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Why Does James Gunn Think the Movie Industry Is Dying?
It feels like every week we're getting a proclamation about the movie industry and whether or not it's going to survive. Now James Gunn is weighing in, but at least he comes with an option to make it better. In a recent talk with Variety, Gunn said, “I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies.” Gunn continued, “It’s not because of home screens getting so good. The number-one reason is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay.”As our resident screenwriter, I have to agree with Gunn. Many of the big movies you see today have release dates already on the calendar when they get greenlit. That means you're always writing against the clock. It's not about whether or not you finish, its just handing in what they can shoot. Look, sometimes you catch fire and turn in something great. But many times, you're finding the story as you go, and the scripts you turn in need help. That's what makes this process so beautiful. Even Gunn said they just killed a project at DC for the same reason. “Everybody wanted to make the movie. It was greenlit, ready to go. The screenplay wasn’t ready. And I couldn’t do a movie where the screenplay’s not good. And we’ve been really lucky so far, because Supergirl’s script was so fucking good off the bat. And then Lanterns came in, and the script was so fucking good. Clayface, same thing. So fucking good. So we have these scripts that we’ve been really lucky with or wise in our choices or whatever the combination is.”To avoid falling into this broken script pratfall, Gunn is changing the way DC does business. He said, “We don’t have the mandate [at DC] to have a certain amount of movies and TV shows every year. So we’re going to put out everything that we think is of the highest quality. We’re obviously going to do some good things and some not-so-good things, but hopefully on average everything will be as high-quality as possible. Nothing goes before there’s a screenplay that I personally am happy with.”As a writer, this makes me excited to work with a place like that, which understands that the foundation of every great movie is a great screenplay. And as an audience member, it makes me excited for the movies he mentioned, because it seems like they're starting off on the right foot. Let me know what you think in the comments.
It feels like every week we're getting a proclamation about the movie industry and whether or not it's going to survive.
Now James Gunn is weighing in, but at least he comes with an option to make it better.
In a recent talk with Variety, Gunn said, “I do believe that the reason why the movie industry is dying is not because of people not wanting to see movies.” Gunn continued, “It’s not because of home screens getting so good. The number-one reason is because people are making movies without a finished screenplay.”
As our resident screenwriter, I have to agree with Gunn. Many of the big movies you see today have release dates already on the calendar when they get greenlit. That means you're always writing against the clock. It's not about whether or not you finish, its just handing in what they can shoot.
Look, sometimes you catch fire and turn in something great. But many times, you're finding the story as you go, and the scripts you turn in need help. That's what makes this process so beautiful.
Even Gunn said they just killed a project at DC for the same reason.
“Everybody wanted to make the movie. It was greenlit, ready to go. The screenplay wasn’t ready. And I couldn’t do a movie where the screenplay’s not good. And we’ve been really lucky so far, because Supergirl’s script was so fucking good off the bat. And then Lanterns came in, and the script was so fucking good. Clayface, same thing. So fucking good. So we have these scripts that we’ve been really lucky with or wise in our choices or whatever the combination is.”
To avoid falling into this broken script pratfall, Gunn is changing the way DC does business.
He said, “We don’t have the mandate [at DC] to have a certain amount of movies and TV shows every year. So we’re going to put out everything that we think is of the highest quality. We’re obviously going to do some good things and some not-so-good things, but hopefully on average everything will be as high-quality as possible. Nothing goes before there’s a screenplay that I personally am happy with.”
As a writer, this makes me excited to work with a place like that, which understands that the foundation of every great movie is a great screenplay.
And as an audience member, it makes me excited for the movies he mentioned, because it seems like they're starting off on the right foot.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
