What makes a reader respond to a script?

A reader asks: Lots of movies are fairly derivative, either of each other or other ideas floating around. What is it about a concept that can make you, as a reader, think "damn that's cool!" rather than "damn this sucks"? Does the subject matter have to appeal to you personally before you'll recommend a script?

Well the writing has to be top notch, first of all. That's almost always the difference. Everyone who's spent any time at all in Hollywood has read so many scripts over the course of their career that they can identify a talented writer even if they don't think the script will sell, or if it happens to be written in a genre that doesn't get them excited.

Everyone has certain genres of movie they prefer. I think most people in Hollywood, though they may not admit it in public, have genres they either hate or simply don't get at all. I'm like that, too. I don't really get broad comedies. I know it's totally my problem... if I'm the only one sitting in the theatre with a scowl on his face as the other 500 patrons howl with laughter at TALLADEGA NIGHTS, then I'm the one with the problem, not the 500 people having a good time.

But it does mean that if you're looking for someone to give you an opinion on your new grossout comedy about a D.A. who is cursed by a gypsie and finds he can't say the words "I Object" without letting loose a volley of what the Onion once described as "high pressure jets of frothy liquid feces"... well then I'm probably not your man.

However, if I'm the ONLY guy you know in Hollywood and it's either ask me to read it, or go unread... then your hope is that I will recognize the writing as competent and the idea as being big and appealing enough that I'll be motivated to pass it on to one of the people I know who loves that kind of thing.

It works the other way too... most of my best friends in the business know I respond to action movies, big historical dramas (particularly war movies), and good solid history. (I love WATCHING horror movies but I'm not sure what makes a good horror script... haven't figured that one out yet...too much depends on direction, I think...). And every now and then I get a call from someone saying something like "hey I read this Western... the idea is really cool, but I don't really get Westerns... can you read it and tell me what you think?"

That might sound counter-intuitive... in a competitive business, why would someone want to send a potentially hot new script to someone else? The answer is pretty simple... if someone sends me a great script that they think I'm better equiped to take advantage of than they are, it increases the chances that I will return the favor when that new young comedy writer sends me DISTRICT ASS-TORNEY...

Writers don't believe me when I tell them this... probably because most of them are having trouble getting read when I tell them... but the truth about Hollywood is that there are so many people reading so many scripts looking for the next hot thing, that if you've written a great screenplay... sooner or later, someone will find you.

UPDATE: Do readers take into account the budget of a screenplay they are reading?

Yes, because it affects the potential saleability of the screenplay. Think about two movies made by the same people, the Wachowski brothers. THE MATRIX was a huge 100 million dollar sci-fi action movie. In the vast majority of cases, a movie like that can only be made through the studio system where it can be released on 3,000 or more screens. And there are only a handful of producers that the studios trust to handle a movie like that. Joel Silver at WB, Imagine at Universal, Lorenzo DiBonaventura at Paramount, Bruckheimer at Disney... maybe a few others... but the point is that the number of outlets for a movie like that is greatly reduced. Most people feel more comfortable with a script like BOUND (Also by the Wachowskis). In Hollywood slang, BOUND is a "contained thriller." Few effects, not many sets, doesn't need stars, and can be released on a limited number of screens and allowed to build an audience. Those kind of movies don't have to be done through the studio system at all, they can be made and distributed by independently financed mini-studios like Summit or 2929.

Of course everyone wants to find that sure-thing 300 million dollar hit, but they are few and far between and it's always difficult to get this business to lay down a bet on that kind of a film. They'll do it, but it ain't easy. So of course, that reality gets reflected in the way people evaluate scripts.