Character Pass for Our Script on Epic Irish Figure

Working with managers is a tricky business in general, but in this economy it is especially challenging. As writers, we're told, the spec market has disappeared. A script, to be sold, must be "packaged" with a name actor attached. Going to a studio with a naked spec script is not a recipe for success.

So, while it's a very cool feeling to nail a historical time period in your research, to nail the accent, rhythm, and cadences in your dialogue, to have some scenes that verily pop off the page...it's not enough. That "actor of the moment" has to take a shine to it to give it the luster it needs to pass through the necessary fiery hoops and land in development.

How do you do that? You need more than a solid structure and the illumination of a certain time period. You need a protagonist -a lead character- that grabs a name actor and pulls him or her in. So we face a choice with our epic, period script: do one more pass to improve the character (as requested by the managers) or hold the line and say we've done enough work.

We've been working on this script for close to one year, and we don't want to be spinning our wheels in another year after having done several more passes. But the "character pass" is a reasonable request, and we're inclined to agree with the managers. After spending our time, paring down the script from 140 pgs to 120 pgs and getting the structure and the dialogue right, we may have lost sight of the character and his motivations. What makes him tick is a question we need to get at.

There's still no guarantee we hook an actor with additional character work rendered on an already solid script, but we're deferring to the professionals and their expertise on what makes a solid script a sellable script.

Still, we're talking limited time because we naturally want this to move into the next phase--that is the selling phase. Check back with us for updates in the coming month.

Erin Go Bragh!