If The World Was A Fempire

If you were wondering when I would write a blog that might piss a bunch of people off…wait no longer. For those of you who missed it, there was an article published in the New York Times Fashion and Style Section on March 20 (yes I realize this was a while ago) about the female Entourage-type group of writers self-nicknamed The Fempire. Its members are the insanely successful, insanely hip, and insanely hot foursome of Diablo Cody, Dana Fox, Liz Meriwether and Lorene Scafaria.

For those of you who have been living under a rock, these four distinguished ladies have taken Hollywood by storm the last few years having collectively (though separately) written the Academy Award winner “Juno,” “27 Dresses,” “What Happens in Vegas,” “The Wedding Date,” the Showtime Series “United States of Tara,” the upcoming “Jennifer’s Body” and one of my personal favorite comedies of last year, “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.”

And before you get all in a huff, this is not a hate piece about them at all. In fact, I have been a fan of Cody, Fox and Scafaria for a long time and Meriwhether who is the baby of the group, I’m sure will live up to their high standards. I loved the pilot she wrote titled “Sluts.” I would absolutely love to work with any of these writers and I think male, female, robot, whatever – these women are at the top of their game. I am in awe of their talent, their work ethic and their ability to stay friends in a business where friendships are qualified by how much you can do for each other. I wish I had real friends that were as supportive as these women are for each other. Well – I do – but they all live in New York and none of them are really in the film business. Oh well. 

And while their movies haven’t made the box office coinage that the Apatow/Rogen/Rudd movies have grossed, they have made a statement – women are no longer second to men in this industry. Which brings me to the point of this blog…If women are no longer second to men…perhaps they could stop complaining about how they are? 

The article points out that “among the screenwriters who are in steady demand for major projects, only about 20 are women.” But how many writers out there (other than actor/writers like Jonah Hill and Jason Segel) are really in steady demand? 50? 60? Twenty of them being female isn’t that bad of a ratio. Yes, most writers’ rooms on TV shows are filled with Harvard-educated men, but I think that says more about the division in this industry between Ivy League vs. Non-Ivy League, than it does about men vs. women. Does anyone think Tina Fey isn’t the funniest writer in the room?

Are there more male producers and writers than female? Yeah. But why does every woman in this industry have to point out that they are a “woman in a man’s job.” Don’t they know how insulting that is to women? You’re not doing a MAN’S job. You’re doing YOUR job which MEN also happen to do. As far as I can tell, the only MALE job out there is being a FATHER. Maybe if they stopped referring to producing, writing or directing as being a “male world,” it would increasingly stop seeming like one.

There are two companies in the last few months that were looking for a new executive. Want me to name names? Here you go…State Street Pictures and Underground Entertainment. And no matter how many qualified male candidates there might have been, they were set on hiring females. And this happens all the time for one reason or another. Companies say they want minorities only or females only or USC grads only. It’s their prerogative and while it sucks, I accept it. I just can’t stand when I hear that companies are only looking for women, and at the same time, I hear how women are treated unfairly. I’m officially calling bullshit. 

While I have not done the empirical research, it has been reported that there are now more women going to college than men. Far more women move to LA every year than men. And looking around, I think there are more female assistants in Hollywood than male, which would reason that there are probably more low level female executives than male – or at least a pretty even number. So why are there more higher-level male execs than women? It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. Around the ages of 27-33, the prime age for promotion to that cushy VP job, most women start hearing that ol’ biological clock and they choose to get married and start a family instead of continuing to pursue their career. Is that fair? I don’t know — I don’t have ovaries. But I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t be blamed for that. And I’m definitely sure the industry as a whole shouldn’t be blamed for it either. 

It’s pretty well known that there are some women in this industry who have chosen not to have children and have instead decided to make their companies or their movies their babies, which I completely respect. However, when a young, hot new female assistant starts at their company, instead of trying to take them under their wing, the female bosses usually try to devour them and spit them out. Men seem to like having protégées, while women seem to enjoy being the only Queen Bee in the hive. Perhaps if more women were like those that inhabit the Fempire, more of them would get ahead.  

I’ve worked for both men and women, and while the men I’ve worked for were constantly trying to prove they could do the job better and become more successful, the women were constantly trying to prove they could do their job better than men. Perhaps if women tried to drop that chip from their shoulder, they’d be able to get ahead without having to undermine every man with whom they work. I’m actually a feminist in that I want real equality. I want the best person for the job to be hired – and if that’s a woman – fantastic! I want women to make equal pay. I want men to be able to get a sick day every month because sometimes we feel bitchy too. I want men to get paternity leave just like women should get maternity leave. I want women to get hired and promoted because they deserve it – because they are smart and have a great personality - not because they wear short skirts and have great…assets. Because as sexist as women might find that, men trying to get hired for the same job - hate it even more. 

So let’s all (men and women) take a lesson from the Fempire. Do great work, be smart and savvy and unselfish, and let’s forget about the differences in our pants and get the job done!

Killing Your Babies: Why $$ Beats Pride

As a development exec and producer, I always tell writers that when it comes to taking notes, if you aren’t willing to kill their babies and make whatever changes I suggest, which are always in the efforts to make the script the best and most commercial and sellable version of itself, than I don’t need to work with you.  And writers often hate execs for this. But what writers don’t usually realize is that we take your scripts very personally. As someone who does not work for a studio, I find projects and develop them, sometimes from scratch, with writers. And after going through numerous meetings and calls and rewrites and notes, because so many of my own ideas, lines and/or jokes are implemented and used, the script becomes partly mine – in my heart. I’m not saying I take credit or ask to put my name on it, but these scripts become my babies the same way they are the writers’. Development execs do get attached, emotionally, to certain projects.

 

So once we have developed it, and we send it into studios, and studios tell us “we like it but…this has to change, and this has to be cut, and this storyline should go, etc.” - basically completely change everything, I am left in the same position as the writer who brought his or her first draft to me…Do I suck it up and kill my babies in efforts to get it set up, or do I stick to my story instincts and look elsewhere for a place that won’t change my vision.  And while I know the ultimate answer is almost always CHANGE THE SCRIPT, the project I am currently working on has made me question my own policy.

 

I can’t give too many specifics as it might affect both my anonymity and the project I’m about to talk about, but I would love to hear some comments or stories from writers or other execs in the same boat.  

 

Here’s the deal. I set up a larger budget project at a studio about a year and a half ago. It was a script I found, developed with the writer, did numerous rewrites with him, and got it to a place where I was confident it could be sent out. Was it perfect? No, not nearly. But it was solid, it was commercial and it had brand recognition of sorts as it was based on a book. I was proud of it and was very excited when I got it set up myself.

 

The studio was incredibly excited about the project. We didn’t have a green light, as there was no package, but they were fast tracking it and it was going to be a big project for them. We did another draft with the writer based on their notes, many of which we (the producers) actually agreed with. It was a hard re-write that changed many of the story beats and the writer wasn’t thrilled about it, but he sucked it up and made them because quite frankly – he was making more money than he had made before and this project would be huge for his career (this was when he made the decision of money over pride, a smart decision by the way).

 

The draft was done, and it was good enough to go out to directors with, though we all knew it wouldn’t be the final draft or the final writer to work on it. Then, some shit happened. I can’t say what, because that would give away both the studio and the project’s identity, but whatever shit happened caused the project to be put on hold for a while. It basically sat there for a year. And by the way – the writer got paid for the option and the rewrite, while us producers got jack squat for our efforts.

 

Then, just as that pesky option period was winding down, the studio miraculously decided to hire a new writer (an often used tactic to delay giving back the project) and move forward with the project. Good news, right? Perhaps. There are some other issues that I can’t discuss, however here’s the issue I bring to you today…the new writer and the studio want to go in a completely different direction with the project. Basically, the whole entire script will be rewritten from page 1 and the story will be about 90% different.  Oh - and the original writer…has no idea…yet. Most of the basic concept and the main protagonists and antagonists will be the same, but the hook, some of the characters, the setting, and almost all of the storyline, will be different. Not to mention some of the great lines I — I mean, our original writer — wrote.

 

And while I don’t think our script is perfect by any means, I really liked the hook we created that is now being completely re-tooled. So, much like the writer, I have to decide…do I suck it up because getting the movie made (and making some real money and getting a real credit) is my first priority, or do I tell the Studio head that I hate their ideas and don’t think the new writer is going in the right direction, possibly forcing the project back on the shelf? Well, the answer, as I said, is obvious…I suck it up for the benefit of the project…and my bank account. I will state my opinion in my notes and in the new writers’ pitch meetings, trying to keep the parts of the script I truly love (the cute babies), and explain why certain things should stay, but at the end of the day, just like our original writer, I have to roll over and take it. 

 

But here’s two tips for writers. First off, your producers/development execs (not the studio execs but the producer who worked with you to develop the script) do have you and your vision in mind. While we may not be able to win the fight, we will fight the battles for you in the room. And we are your best allies.  The second tip is - unless you are a super A-list writer, you are going to get re-written and no matter who you are, you are going to get notes. Lots of them. And while you should always write from your own instincts, always know that your instincts as a writer are not the same as the instincts of a studio executive, and quite frankly, their instincts come with a signed check, so theirs win. Not that theirs are better than yours – which is pretty clear by the amount of shit that is released that was originally a great script – but this is Hollywood, where writing is a three step process – write, edit, and bend over. Because in the end, money always takes precedence over pride.