What Hollywood is Not Letting You See
Several years back, an article in the Los Angeles Times dealt with Hollywood closing its doors to writers over the age of 40. In it, a producer was quoted as saying that he could hire two 25-year old writers for what it would cost him to hire one Alvin Sargent.
(Alvin Sargent had recently written the Oscar-winning "Ordinary People," as well as "Paper Moon," "Julia," the "A Star is Born" remake, and many others.)
I wrote a letter to the newspaper, which it published. All I asked was one question - "Why in the world would you want to??"
It's worth noting that in the following years, Mr. Sargent (despite thoughtlessly becoming over 50) continued to write or co-write such films as "What About Bob?," "Other People's Money" and "Hero."
Oh, and also all three "Spiderman" movies. The last, by the way, when he was 80 years old.
Ageism, among its many problems, including being illegal, is...well, insane. After all, among the various discriminatory "isms" (each of them insidious), it is the only one where those practicing it are guaranteed, with good health, to be their own victims one day.
And the losers in all this are not just the writers, but you. More on that in a bit.
But further, this ageism is foolish for yet another reason (beyond being illegal, but I mentioned that). Writing is a profession where skills actually improve as you get older. Writers gain experience in the avalanche of life, they fine-tune their craft, discover their voice. Almost to a person, writers shudder at the early scripts they wrote, even if successful. And the reality of life is that every writer who is 70 has been 25. But no writer who is 25 has yet been 30. You see, writers actually pay detailed attention to those around them daily. It's their job, it's what they do. And if some may not understand Twitter - name the last movie you saw about Twitter.
What people love in movies first are stories that enthrall us, and characters that fascinate us. Period.
To be clear, none of this is to suggest that only writers older than 40 know how to write scripts. Far from it. A great writer is a great writer, whatever their age. But it's the "whatever their age" that is the operative point.
But finally, ageism in screenwriting is pointless for one other reason. Let's play a game. What's your favorite movie? Got it?
Okay. Who wrote it?
Close to 99.6% of the time, no one can say. I include studio executives, producers and agents. And they are movie professionals whose actual job it is to know who write movies. And they don't have a clue who wrote their favorite movie.
(Some savants actually know the answer, and I admirably salute you all. But it gets stickier when moving to a second favorite movie, and third.)
And here's the even stickier, main question: how old were they?
The point is, as far as any executive knows, the person who wrote their Very Favorite Movie Ever could have been a 62-year-old Lithuanian woman.
Which begs the question:
"Why in the world would you care anything about the age, sex or race of an invisible screenwriter? Why isn't the only question you ask when reading a screenplay - 'Is it good?'"
And there isn't an answer.
The closest you hear is mumbling something about feeling more comfortable working with people their own age, or being intimidated by someone with more experience. The response to that is simple -
Get another job. You are in the wrong profession. You are holding American popular culture in your hands, and if you are too insecure to talk to another adult, you are too insecure to oversee a $60 million production. Get out, give audiences a break. They're paying enough at the box office. Why stick them with your personal limitations?
Because ultimately, beyond the writers, it's the public who suffers.
Let me explain.
Hold on to your chair, the stories are curdling.
Steve Martin tells of trying to pitch a movie based on the classic play "Cyrano de Bergerac." No studio executive knew what he was talking about, and all rejected it. Luckily, though, he was Steve Martin and knew the studio president, Guy McElwaine. And happily McElwaine was a bright adult who actually loved the play. And most fortunately of all, the movie got made - because otherwise no one would ever have seen the glorious "Roxanne."
A friend once pitched a version of Sherlock Holmes. "Who's that?" a studio executive asked, later thinking the world-renowned, fictional detective was a real person. Needless-to-say, it never got made. But imagine if that same executive had been pitched the new Sherlock Holmes movie which stars Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. You wouldn't see it this December.
Another friend was pitching a buddy movie to an executive who prided herself on the subject. "Let's discuss great buddy movies," she enthused, "I'm an expert." My friend immediately mentioned, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." "What's that?" the executive asked.
Honest.
And the stories like these are endless.
By the way, some people reading this won't know all these references. You should, they're major parts of our cultural history - but if you don't, it's okay. After all, you're not a studio executive, producer or agent. But they should, it's their job to know these things. They are all guardians of American popular culture, and not knowing its foundation is a failure of responsibility.
And you suffer. Because not knowing the references that doesn't mean you wouldn't enjoy the results. Most people likely didn't know "Cyrano," but loved "Roxanne." Most people never heard of the real Butch Cassidy, but the movie was a phenomenon. And even if you've never heard of Sherlock Holmes, it's reasonable to think audiences will go to the movie this Christmas.
You suffer. Remember: your favorite movie could likely be written by someone over 40. If today's Hollywood executives had their way, your favorite movie wouldn't exist.
This all came to mind on Monday when the Writers Guild of America began this year's "Seasoned Readings," a program that promotes the works of their older writers. To bring attention to the series, they started with a new TV pilot for a proposed six-part miniseries, "Pinnacle," by Larry Gelbart.
For writers, the name Larry Gelbart is enough. Just know that his voluminous works include "Oh, God!," "Tootsie," developing the TV series "M*A*S*H," HBO's "Barbarians at the Gate," and two Tony Award-winning musicals, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" and "City of Angels."
At the age of 81, Larry Gelbart is a rarity - not that he's still active, but that he's more active than most A-list writers. He recently premiered a play, "Better Late," is developing two Broadway musicals, and also two movies. And more. But make no mistake, there are Hollywood offices that don't want to work with an 81-year-old writer, whoever he is. Their loss. And ours.
Because in a lifetime of acclaimed comedy writing, "Pinnacle" was unlike anything in Larry Gelbart's career. Deeply serious, but filled with sardonic humor, it explores the world of 1937 Berlin with its interweaving tales of evil, moral emptiness, hope and artistic drive, all with a menagerie of compelling characters both fictional and real.
A miniseries of the remarkable "Pinnacle" would fit in today's world of dark TV filled with Mafia families, murderous cops, and fathers making meth amphetamine. Its historic setting is no less challenging for viewers attuned to ancient "Rome" or the Wild West of "Deadwood."
But whether "Pinnacle" is ever produced, there is a larger point at play here. The script is rich, vibrant, funny and dark - the work of someone fully in charge of his craft, telling a complex story masterfully, dealing with material he never could have touched at the beginning of his career, when he wrote for "The Red Buttons Show," "Four Star Revue" and "Hooray for Love."
And that's the point. When writers of any age - or women - or minorities - are blocked from simply getting in the door ...forget that it's illegal, or makes no sense. Forget that writers suffer and that popular culture suffers. Just know that you suffer. Because writing at its peak is silenced, and the result is that expectations of audiences is lowered. I'm not referring to High Art or even serious material. Indeed, great silliness can be a treasure. I'm talking only about wonderful material whatever the subject, done by artists with a lifetime of craft, who can tell a story and create characters and write humor as well as anyone. And sometimes better. Because they've spent a lifetime learning how.
There are brilliant young writers. There are great older writers. And in the end, all an audience cares about is one thing - is it a good story? Not, "How old was the writer?"
UPDATE: Larry Gelbart has given me permission to state that one of his film projects is an assignment from Warner Bros. to write a new sequel of "Oh, God!" (for which he wrote the original, but not the previous sequels). The other script is an original about the Bush Administration, titled, "S*** Happens."
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
--Writing is a profession where skills actually improve as you get older.
This is true; unfortunately, the ability to appreciate good writing also improves as you get older. If young people are hiring writers, it may be because they aren't able to recognize good writing when they see it.
Out of 84 notable showrunners listed on Wikipedia, six are women. Less than ten percent.
Does the reason so few films are written by women have to do with the fact that these show runners are intimidated by them?
"Show runner" is usually a synonym for "head writer." You probably mean "producer" instead.
Henry Miller didn't publish his first novel until he was 43.
Anthony Burgess didn't publish his first novel until he was 39.
Donatien Alfonse Francois de Sade didn't publish his first novel until he was 51.
Just some inconvienent facts....
Here are some of my favorite films and their writers...
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke)
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky and Frederich Gorstein)
L'argent (Robert Bresson)
Aguire: Wrath of God (Werner Herzog)
Lawrence of Arabia (Robert Bolt)
8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, Brunello Rondi)
Ran (Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Masato Ide)
The Last Emperor (Mark Peploe with Bernardo Bertolucci)
Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone and Sergio Donati, from a story by Sergio Leone, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Dario Argento)
Satantango (Bela Tarr, László Krasznahorkai)
Movies have writers?
Wow!
(Said by an anonymous studio executive somewhere).
even if you think you know who wrote your favorite movie, chances are you don't know who REALLY wrote it. Sometimes the person with the credit just had the best agent. Most likely the movie was written by a committee of hired writers. By the time the revolving door of directors, editors, studio suits have their way with the original story.......well, who knows. There is no auteur ownership anymore
See Tallulah Morehead's Profile
If I think I know who wrote my favorite movies, I do, because I've gone to the trouble to research them beyond the credits.
And none of my favorite movies were made in today's revolving door system.
My writing partner and I wrote a comedy spec script a few years back. WE got a call from ICM and they said, "Get in here! You guys are funny!" We drove in. They said, "I can't get you a job! You guys are old!" I was 37. He explained showrunners would be intimidated by two smart, savvy adult men!
Want another one? I pitched a story about jewish residents of a Montana town fighting off neo nazi hate groups. The exec listened thoughtfully and then asked, "I like it, but do they have to be Jewish?"
Honest.
I got that movie made at USA as "Not In This Town" with Kathy Baker, Adam Arkin and, oddly, Ed Begley Jr.
I have more stories if ya wan't em!...
here's the thing about writing a spec at 37 - most people have been writing specs since they were 20. A twenty-something has a lot more to develop in their writing than a thirty-something and the benchmarks for what's "good" differ for each. by extension, the benchmark for 40 year old writers is even higher - they're expected to be experienced, professional writers and anything less is not worth it.
unfortunately, the television business is a business. but it's not like they're asking every twenty-something in town for their script. it's one of the toughest industries to break into
True of writers but not actors. Actors had to stay in the closet and most actors wihth ethic names had to change theirs. Tony Curtis is a Schwartz by birth and Rock Hudson wasn't exactly watering Doris Day's daisies.
That's the immigrant experience, period. My maternal grandfather changed his last name from something supremely Slavic to something supremely Anglo for professional reasons.
"S ... Happens" sounds like a something hilarious if done well. "Oh God" I could do without.
Screenwriters never get enough credit. It's always the director or actors as if they wrote the screenplay, even if some have had input. "Roxanne" was very good but "Cyrano" with Jose Ferrer made in the 50's was much better; Ferrer was exceptional in it too. As to the new Robert Downey film, "Sherlock Holmes", the reviews look like a 19th century action hero gone wild. Love Downey but I think I'll pass on that one. It looks as if they lobotomized Holmes and made him into Spiderman, and Jude Law is too young to play Watson or at least looks too young.
Some writers lose their edge as they grow old but that doesn't mean producers can't learn from them. There should be brainstorming sessions at every studio with well-known writers and the writers should get paid for it too. If actors can act in old age and some playing roles that were were more fit for them years ago, writers of a certain age shouldn't be left out either.
I don't understand how anyone in the English-speaking world could not know who Sherlock Holmes is. That's absolutely incredible to me.
My sister didn't know what a Stradivarius is, and she has a master's from BC.
I have a friend with a MA from NYU, and when we went to see "Cabaret" on Broadway, at the end, she asked me, "why are those soldiers taking everyone away."
What you can be guaranteed of with Hollywood is continuing to dummy down themes and storylines, recycle old films as well as produce sequels to films that never should...Originality is a rare quality in Hollywood.
Same actors, same stories, same films and same old adherence to the bottom dollar (i.e. sex & chauvinism sells)
***Oh, and also all three "Spiderman" movies. The last, by the way, when he was 80 years old***
One movie too far I think
Spider-Man 3 was terrible.
Overloaded with CGI and utterly pointless inclusions of the Sandman and revisionism of what took place in the first movie.
You ain't seen nothin' eyt. Speilberg is going to make Indiana Jones Part V. The last one with Shia Lebouff (sp?) was atrocious and Shia was the best part of the film. Kate Blacnchett who I love had that god-awful frightwig on and looked anorexic yet played an action sort -of character while Harrison Ford got tossed around by the bad guys and at his age must have needed 6 months to recoup after the film finished shooting, even if he used a double. The fight scenes with him were phoney yet I expected his dentures to fall out at any moment.
'You should, they're major parts of our cultural history - but if you don't, it's okay. After all, you're not a studio executive, producer or agent. But they should, it's their job to know these things'
NO it's NOT OKAY that should be a job REQUIREMENT of studio execs, they need to get outta their bubble.
They get so f**in lazy making (multiple) remakes of movies that were released not that long ago, gawd there's no creativity any more, they just rehash the same ol same ol (Pelham 123 comes to mind).
i spent almost thirty years in Hollywood, working with writers. I was often appalled by the number of studio, network execs and even producers who didn't know how to work with writers and truly believed that once the all important "concept" was nailed, the script would write itself!
anyone, at a studio or network or production company who buys screenplays and/or works with writers should be required to write at least one - to understand the process.
forget the craft - that takes years - but at least they'll see, that screenplays don't write themselves.
meanwhile, bravo to alvin sargent (80 years young) whose spiderman films appealed to a wide demographic . gee, wasn't that a shock to those execs!
typically, the studios hire young writers believing they will write for the audience they wish to appeal to - teenage boys who return to see the (crapola) movies they love, several times.
And that's how Spielberg, Coppola, and George Lucas got their start.
That was then and what the 3 wrote and directed then was very good, especially Speilberg. Speilberg is the only one not stuck in a time warp though. He's done some of the best films ever to come out of Hollywood but most have kids (check out the logo for Dreamworks with the young boy sitting on a moon) . I wish, even if he focuses the story around a child he would get back to the likes of "Empire of the Son", The Color Purple" , "Schindler's List" and Close Encoiunters etc" All were terrific films with great storylines, even if orignally written by someone other thean the director. I've heard about two of his next projects, one another Indiana Jones (maybe Indiana will die in that one--hopefully) and a film bio of Martin Luther King. That one should be a good one.
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
