Filmmaking / Directing : F@@king Development! by Shawn Speake

For those of you who don't know me, JAN '17, I pitched director, T.J. Scott and another executive in Hollywood different versions of MAD MOUNTAIN MASSACRE with just loglines: A rock star and her gun crazy entourage on a tour bus are captured by ex-cons not ready for a savage shootout.... and the alternate version, A LOTTERY WINNER and her gun crazy entourage on a tour bus are captured by ex-cons not ready for a savage shootout.... I felt like both LOTTERY WINNER and ROCK STAR components were strong, but I wanted their thoughts. Both execs wanted the script then - but I hadn't written one word of either script. No treatments - nothin'. I told both execs I gotta go write it - see you in a year. By the way, both meetings were arranged by my S32 CONNECT. Don't sleep on S32! Ten months later, I'm struggling bad and my MAD MOUNTAIN MASSACRE BRAIN is fried. My eyes need a break. So we take DEC and JAN off in the writers' room and I beat myself up for two months. "I ain't shit, I ain't shit! You talk all that shit Speake and you're fuckin' up. Focus, jigga!" .... So last week after my WHITE JIGGA and the WIGGA BAND concert, I print out MMM and dive back in. OH MY FUCKING GOD. More red ink than a mofo. It's so not great - not even close. So I call my team and tell em we made the best move. If we'd have rushed this, the magnet wouldn't be shit and we wasted a year. Instead, I see the story clearer than ever. Another few months should do it, but we'll make that decision then. MMM was so overwritten. One of the many things I'm going to pass along to my team is: The reader doesn't need to know everything about the story to get it. They just need to get it.... .... Basically I don't feel so bad for taking more than a year now because we make magnets, people. If the magnet has no pull - we go nowhere. If the magnet's strong, people find us. Hope this helps in your journey. Always here for your questions!