One Woman's Writing Retreat: Interview

Alex Ross

Part I: Working in Hollywood

by Catherine Tudor

CT: When you were a little boy, what did you want to be when you grew up?

AR: A writer (see photo!). I am still writing as much as I can, however I, along with countless others, am still trying to crack the enigma as to why so many bad writers get published/are produced and so many good ones are not . . .

CT: Remember your first day working in the MGM story department? Care to share a few of your impressions? Were you terrified like many of us are when we start a new job? Were you enthralled by the history and mythology behind the powerful studio that once produced The Wizard of Oz, Gone With The Wind, and Ben-Hur? What did you learn right away? At that point in time, did you imagine yourself being where you are today?

AR: I was in awe of the history of the place, but confess that it was pretty run down when I worked there. It was based in an unimpressive rented building in central L.A. and morale amongst the troops was low. The other people working there really knew their stuff, but for some reason the suits kept greenlighting really awful low budget comedies. Honestly, it no longer had the charm of a real studio, as in walking around the Fox backlot at night, that's history! You can feel an old movie star lurking in every corner.

CT: What are the duties of a manager in Los Angeles? A story analyst? A literary agent? How do the jobs differ or how are they the same? Which role did you like best?

AR: I started off as an agent. But there was little difference between that and selling cars. You either sold a writer's work quick or you had to dump him/her. That's why I chose to become a manager. Managers take more of a long term perspective. For instance when I discovered Andrew Niccol, I had to work with him for nine months to get his first script up to speed. No agent would have done that. Being a story analyst was fun, but you ended up knowing more about writing than the people who hired and fired you and the pay sucked! The other thing was, I had a problem lying. I once lost a job when I was unable to re-write an analysis on a script submitted by the friend of a producer. I mean, why bother?

CT: So far, throughout your career, have you felt like you were cast in the film Swimming with Sharks, or more like you were cast in the film A Star is Born?

AR: Nothing in any movie ever made on the biz (including The Player), has ever come close to truthfully portraying how they savage you psychologically so that you don't want to get out of bed in the morning. How people you have supported and kept solvent for years suddenly stab you in the back, how relatives will steal from each other, how people who were at your dinner party will have made calls to steal a client of yours before they have even reached home. How some of the biggest super stars are the meanest, most devious people in the world. How they will instruct their agents to dump a friend of thirty years from a project, even if their salary was going to be paid by the studio, not by them.

At the end of the day, it's about a love of the business which so many don't have. The turn over of the "let's do lunch" Beamer driving crowd is horrendous. 85% of the people who started at the same time as me, have gone!

CT: I read on your Web site you speak French and German. What other kind of training did you receive that enabled you to work in the film business?

AR: I went to film school in London, worked for an exhibition company, worked for Merchant/Ivory, the Jim Henson Co., at MGM, for Sally Field and Dick Clark, in development, as an agent, etc. but the best training I ever had was working as a script analyst and reading hundreds of (mainly bad) screenplays.

CT: Success in Hollywood must require a great deal of courage, self-confidence, and the ability to take many risks. Did you ever have any self-doubts during the course of your career? What is your Achilles' heel?

AR: There's daily self-doubt. But the defining factor is there is nothing else I would rather do and you get more experienced, less vulnerable and become a survivor. Life gets easier.

My heel? I believe people too easily. I like to trust people and be trusted. Boy, that's cost me a packet!

CT: Many older writers feel intimidated by the alleged age barrier in Hollywood. Rumor on the Web often has it that you must be under 25 in order to be taken seriously as a writer in that community. Any truth to this?

AR: It's better than it used to be. But this really irritates the hell out of me! People who have no life experience have no business writing. I have worked with people right up to their eighties ( a veteran of the Spanish Civil War--the things that guy had seen . . .). Let me put it this way, a serious executive or producer, someone you want to be in business with, will be attracted to the quality of the writing. If they discriminate against you because of age, you probably don't want to be in business with them anyway. You should sue them!

CT: What about location? With the advent of telecommuting, must a writer still live in the Hollywood area to be able to see their work made into film? Has pitching over the Web become a viable method for selling a script, or is it better to pick up the phone, or enlist an agent?

AR: Frankly, I am deeply mistrustful of all those entities involved in pitching over the Web. I mean, how do you protect your work? And which working/able producer is really going to have the time to surf in order to find a project? They hardly have the time reading the stuff sent to them by CAA. Unfortunately there is still something to be said in favor of being in L.A. or New York, you never know who you run in to and people are more likely to want to represent someone they can send to a meeting at short notice. On the upside, once you have gotten that sale under your belt you can live anywhere, just show up from time to time!

CT: How much control does a writer have over a script once it is optioned? When a screenplay is adapted from a novel, should the novelist expect to have any input if someone else writes the adaptation?

AR: I guess that's why the studios have to pay so much money these days, when you sell or are optioned, that's it, they can pretty much do what they want to. Yeah, you can take your name off the picture, but who does that help? Having a good agent or lawyer really makes a difference, first of all in finding out about the producer's track record of doing business, secondly, in negotiating a good contract. By that I mean, have clauses that will guarantee you a specific credit in a specific place, one of my favorites is: insist on an additional "story by:" credit + $100,000 if another writer is appointed. That'll make them think!

CT: Much of the screenplay formatting software is expensive and there are so many products available it's hard to know which ones to buy. Do you have any personal favorites? Should a beginning writer make the investment?

AR: To be frank, I have never used any, but I'd be a fool not to be open to suggestions.

CT: Many writers worry about copyright infringement. Can you give us any guidelines on how the professionals protect their work from theft?

AR: Same as everyone else: The WGA + the Library of Congress. More importantly, keep a paper trail of who the script went to, who you spoke to, what dates, even keep all of your old drafts and story notes. There's these new on-line entities that claim to do it better, so far they have not convinced me.

CT: Your new site, WriteMovies.com, states that it addresses "the needs of new voices trying to break into the industry as screenwriters, directors, novelists, playwrights, short story writers and journalists." How do you plan to aid and encourage new voices?

AR: In a number of ways (and we are always open to new suggestions), by providing constantly updated information, a chat room, message board, providing a series of contests run by people who really know their stuff, finding the best talent and actually submitting it to the studios and production companies. There are too many contests where nothing happens to the winners! Most of all, we hope to aid and encourage new voices by telling them the truth. There are plenty of sites that will tell you anything to get your money. We've turned people down for our contest!

CT: You are the agent who discovered Andrew Niccol who wrote and produced The Truman Show and directed Gattaca. What was it about this author's work that stood out immediately? What do you look for when discovering a new talent?

AR: Actually I was his manager. There was a certain mystery to his writing, un-opened doors. The dialogue etc. wasn't flashy like a Shane Black; it was honest. The main thing was the questions he asked, very conceptual. Niccol is not the most talented writer who ever came my way, but he was the most hard working and determined. I must have put him through at least 35-40 rewrites 'til the script worked and he never complained, just kept at it and the rest is history.

CT: The film industry has always evolved with the latest technology: from silent film to talkies, to the inventions of Technicolor® and the wide screen, and most recently to computer aided special effects. How do you foresee the Internet changing the film industry?

AR: I'm not sure. So one day we will be able to see movies over the Net, but the place to see them will always be the big screen. People like going to the movies, it's a social experience. On another level, it's helping the process of film making easier, especially post production. But will it effect the way stories are told? I don't think so.

CT: Many new authors who write cross-genre have given up on traditional publishers and have turned to e-publishing in order to expose their work. In your experience, are most film production companies more interested in exploring the unusual or going with the tried-and-true?

AR: There are two types of production companies, those making movies and making money and those trying to. The former's phones are ringing off the hook with agents pitching and sending material, the latter, nada. You are more likely to get the latter surfing the net, wanting free options, free re-writes, etc. God bless anyone who can get a movie made!

A quick story. Years ago I had lunch with Diane Cairns who was then head of Lit. at ICM. She also had two of her writers nominated for Academy Awards that year, a wonderful lady with great taste. You know what she said to me? She said: "Any movie that gets made in this town is a minor miracle." That's from an honest agent at the height of her powers! On the other hand a definition of miracle is making the impossible happen in a way no one has done before . . .

CT: You have been interviewed on primetime television, and your career has been covered by the media over the years. Was there ever a question you wanted to be asked during an interview, but wasn't? Now's your chance.

AR: I've been asked plenty of good questions; it's always a question of what the press or networks do with them. The first time you see what you said get totally turned 'round is an experience you don't forget.

I guess it's the "why?" question, "why do it, considering . . .". Simple, love of the results, that little nugget of gold, that will make millions of people, laugh, cry, fall in love and maybe even challenge the status quo, at the movies.

CT: If you had one bit of advice for writers what would it be?

AR: Don't write for the buck or the glory. Do it because you have to, find something to say, something valid, and hide it in a really entertaining story. Never turn a deal down, unless it sounds fishy. For every successful writer I have worked with, there are three others who turned down deals because they thought they needed to get paid high six figures for their first project. Drop the ego! Take the money, get your first project on the screen, do a really good job, impress everyone with your good attitude and you'll never look back.

Part II

Relevant Links:

WriteMovies.com was listed in Writer's Digest's Scriptwriting Secrets as one of the top competitions for movie scripts.

• THE LIST, An ABC family movie. Order from the Warner Bros Official site.
• WriteMovies.com
• IdeatoSale.com
• RossWWMedia.com
• Dean Barrett (a client).
• Tom Craig, Senior Vice President of Shakespeare in Love, and many other films.
• Niki Marvin, Producer of The Shawshank Redemption.
• Lisa Alexander, Executive Producer of The Mists of Avalon.
  

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