There is something wrong with modern Hollywood – we can agree on that. Too many remakes and sequels and prequels; far too many computer game and toy adaptations. Everyone thinks the profit-focused, top-down system is too busy chasing “pre-branded content” to find new talent, and too risk-averse to take a chance on original stories. Industry insiders complain as much as moviegoers, but viable alternatives are thin on the ground. Until a year ago.
In November last year, Amazon.com, the online book merchants turned internet visionaries, announced the launch of a new kind of movie studio. Their idea was to throw open the gates to all comers, regardless of geographic location, industry connections or – some would say – talent. The goal, according to their own website is: “To discover voices that might not otherwise be heard.” On the new site, Amazon Studios, anyone could upload a screenplay, make changes or additions to someone else’s screenplay and anyone could turn the screenplay into a test movie. At the end of the year, the best film to emerge from this process would win a prize of $1m and a meeting with Warner Bros development executives.
Not everyone was enthusiastic. Within days, a few dissenting voices had built into a chorus of criticism from industry commentators and screenwriting bloggers, in particular. John August, the screenwriter of Big Fish, Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, called it an “absolutely terrible plan“. Craig Mazin (The Hangover Part II) said it was “a bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad deal” on theartfulwriter.com. Former Ain’t It Cool News veteran Drew “Moriarty” McWeeny described it as a “horseshit Amazon Studios Ponzi scheme” in a column for HitFix.com. Their criticism covered the airily theoretical: can true creativity be crowd-sourced? And the practical: screenwriters are going to get screwed.
Twelve months have now passed, but on this last point, Mazin tells me that his feelings are unchanged. “The comparative lack of guarantees, rights, residuals, credit protections, healthcare and pension is astounding to me. In short, Amazon is offering aspiring writers a devil’s bargain; in exchange for the mere hope of access, the writer must trade away many of the basic contractual foundations of our professional status.” Studio director Roy Price counters that for a writer “in the earlier stage of their career”, it’s a fair deal.
