Story – Robert McKee's Creative Storytelling Magazine Issue 005 – Drew Carey | Page 75

HOW
HOLLYWOOD
REALLY WORKS
genre? Does this feel like it’s fresh
enough or original enough or true
enough so that it works?
I don’t want a total knockoff or
a derivative of something. If I’m
looking for a comedy, I don’t want
to read a script about four guys
who lose their friend and wake up
in Atlantic City with a hangover,
because that’s too much like The
Hangover. I want something that’s
fresh enough, but also feels like
it’s current enough in terms of the
story. It’s going to feel like you are
pushing a big rock up a hill if you
get a big-- budget Western, since
nobody is making big-- budget
Westerns right now.
I want something I can get made—a
script that allows me to imagine
four or five actors playing the lead.
This is what producers are looking
for. They are looking for material
that can get made, either because
it’s distinctive enough to get the attention of financiers or it’s familiar
enough and true enough.
I’m always looking for a professional presentation. Most things
are submitted electronically these
days within Hollywood, so if I get
a script that has a spiral binding,
I think, “Well, this person is not
working in Hollywood.” My experience is that people who are
coming from radically outside the
system are much less likely to deliver something that’s professional
because they don’t have the basic

etiquette or understanding of how
things work.
I’m also looking for scripts that
don’t have any misspellings and
are professionally formatted. I
look for character introductions
to feel like real character introductions. If a celebrity is supposed to
play that character, I would like to
see some description of why that
character is worth playing, even
as he is introduced. I would like
to see things that are not all dialogue or all scene description,
because that’s how professional
writers tend to write. Of course,
there are exceptions.
What I am looking for may not be
what others are looking for. There
are producers who are looking for
slightly more derivative material,
who make action movies with B-level stars. There are producers
who are looking for big temple
things, so they’re looking specifically at what the provenance is, or
whether they can control a piece
of intellectual property, which
you may or may not have. There
are people who are looking for all
kinds of different things.
One of the things I am definitely
looking for is something that pulls
me in with its first ten pages. If I’m
reading a script from a writer who
doesn’t have any produced credits, I’m going to make a decision
pretty early about how good that
writing is.

Story Magazine // Issue 005

Finally, what I’m looking for is truth.
I’m looking for something that
grabs me—something that is compelling and true. Bob McKee says,
“Write the truth.” He’s right.