Coming up with a great screenplay title... or...My Cat's Hairballs

Roland from London asks: How important is a title? I know that many projects go through several names before the final cut is made, but is a catchy, dynamic title something that can elevate a script even if it's not that great, merely because it has a cool name? How many great scripts do you think get tossed on the mountain of garbage merely because they choose a title that resembles your cat's hairballs?

There are lots of different schools of thought on this issue... mine can best be summed up as "if someone calls you to pass on your script and says 'I just didn't like the title', it means they hated the script and are looking for an easy way out."

I think a great title can only help boost the general wave of good feelings that people in this town get when they read a great script... it adds to the overall package. I've never personally heard of a good script not getting read (much less made) because of a title. Titles are totally fungible. You can change them every ten minutes if you want. It's the writing that matters. So if someone refuses to read a script because they don't like the title, then quite simply, that person is a moron.

Likewise, I think most people in Hollywood are smart enough to recognize a bad script when they read one, even if they think the title is kickass.

On the other hand I know a few people who are known around town for their ability to come up with great titles for screenplays and they swear it makes a difference, but I maintain it will never be the difference between selling or not selling a script.

There's a project kicking around one of the studios that's been UNTITLED (it's literally referred to by the studio as "our untitled action movie") for a long time... it's an exciting project and everyone around town likes it. But recently, they decided to change the title to the name of a snappy well-known classic rock tune, and, well goddammit I know it shouldn't, but it made me just a little more excited about the project because the new title made me smile and say "cool!"

One person I know heard the new title and said "that's hot"... but I'm pretty sure they were being ironic.

But I think that's the most action you'll get out of a title one way or the other. For every title I've heard people call great, I heard just as many people say "It's a great script but the title is awful, so we're gonna have to come up with a new one."

And fortunately that's as easy to do as anything in the movie business besides divorce.