To Spec or not to Spec...

At first, this title may seem misleading. Every screenwriter writes on spec: that is, he or she works on something without payment in the hopes it will sell down the road. This didn't used to be the fashion in Hollywood. I recently had breakfast with the screenwriter of the original THOMAS CROWNE AFFAIR. He was a top screenwriter in the 1960s and 1970s, and, when his career was on the wane, he was approached to do a writing assignment. He asked the producer who approached him, "What is a writing assignment?" In his day and in his experience, one wrote a script that got produced. There was very little of anything else.

O how times have changed! Today, many established Hollywood screenwriters are writing on spec, like the rest of us. They're writing material for free, 'speculating' that it will sell or that their agent/manager can sell it. The sad corollary to this is that more and more, producers, managers, and studios are asking writers of all stripes to write on spec; they expect writers to develop material with them or work on rewrites for free. It's one thing if a writer works on a script for him or herself without upfront payment for services and then takes it to the open market, but the disturbing trend is that writers are expected to gladly work with one source for free with oftentimes unclear guidelines on when and how the writer is to be paid.

Joe and I have been involved with these kinds of situations in many shapes and varieties. Sometimes - sadly - they have been of the unrealistic, manipulative sort. A producer or manager says that it will take many drafts and only when he or she is satisfied will they take it to a qualified buyer. Producers of this sort could have ten writers running around doing work for free and maybe they'll go with one of these projects...and only if and when it suits them. Many do have honorable intentions; however, since they are not paying the writer(s) they don't really have anything invested in the project, and any distraction or bump in the road can cause them to drop the project like a hot potato.

Most producers will say they are in the same boat as the writer: they don't have cash set aside to develop the project with you, and that's just how the town works. Everyone's doing it, so you should too! For new writers, it's tempting to go along with this: the thought is Someone wants to work with me on my writing! Many producers breezily mention the top talent in the industry to sweeten the non-existent deal on the table: George Clooney lead? Sure, kid. DiCaprio as his knight squire? Right again. But as I've said, Joe and I have worked with many producers and managers on these assumptions and assurances and nothing has ever come of it. Monetarily or agent-wise, nothing!

We might end up with a good writing sample and a few more contacts, but after a while the cost-benefit of a better script or another tab in the rolodex really plummets. In 07-08, we did four to five drafts of a project with a producer we liked and believed in. He had no money to pay us and - not even an IOU - and always wanted one more draft. We pushed back after a while and said it's now or never in terms of taking it to buyers. This producer was legit, and he took the script to very reputable companies. Even then he told us, if any of the companies liked the script they might want us to work on the script for free before pay was discussed. Some of the companies were big names, and we kept thinking the same thought: Why, if a company likes a piece of material and wants to work with us on the script (and is this high up the food chain in Hollywood!), can they not pay for our services?

But here's the dirtly little secret that I think producers simply don't understand: this way of doing things encourages and results in inferior work -- on both ends. On the producer's side, he or she is not really invested in the project (because no money has been shelled out), so why should he or she put real time and effort into making the project as feasible as possible? In our experience last year, the producer made four to five polite inquiries after we pushed back on more drafts; he got lukewarm responses so gave up. Had this producer paid us hard money for our work maybe he would have pounded the pavement more on his end. But no money out of his wallet meant less effort (and this was from a genuinely decent person). One can imagine the results with sketchier folks. On the writer's side, after a while distrust sets in, and since the writer is receiving no money the effort begins to flag, resulting in a poorer screenplay and a dispirited writer. It's a vicious circle that produces, a super majority of the time, a bad result.

And the larger problem for a writer is the project may not be free and clear of the producer, manager, or studios, so if the writer takes it somewhere else, the entity that put in little work on it could have a legal claim that would undermine the writer getting a deal elsewhere. If the writer had been paid for his or her work, this might be easier to swallow, but no hard money and the added bonus of an albatross around the writer's neck of a producer who claims credit for developing the script is a double whammy no scribe wants.

Will this model change any time soon? I highly doubt it and the economy being in a downturn will only make matters worse in this respect. So it seems the best way to proceed is to spec only for the general market and not one source and/or demand hard money for any work requested. This is easier said then done when a writer is itching to get in the game. It's tough to accept the idea that a producer may walk if you ask him or her for payment to develop something. But in our experience no amount of playing the cat and mouse spec game with producers and managers has led to an option or sale for real money.

We'd appreciate reading other views and hearing about other experiences on this topic...

-Randy