much of the time because screen stories so often contain serious deficiencies.

Even A-List screenwriters must deal with Development. In fact, almost every writer in Hollywood has been replaced and rewritten at some point, including Steven Zaillian, Robert Towne, and William Goldman. Why does this happen? Because, to use Goldman’s famous quote: “No one knows anything.” But that famous quote is rarely quoted in its proper context as it was written in Goldman’s book, Adventures in the Screen Trade. What Goldman meant was when two good movies open on the same weekend, no one in Hollywood will be able to predict which movie will become the box office king. This reality terrifies the risk adverse Hollywood studios. So, studio executives and producers who fear losing their high paying jobs will often buy an “insurance policy.” Namely, they will hire an A-list writer to rewrite the script before shooting begins. That way, if the movie tanks, then the executive can cover his/her ass by saying, “I got an Oscar-winning writer to doctor the script. What else could I have done?”

But where there is often no consensus on what constitutes a commercially successful film at the box office, there is generally consensus among industry professionals of what is an example of superior writing. Why? Because great writing isn’t really subjective. Generally speaking, one can tell brilliant writing by the bottom of the first page. Equally, industry professionals can tell terrible writing on the first page as well. They rarely are rewarded as they continue reading a bad script. They simply never improve if they are awful on page one.

Interpreting what is in between brilliant and awful is more difficult to do. That means reading more of the script. But the problem with most writers is they are not tough enough on their own material. Steven Cannell, speaking on a panel explained it this way: “Usually when I speak with published and produced writers, they believe their current material is horrendous. They are really hacks with no talent at all. But writers who have never sold anything in their lives, for some reason, believe they are naturally gifted talents. Of course, in truth they are universally terrible. But they won’t see it. I find that fascinating.” The rest of the successful panelists agreed.

Steven Barnes, who has seventeen published novels, explained the problem suffered by most non-professional writers. “New writers don’t appreciate the difficulty in learning the craft of writing. It takes years of dedicated discipline, reading, writing, and re-writing.” There are no shortcuts to the path of becoming a great writer. One needs to learn the craft one step at a time. Ray Bradbury felt the same way, explaining he felt like a complete fake for several years as a writer. At some point, Bradbury realized he had become a professional at the craft. But he estimated he had likely banged out over one million words from his typewriter by the time he reached that level of confidence.

So, if you really want to avoid a horrible experience with the Development process, then you really must first master the craft of writing and work to create a logically-tight screenplay. If your script has serious Act 2 problems, you better not assume the deficiencies will be corrected in the Development Department. Sadly, the script will never reach Development. Think about it, companies have finite resources. So, it’s a big deal to commit a project to Development. It makes sense for companies to start with the best executed screenplays available. How strong are YOUR writing samples? If you aren’t 100% certain, then you should positively get coverage, either from me or someone like me, someone who will give you totally honest feedback about your material before submitting it to the Hollywood gatekeepers. Because the only thing worse than “Development Hell” is “Rejection Hell.”