Advice — michael hauge

Selling a screenplay or a novel is simple. It's not easy, but it's simple.First: write a great story. Then: get lots and lots of people to read it.You can have the greatest, most commercial, most brilliantly written screenplay or manuscript since The Godfather, but if you don't get dozens of agents, managers, producers, editors and executives in the film or publishing industries to look at it, it'll never get produced, and you'll never reach the wide audience you long for.So how do you do that? How do you persuade all those powerful people that your work is worth their time,...

Our reader Lauren from Memphis, TN asks I have a quirky movie that does not fit into any standard genre. How do I sell it? Reader Bryan from Wausau, WI asks What's hot in Hollywood now? What's selling? Screenwriting Expert Michael Hauge responds Both these questions address the issue of how - and whether - to decide what to write based on the marketplace. And each reveals a basic problem with the way many writers choose their stories. The first question may grow out of a desire to select among several ideas the writer is passionate about, or to avoid...

by Michael Hauge The opportunities in Hollywood for 20-minute pitch meetings are fairly rare, especially for newer screenwriters. But as soon as you complete your first screenplay, you'll repeatedly face the challenge of having less than 60 seconds to convince the people in power to read it. Every time you phone an agent or production company to discuss your story or script, you must be prepared to answer the question, 'What's your movie about?' Your response will often make the difference between getting rejected and getting your material read. The recent advent of pitch marts has further increased both the...

This past summer (1999) 12 movies earned more than $100 million at the U.S. box office. Though they ranged from low budget horror to big budget sci-fi western, and included romantic comedy, broad comedy, children's special effects comedy, mystery thriller, occult thriller and a classic animated love story/adventure, they all had five things in common: 1. Each one had a HERO, a main character we rooted for, and whose motivations drove the story forward; 2. We IDENTIFIED with the heroes, we put ourselves inside those characters psychologically, and experienced emotion through them; 3. The heroes each pursued at least one...