Just Say No to That Script to Nowhere

Readers of this blog know that I'm a glass half-full kind of guy.  My screenwriting students have seen my "there must be a pony!" attitude surface when I'm faced with material that initially smells like pure horse manure. 

True to form, my two seminars at the Creative Screenwriting Expo in downtown L.A. this past weekend accentuated the positive.  In both "Writing the Marketable Romantic Comedy" and "Writing Funny Love: Comedy Craft for the Contemporary Rom-Com," I talked about many ways in which screenwriters could and should improve their romantic comedies, emphasizing a myriad constructive approaches to making decent ideas better and good scripts great.

So I suppose it only makes sense that in my Q & A's at each seminar's end, the same question got the most interested response.  "What," scribes wanted to know, "is the one thing we shouldn't be writing? Are there any kinds of romantic comedy spec scripts that are bound to fail in the current market?"

Herewith I'll share with you briefly what I told the Expo audients.

The Teenage Rom-Com Refuses to Die, But Yours Has Gotta Kill

If there's any romantic comedy sub-genre that seems to be bullet-proof, it's the ever eternal "Will I ever get laid?" (male POV) and "Will I ever find my Mr. Dreamboat?" (female POV) coming-of-age/first love/first time rom-com.  I thought that by the end of the '90s, an especially hardy teen rom-com decade, this sub-genre might have peaked, but dude, no way: the 2000s have been replete with more of the same, and the form really does seem, zombie-like, to have bred a legion of partying teen movie undead.

The why of it's obvious (an appeal to the biggest demographic).  For this very reason, though, teen RC writers beware: your competition is really -- no, rilly! -- stiff.  It's precisely because the studio pipelines are so glutted with young hormone-fueled love'n'keggers specs that it's hard to make a sale.  Thus the teen RCs that do get bought are the ones that bring a little extra something to the party: they tweak the formula, put spin on their concept.  Superbad was a hit because it focused on the bromantic comedy of it all; it was more about the love between boy buddies than it was about boy meets girl.  Juno was a high school rom-com dramedy that mostly left out high school.

If you want to brave the majorly crowded teen RC waters, your vehicle had better run on green energy: a fresh hook, an unconventional angle, an infusion of imagination.  If you can't pitch your teen RC and earn a "Huh, I haven't seen that version yet!" response, please do me and a legion of like, way-jaded Hollywood readers a favor: let it go.

The Wedding Rom-Com Is Over (For Now)

Blame Richard Curtis, whose Four Weddings & A Funeral kicked it into gear.  But after everything from My Best Friend's Wedding to Wedding Crashers and beyond, we have been there and done that too many times over, and too much wedding cake can make you sick.

Over the past two years I must've read at least three dozen specs about maids of honor and bridesmaids (half of them titled Always a Bridesmaid), and kids, that sweepstakes has been won: Aline Brosh McKenna's smart 27 Dresses took that one to the bank, with Sztykiel, Kaplan & Elfont's lesser Made of Honor not far behind.  And if you think the success of such nuptial RCs means we're ready for more, look over your shoulder: every major studio in town already has at least one, if not two wedding-themed romantic comedies already on their slate. 

So the last pitch anyone wants to hear (this year) is one that revolves around deception-riddled receptions and thrown rice.  This doesn't mean, unfortunately, that you're not going to see less wedding RCs in '09 and '10, but God willing, I won't have to read any more... for awhile.

The Raunchy Male POV Comedy Must Be Sweet to Sell

In the wake of the Judd Apatow juggernaut (40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, et al), there have been more raunchy, foul-mouthed, farcical sexually explicit specs splooging over the studio transoms than you'd ever want to imagine.  What I don't get about this deluge is how so many get it wrong.

Apparently the majority of Apatow imitators aren't really seeing the very movies they're striving to remake.  There's a fundamental misunderstanding at the utsy-icky core of far too many rom-com sex farce specs these days: they think it's about the sex, when it's actually about the sweet.

Here's the genius of Apatow in brief: his movies are about empathetic, lovable, decent people who are innocents at heart.  He has a knack for creating extremely appealing protagonists who are easy to identify with, no matter how shlubby (Knocked) or nerdy (Superbad) they may be.  Beats there a heart so cold that it can't fall in love with Steve Carell's Virgin?  The beauty part of Apatow's movies is: the more decent his characters, the more indecently they can behave.

I'm reading specs all the time now that wallow in lewd, outrageous sexual stunts, trying to out-gross the competition in both language and deed.  But they leave out the warm-and-fuzzy core (which can't be faked, and must be felt), featuring characters you don't like and can't relate to.  Fine for porn, bad for mainstream money-makers.  So if you want to keep up with the contemporary raunchy male POV RC, you'd better be sure your protagonists win hearts while they titillate... those other parts.  Otherwise your sexed-up spec will get you nowhere fast.

 

Beyond those big three no-nos, there are few other genre taboos that remain in force.  It's been years since Look Who's Talking created a franchise, or Diane Keaton's Baby Boom made money; you'll note that Knocked Up hustles its leads off screen once that babe is birthed.  Romantic comedies, which are by nature about courtship and mating, tend to curdle and cloy when little bundles of joy take center screen.

Similarly, the marital/mid-life crisis rom-com is a very, very tough nut to crack.  Many are trying to do just that -- I'm seeing a ton of "how do we save our endangered marriage?" specs these days.  Yet so far evidence suggests that finding the funny in infidelity and other mid-life romantic game-changers is not as easy as it may seem.

But enough about accentuating the negative.  Now that I've dutifully posted my advisories, I'll be happy to be proved wrong on any of them.  Go ahead and write that raunchy teen wedding rom-com (with its dad in mid-life crisis adopting a baby) and send it my way.  It's always the mind-opening exception that proves the rules.

Hey, now that we've got that black man in the White House?  It's a little harder not to think positive, so I'll say all bets are off.

Comments

[E.C. Henry]

Wish I could have seen you in action at the Expo this year, Billy. Maybe next year...

Good job summing up Judd Apatow's romantic comedy appeal. But then again you've always had your finger on the pulse of the genre. And thanks for the info about what's not working in the script landscape.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

P.S. Did you make any new friends at the Expo this year?

[Christian H.]

Welcome back Billy!

Interesting topic. I am of the opinion that no one cares about fresh and new only interesting and worthwhile.
Just the fact that critics, analysts and even execs can be wrong means that nobody knows nothing.
I write my movies so that I would want to see them.
I'm a very picky movie-goer and have nearly a 100% perfect record for estimating box office so I rely on my taste.
Sure I hope that an exec somewhere will be as confident as I am, but in the long run I would just as soon put up my own money.

I'm working on a RomCom or two but they aren't my favorite movies to write.

[j]

One thing people say about Apatow's male characters (that I find interesting) is that they're basically man-children who are eventually saved by mature yet stiff women.

A lot of reviewers say his kind of RomComs are allowing men to stay kids while leaving women to take care of everything else.

I'm 50/50 with this. Half of my brain wants to tell those reviewers to shut the eff up and let a sweet movie be a sweet movie. The other half says that man-children really shouldn't be celebrated because it's like dating that 7-year-old weirdo you used to have to babysit during high school.

...I should know.

[MaryAn]

I shouldn't do this or that but go ahead and do this or that because all bets are off? Indian giver! And encouraging...

[Anna from Sweden]

Thank you Billy for another very interesting and wellwritten post. I agree with J about the man-children, it's a double reaction. Of course you don't want to be the dull Mrs Negative but I personally think it's far more fun to watch adults with adult problems. Like for example in Woody Allen's best movies (yes, I'm a European...), or Love Actually or Notting Hill. I guess it's about identification, and who you'd fall in love with and why. And I think writing a successfull RC has to start from your own honest emotions, then if you add RC ingredients to it, in an original and talented way, there might be a chance to success... There is nothing better than an intelligent RC.
Please write more from your seminars! Appreciate it a lot.

[TumeGypecoome]

Блин классика жанра, посмеялась от души…

[mernitman]

EC: Many new friends, at least temporarily.

Christian: I see it less as "no one knows nothing" and more like "no one knows everything."

J: Sorry to hear that. But my wife could relate -- she watches KNOCKED UP again, and then she hates herself in the morning.

MaryAn: Well, good. Or not! Depending.

Anna: I'm generally with you, but there have been some enduring and honest teen rom-coms (see SAY ANYTHING) and I enjoy them immensely. Intelligence is indeed the thing...

TumeGypecoome: Easy for you to say!

[Tilton]

Hello. At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.
I am from Zimbabwe and learning to read in English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "The name west indies originates from christopher columbus idea."

Thank you very much ;-). Tilton.