Some folks say you should leave a finished script alone for a week or two after you finish it. So you can look at it with fresh eyes. But what about a script you wrote four years ago? I just did some touch-up on one I haven't looked at for a few years. Talk about fresh eyes.
What's the oldest script you've reworked?
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I find really old work a great starting point. It normally results in a major rewrite. I am a far better writer now.
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At least two of my books have been based on stories I wrote a long time ago. I updated them, made them more "current" in style and writing and published them. Getting some good reviews on them too.
10 years!
The first script I ever wrote was back in the mid 90s. After I finished it, I submitted it to Michael Hauge for coverage. Of course, by the time he was done, there was more red on the pages than black. However, I took his advice and rewrote the script in two weeks and submitted it to agents. Two small agencies offered representation. I signed with one of them, but after a year of no sales or options, I ended the contract and stopped writing screenplays altogether. This was before the internet and I wasn't living in Los Angeles so I figured my chances were slim anyway.
Then in 2015, (twenty years later) I took the screenplay back out and revised it again, and started submitting it. I've had six requests from managers and producers, and the logline was chosen as a finalist in the LA Screenwriter Competion this past April. But, that's as far as it's ever gone. I think the concept still gets their attention, but the story now, is just too outdated.
It sounds like a smart thing to do but I'm always trying to create new artifacts. I've tried but the fresher idea wins out. Maybe if a similar movie was being released.
A novelist once said that if a work was shite going into the drawer, it'll be shite coming out of the drawer.
"A novelist once said that if a work was shite going into the drawer, it'll be shite coming out of the drawer." - Which gives bafflement to those "discovered" works which generate so much praise. That novelist is very likely wrong I'd say.
Four years
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I've written several screenplays and I'm working on number eight. Once I've written number ten, I'm going back and do new drafts for the entire line up using what I've learned over the past few years to correct mistakes and make vast improvements so that I'll have a very solid portfolio of work.
David, the context is a writer's opinion of his own work.
I'm working on my doggy script, a concept from 5-years ago. Now with Computer Graphics, filmmakers don't need to use real animals. Another tool for storytelling.
Checkout the new Planet of the Apes or OKJA, a pig movie.
It's great if an old m/s has something worth salvaging, but that's not always the case. I'm sure many old scripts have been updated, then gone back in the drawer forever after being shopped around, but we don't hear about those. I'd give priority to new concepts.
My older scripts require higher budgets. I was more idealistic back then.
The Lord of the Rings was long considered unfilmable, except in animation. Affordable, high quality CGI finally made the live-action films possible. The better the story, the more likely it is to attract big money.