A Martin Grove column from The Hollywood Reporter about screenwriter Stuart Beattie and how he wrote G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra in six week:
Stuart Beattie got good and bad news in September ’07 as screenwriters were winding down to go on strike.Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura was on the phone and wanted him to write the screenplay for “G.I. Joe.” And he had essentially six weeks to do it.
Flash forward: “Joe” opened Friday from Paramount, Spyglass and Hasbro, directed by Stephen Sommers from the script Beattie managed to write. The film topped the weekend boxoffice with $56.2 million. How did he pull it off in such short shrift?
Beattie, who’d written “Derailed” for di Bonaventura, told him he’d love to write “Joe” — “But you know I’m on strike in six weeks.”
Lorenzo: “That’s plenty of time. Don’t worry about it.”
Beattie: “You’re crazy. I love that. Let’s do it.”
To put this in perspective, a writer is normally given 12 weeks to deliver a first draft, then another 6-8 weeks to deliver a rewrite.
So what do you think Beattie tackled first?
“For the first three weeks,” he recalled, “I really didn’t write very much at all. I just was concentrating on structure.”
Structure. As in William Goldman’s adage, “Screenplays are structure.”
Also interesting that Beattie the first three weeks in which Beattie “really didn’t write very much at all” sounds an awful lot like what we call prep-writing around here.
Which means that of the six weeks given to Beattie to write the script, he spent half of his time prepping it.
How about you? Do you spend half the time it takes you to write a script prepping it?
UPDATE: Tomorrow we’ll feature an interview with Beattie.
Structure is key, it took me awhile to really understand that concept.I was too concerned about things going boom:)
Hithcock pointed out if you have a good story and structure you can wrap it in anything.
Yes, BEFORE I open up Final Draft and start typing the screenplay I do a lot of prep work. I think about structure sparingly. For me the "prep stage" is about discovering interesing scenes, then characters to fill them.
Writing an action/adventure script in 6 weeks is awesome. I tip my hat to Stuart Beattie. What a stud!
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
6 weeks is pretty quick.
I'm guessing it shows.
As for prep, yes — at least half my time is spent on outlining. I don't think you can write a good story without paying close attention to structure.
I consider structure to be the understanding that "shit happens" at certain points.
I have no set time for prep. It depends on how much actual research is necessary.
Sometimes I have to learn new technology or culture. In one case I had to learn a whole college major.
Another time I had to learn a map of a whole city.
Luzid, I just saw it last night…
It shows, it shows!
At the same time, it actually was a tad more entertaining than Transformers 2.
Which I guess is like saying being eaten alive by panthers is better than being eaten alive by fire ants but still…
Jeff,
Well said, well said, sir.