Million Dollar Script sold by first timer

29-Year-Old Former Assistant Sells Million Dollar Script About Internet Datestalking


Emma Stone is reportedly in talks to star in a movie based on a screenplay about cyber datestalking written by a woman who, until last week, was Adam McKay's personal assistant. The script's called He's Fuckin' Perfect, and the writer is currently accepting applications for people interested in officially living vicariously through her.

The movie, like all movies, is about a good intentioned but overly neurotic young woman who just wants what's best for her friends. She diligently researches men online for others until she finds a guy who would be just right for her. There's one problem: she's all neurotic and doesn't think she's good enough for him! To fix this, she creates a fake internet persona that totally doesn't backfire. Things ensue!

The script's writer, 29-year-old Lauryn Kahn, reportedly sold her script to Fox 2000 pictures for between $1 million and $1.5 million. After finding out that she could finally afford to buy all of the happiness she's ever wanted, she quit her $40,000 per year assistant job to write scripts full time and be fanned by tan musclebound men who use only the finest palm fronds. In my imagination, Adam McKay is watching her wistfully as she waves goodbye. Goodbye, my love.

Anyway, the moral of the story is: never let go of your idiotic dreams. A million other people might have the same dream, but maybe one day you'll get lucky and the wheel of fortune will stop on you. Or you'll get unlucky and be the first person in your state to die of dysentery since the 1940's because of some expired cottage cheese you ate.

Emma Stone in talks to star in Lauryn Kahn Fox 2000 Spec [Deadline]

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Excerpted from the Jezebel.com blog post written by Erin Gloria Ryan

Write a Romantic Comedy That Sells!

You Can Write a Romantic Comedy That Sells.

Here are six insider-tips that will increase your romantic comedy’s chances of getting read, getting purchased, and getting on the Big Screen.

Tip #1: The Chemical Equation

You saw the posters and trailers for ‘The Proposal’, ‘Jump The Broom’, ‘Brown Sugar” and ‘Pretty Woman’ BEFORE you saw the actual films. You went to see these romantic comedies already knowing that the leads were going to end up together. So creating two unique characters an audience will fall in love with and NEED to see united is the most important key to a romantic comedy's success. Your characters must each be emotionally incomplete people who get completed by their mate-to-be. One (if not both) of your protagonists should have an inner conflict that the story's romantic relationship confronts and ultimately resolves.


Tip #2: The Hybrid

Some of the most successful romantic comedies are hybrids -- movies that have expanded their audience by cross-breeding with other genres. Romantic comedies can be action-adventures (Knight & Day), gender-benders ('Tootsie'), sports comedies ('Just Wright'), political ('The American President'), period pieces ('Shakespeare In Love'), crime stories ('The Mexican'), teen movies ('Clueless') and more. This kind of cross-genre inter-breeding has kept our genre healthy for decades, and it's something to think about as you shape your romantic comedy with an eye towards the marketplace. You may already be edging into another genre's territory in your story. If so, maximize that element. Producers and studios are more likely to be intrigued by a romantic comedy that also promises the kind of big screen action that a crime, adventure, sports, etc. movie provides.

Tip #3: Don't Talk Too Much

Great movies MOVE. Too much talk, too much dialogue, can result in a pass (because what you've written is more like a play or a TV show) than a MOVIE. So ask yourself, how active is your script? How visually exciting? While you may not have the mudslides, wild chases and fireworks 'Romancing the Stone' delivered, you may have a set, a setting, world or a physical comedy opportunity that will open up and enliven your movie. Even the verbal-witty 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' featured a Scottish reel in colorful kilts. 'Annie Hall' is packed with sight gags, from the cocaine sneeze to the errant lobsters. Make sure your script makes use of all the cinematic storytelling techniques a good movie- movie uses.

Tip #4: The Formula Flip

Since most plots of successful romantic comedies follow a fairly predictable paradigm, your romantic comedy spec could stand out from the others in the marketplace if your concept, story and/or execution is exceptionally clever, imaginative or even better, ingenious. Four romantic comedies from the past that were truly memorable made their mark by putting a spin on the standard plot structure. There was 'boy doesn't meet girl until the last five minutes of the movie' ('Sleepless in Seattle'), 'boy meets girl after they're both dead' ('Defending Your Life'), 'boy only meets girl in and around weddings (and a funeral)' ('Four Weddings') and 'boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy loses girl, boy loses girl, ad infinitum, until he finally gets it right' ('Groundhog Day'). Try to come up with a concept that will enable your rom-com to stand out from the crowd. Failing that, a hook in the execution can make the difference. 'Bridget Jones's Diary' has the diary to hang its story on; ‘Two Can Play That Game’ uses breaking-the-fourth-wall conversations with the audience. Take a bold leap and find your tweak. It may make all the difference.

Tip #5: The Sexy Funny

Everybody remembers the 'fake orgasm in the deli' scene from 'When Harry Met Sally.' Romantic comedies that have pushed the erotic envelope have often scored with their audiences. The zipper scene from 'There's Something About Mary,' the dress straps 'Jerry Maguire' breaks, 'American Pie's pie -- successes like these show that the humor to be found in sexual situations is well worth pursuing. At the same time, don't forget that any comedy should provide at least a couple of truly funny set- pieces. Has your romantic conflict gotten so serious that the script is light on laughs? Find the humor in it and maximize. Steep your characters in painful, truth-baring situations, and look for gags to build bigger gags on. Smiles and chuckles don't sell a script. 'Ha- ha!' laughs-out-loud do.

Tip #6: The Meaning

At the core of any great romantic comedy is some kind of thematic idea grounded in the writer's personal point of view. Why are you writing this particular story about this specific couple? What about their story reflects some insight you have about the relations between men and women or the human condition? What question are you asking that your screenplay's story answers? The romantic comedies that endure -- and strike a real chord with their audiences -- are the ones that explore universal issues. 'When Harry Met Sally...' is about whether men and women can overcome gender differences. 'Tootsie' is about how no man (especially when he becomes a woman) is an island. Your romantic comedy should be posing a question, or poking at a truth, that you, the writer, are passionately invested in exploring. That's the real key to involving an audience, and no amount of cute one-liners can take its place. So have your movie MEAN something. It will help it to get made -- and to matter.

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This article was created by Michael Elliot, http://www.michaelelliotmedia.com/ and reposted here at Million Dollar Screenwriter. He is the writer of half a dozen produced movies and a great inspiration to emerging screenwriters. Sign up for his newsletter. It is chocked full of useful and timely information that will help propel your screenwriting career to the next level.

The Secret to Writing Screenplays

I believe the secret to writing screenplays is being prolific in writing them.  The more you write, the better you get, just like with any other craft.  Below is an article written by Martin Acuna that explains the road to prolificity.  Take note and write write write write. He also has a free newsletter that you can sign up for that has other great screenwriting tips and tips for breaking into the industry.  Be sure to check it out.  The more you write, the better your chances of having the million dollar screenplay and also when someone asks, "What else do you have?", you won't come up empty handed. 

Write right and write on!

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The Importance of Being Prolific


by Marvin V. Acuna

Terry Rossio (co-writer of the Pirates of the Carribbean franchise) believes that

a trait of successful screenwriters is... Prolificacy.

Here are his specific thoughts:

PROLIFICACY

Consider this: in the afterward of Stephen King’s book Different Seasons, he
explains how the four stories in the volume came about. Each one was written
after he had completed writing one of his novels.

He writes, “...[I]t’s as if I've always finished the big job with just enough gas
left in the tank to blow off one good-sized novella.” So he wrote The Body
after Salem's Lot. Apt Pupil after The Shining. Rita Hayworth and the

Shawshank Redemption after The Dead Zone. And Breathing Method after
Firestarter. Now just stop and think about this. Here's a writer who, after
finishing a bestselling novel, has the ability to sit down and knock out a
masterfully written novella in a matter of days. And three of these
“afterthoughts” have been adapted into major motion pictures.

Now that's prolific.
I often meet screenwriters that become obsessed with one screenplay and devote
years of their time and energy to it. Some spend more than a decade on one.
Other writers expend precious energy awaiting responses to query letters or
submissions. Months go by and the only additional writing done is focused on
follow-up letters or emails asking the horrid question: Have you read my script?

In my humble opinion, if you are spending that kind of time on one screenplay,
writing is a hobby, not a profession.

If screenwriting is a hobby for you, then it doesn't matter. But if you are truly
committed to screenwriting as a professional endeavor, then generating content
should be a ritual, a tradition, an absolute must.

Hobby or profession? Only you know the truth.

This is a competitive profession. It requires that you play your A-game even if you
are not yet an A-lister.

I've worked with various screenwriters who have written an entire spec and then
through the process discovered a character or an idea that was worthy of further
exploration. They have no issue discarding the screenplay and beginning a new
one based on their new discoveries.

Other writers submit their completed works and while they await feedback from
their representatives or the market itself, they begin work on the next screenplay.

Is it easy? No. It's not supposed to be easy. If it were easy everyone would be
doing it.

Being prolific has numerous benefits. Beyond amassing an inventory of material
and developing a necessary habit, I believe you hone, shape and refine your skills
as a screenwriter.

I know many industry professionals who would agree with literary manager Jewerl
Ross, who said “I sell writers, not scripts.” He expects his clients to generate
content, to be prolific. Three to four screenplays a year is the minimum.

With these criteria in mind, let's bring all of this back to you. While not everyone
can be Stephen King, are you at least setting the table for your success? I've said
this before, but this is an industry where talent alone won't carry you across the
threshold to screenwriting stardom.

Instead, it takes that rare combination of talent, passion, and joyful hard work.
In other words, being prolific. My hope is that you have already incorporated this
necessary screenwriting trait into your writing routine, or you see the value in it
and will start applying it immediately.

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