This Warner Brothers Inner Office Memo regarding Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven has been making the rounds in some screenwriter's groups (see link below). Another screenwriter, Sonia Chernus, read the first 40 pages and skimmed the other pages of the original script by David Webb Peoples called The Cut-Whore Killing and thought it was terrible. In fact, Sonia slammed it to pieces. It's easy to see why it took this script a long time to be made into a film. What say you about this memo to Clint?
I feel like she held back. Lol. Just goes to show how subjective notes can be. Not that you should never listen to anybody, but damn.
Reminds me of Billy Madison.
"Ok. A simple 'wrong' would've done just fine, but..."
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What we don't know is how much "The Cut-Whore Killing" changed, morphed into "Unforgiven" over the next eight years. Maybe it did have a lot of flaws originally. Still, this was a harsh take!
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The coverage is dated 1984. David Peoples was already known at Warner Bros for Blade Runner.
Perhaps his Agents suggested, "Hey, whatever you got, send it to Clint. He's looking for a Western."
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From what I understand, there were some slight changes, but still pretty damn close. I think a lot of the wait had to do with Clint thinking he had to be older to play Munny. Scriptnotes did a great podcast on Unforgiven, script to screen.
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Peoples was Nominated for Best Original Screenplay, so this whole thread is moot. But, this type of stuff happens all the time in Hollywood. When Clint Eastwood was attached to star in and direct Million Dollar Baby it was turned down flat by Warner Brothers. Al Ruddy had to raise the financing himself and then take it back to Warners for distribution after he and Clint made it. They got turned down a second time. The movie wins a Major Festival and then WB acquires it in a bidding war. Al made them pay. It went on to win Al a second Best Picture Oscar (his first was The Godfather) - and Clint won the statue for Best Picture, too. So, I think it's futile to look at past turn-downs and argue the merits of a script that gets Nominated for Best Original Screenplay. After all, Million Dollar Baby didn't undergo major changes, it was just a subject matter the studio felt would not produce results. (The studio was wrong.) I just think it's a foolish thing to debate and perhaps bash a script that got Nominated by The Academy.
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As much as I disagree. She is entitled to her opinion. My wife hates the film as well. It is obvious what she didn’t like, the swearing, violence and characters.
You only need one buyer, not all the buyers.
Craig D Griffiths , In this case, Warner Bros was STILL the buyer. They did make the movie and distribute it. Just eight years after this supposed inner-office memo.
So I am guessing Sonia read it for Clint giving her opinion of the script. Now does Clint then read it or did Clint read it first then ask Sonia what she thinks of it? Obviously Clint thought enough of it to move forward with it. He saw a good vehicle and attached. At the end the day it about the decision makers.
Sam Borowski with all projects I’ve been in. Timing is everything. A yes today may have been a no tomorrow.
I commented about this type of thing in another thread about trend chasing. Today “ horrible western”, 8 years later “the oscar goes to”.
If you are good, the cycle will come around and align with you. Clint knows good when he reads it.
If Sonia was his “go” / “no go” person we would have Scott Glenn as the main.
I think this is a good example of notes. Treat them like a second opinion, not gospel.
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Its funny she talks about the writer needing to go back to school when her letter is full of grammatical errors.