Screenwriting : Why are some screenplays rejected? by Victor Titimas

not enough meat on the bone

The biggest reason most screenwriters can't sell a screenplay is because they don't have a track record and they can't get a track record because they can't sell a screenplay. It is a catch 22 every screenwriter faces when starting out.

Robert.Those aren't reason for movie people to decide not to accept certain screenplays.

Let's assume it is good. No market for it, not the right time, flooded genre, wrong budget or it isn't for them. Selling a spec is like two people throwing balls towards each other, only rarely do the balls line up and hit in mid air.

Wonder woman movie started development in 1996.

Arrival book written 1997.

The Martian book self published in 2012.

15-years flew by from Barry Jenkins 1st feature to his 2nd feature, "Moonlight."

It's Show Business, Fate, Luck, Timing, Ego, money- millions of reasons why a script is rejected. Not only in Hollywood but all over the world.

Victor - there are jillions of scripts floating around out there. The simple answer as to why so many are rejected is that nearly all of them are simply no dam* good. Argue all you want - but that's the simple truth.

I agree with Doug. There are at least 150,000 unsold specs screenplays floating around Hollywood on any given day. Maybe 150 will sell in a good year. That is a lot of rejections so there could be a lot of reasons people reject a screenplay. However selling a screenplay isn't how most people break in the business. Just because someone rejects your screenplay doesn't mean they are rejecting the screenwriter. A spec screenplay is used to make contacts in the business so even if you receive a rejection letter you still made a connection that you can stick in your contact list and connections are everything in this business.

This topic reminds of a video I watched in my small business course. It broke down how 20,000 business plans were submitted every year. Of that, 100 are selected. Out of that, 14 are funded each year. That made me want to be a writer even more. Nothing is easy!

Robert. I never said it doesn't happen but it is extremely rare. The odds of a spec screenwriter with no track record or representation selling a spec screenplay to someone they don't know are about the same as being struck by lighting. That is why people like me and Dan M keep saying think of spec screenplay as a calling card to be used to meet people in the business that can help you launch their careers. That is how most people break in.

Myron. Same here. I never really set out to be a screenwriter but I knew the odds of selling one or breaking in as a screenwriter was not easy so I just wanted to see if I could beat those odds. That was really my main motivation.

Dan - my goal this year is to blind sell a spec script just to see if it can be done. Wish me luck.

Doug, I wish you best of luck and may this wish come true!:)

The smell like an overly ripe, French spreadable cheese.

Doug. I wish you luck. I sold one screenplay off a query letter so I know it is possible.

Dan, I have a couple of Agents I work with and I'm connected to a couple of showrunners but this time, I'm going to do it differently. I'll write a spec script, pitch it and sell it completely outside of all my connections (I'll use a pseudo name so as not to muddy the waters). I hear so many writers complain about how hard it is - so I'm going to find out how hard it really is.

Claude - I'm gonna give it a try - I'm confident that I can sell ice cream cones to Eskimos. I just don't think it's as hard as I hear you all keep saying - but I'll find out and then let you know.

If you don't grip the Reader you're doomed. If the Reader wants to bin it, you're doomed. If you don't deliver what you have set up, you're doomed. Too many cooks - you're doomed.

BUT - Everything has a place and there is a place for everything.

Just keep going

Everyone in this game working in entertainment gets rejected, replaced and fired.

I agree with David, that it has to grip you within the first ten minutes, or you ain't got them. Set-up is most important, in establishing what the story is going to be about. But also, it has to have an artistic appeal to it as well. Something that's familiar but also unfamiliar as well. The rest of the execution of scenes, will have to build your story arc and character arc from there. However, from what I can see, studios are now trying to do either a Trilogy thing or a Shared Universe thing.

Vitaly - Harsh but true. I'm pretty much the same and I don't have the time or inclination to argue with some writer. Learn the craft or go do something else.

This is a good discussion but 4,999 out of 5,000 screenplays will probably get rejections so I was more interested in why that one didn't receive a rejection.

Another angle to consider is that a script that's perceived as good by one industry heavy hitter, or even pinch hitter, can attract more folks to the party. Movies cost money and industry types are very fearful of a misstep that sidetracks or even derails their career. Therefore, unless someone perceives your wonderful better than anyone else in the universe spec script is something that others may want, as an unproduced writer, you're a minnow swimming up Niagara Falls.

But let’s say you win or place high at Nicholl, Page or Austin Film Festival or, you make the Blacklist’s most popular unproduced scripts, like Elyse Hollander did with Blonde Ambition, you may also attract industry sharks that smell talent. Since being voted "most liked" spec script of 2016, Elyse's script was optioned by Universal. And she recently got this press from Vanity Fair:

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/04/madonna-biopic-feud

And even though Madonna herself is standing in the way of Blonde Ambition, Elyse has been signed to an agent and everyone knows who she is. And she beat out the “This Is Us” creator for best unproduced spec script.

http://deadline.com/2016/12/2016-black-list-2016-scripts-rankings-list-1...

Another trick you can try is to leverage interest you have with one party, with another party. This can be risky and piss people off (I speak from experience), but it can also get someone off the dime. I did this once with two producers, who both shopped the same script.

After ruling out the basic and most common reasons, and the script is well written, has a clear story and the acts play out well, getting it in front of the right person who shares the vision and gets it is the way to go. Most scripts get rejected several times until one person, the right person sees it. Star Wars was rejected dozens of times. Hollywood is littered from one end to the other with producers kicking themselves for not taking a script when it was in their hands.