M*A*S*H was on the Fox Movie Channel this past weekend and was introduced by Tom Rothman who runs the studio. As he told the story of the movie's journey from book to screenplay to film, he pointed out that simply having great source material is not enough... that great material has to be put into the three-act screenplay structure by a talented writer (in the case of M*A*S*H it was Ring Lardner Jr., who won an Oscar for his efforts)... failing that, even the best book ever written will result in a crappy film every single time.
I've said this before on this site, but don't take it from me, Tom Rothman has been running a studio very successfully for a decade. If "structure first" is the message he's sending downstream to his executives, then you'd better be sure you're getting it right in your screenplay before you send it out to be read. Structure is what they'll critique first. If the movie doesn't work from a structural point of view, all the great dialogue and action in the world won't save it from getting a "pass."
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