The Year of Development Hell (Part 4)...

Continued from previous post...

We had several actors that had expressed interest in the script. Actors that (if a true level system existed) would have been at a “B” level, maybe a “C” level. While the actors that we knew of were a lower level when they saw our script, many of them have risen up. A couple television shows and one of the biggest movies of 2009 star the actors that expressed interest in our script.

Quite a bit of stress and late nights lead us to a mostly acceptable script…

Then…

We were told that we needed a bigger opening. We had to add an opening that “grabbed the audience” and started the “roller coaster ride”. We needed to have a large set piece for the advertising campaign.

What we developed, I have to admit was a fun, dark, action-packed ride. It was great. Everyone loved it.

The problem was that we had been tasked with the job to create that big opening, while not touching one other word in the script. We had to develop a scenario that would essentially make no difference to the rest of script.

What we ended up with was a 1st ten-pages of script that was more worthy of a Final Destination film than of Phobia… or should I say… Clinical.

The 1st ten-pages created a disconnection with the rest of the script. The real problem for us truly was the fact that everyone claimed that they loved the opening… and no one saw the disconnection with the rest of the script.

Since RnD has been writing together, we had completed about four scripts per year. Since we had optioned our feature Phobia/Clinical script, we had not written one new script, nor performed one re-write.

Up until the point where we added the new opening, we had been so focused on doing whatever it took to get this project off the ground that we never started another script. I believe that this was the point where we had almost given up…

(and so it continues...)

to be continued, again...

Don.