{"id":210,"date":"2010-12-05T23:56:09","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T05:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/?p=210"},"modified":"2010-12-05T23:56:09","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T05:56:09","slug":"surviving-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/?p=210","title":{"rendered":"SURVIVING THE GAME"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>You read that right… my headline is a reference to a bad ICE-T movie. The one where he’s got crazy dreads and rich white guys hunt him in the forest.<\/p>\n

But the movie business IS a game — one where the rules constantly change. And the players change too. Oh yeah, and the points system, and the objective, and the way to win. That’s why I go from feeling like a “player on a roll” to very exhausted and bewildered… like when someone pulls out “Monopoly” at 9 pm. Sorry, even the sight of that BOX makes me sleepy, guys. But the game here in Movie Town is to make something that already has brand awareness. That’s code for “No New Ideas Allowed.” Unless you are James Cameron or Chris Nolan, you do not get an open door to pitch your super-cool original idea that is not based on any comic or plush toy. You must chase down something with “pre-existing awareness.”<\/p>\n

Unless it’s a REALLY VALUABLE property with a TON of pre-existing awareness… then everyone around the project gets too nervous to do anything with it and then it just languishes in development for years (cough-cough–“Fraggle Rock!” But more on that project later).<\/p>\n

The rules keep changing. The economy keeps sucking. And studios keep wimping out and looking for “safe bets.” But even JAMES BOND and the HOBBIT got taken down by this recession. From the conversations I’ve had with even the most established producers, this has been a time to keep your head down and just make it through the hailstorm with as few dents as possible. On the upside, if you can find work and keep working, you console yourself with the fact that you are still making a living by “professionally pretending.”<\/p>\n

I’ve enjoyed some recent rewrite work, which makes me feel like I’m at least helping improve any material already out there. I think I’ll start calling rewrite assignments “Upgrading.” \u00a0“Yeah, I gotta go ‘Upgrade’ a script for Warner Brothers.”<\/p>\n

Cameron Crowe was right, Hollywood IS like a big high school. But it’s also a high school on a giant game board with three kinds of dice and the instruction card missing. And that’s why it makes perfect sense that the only things left to turn into movies are games.<\/p>\n

Let’s go. I can sell out as much as the next guy.<\/p>\n

“CANDYLAND: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK TOOTH.”<\/p>\n

“HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS: A QUANTUM OF MARBLES.”<\/p>\n

“BOGGLE BEGINS.”<\/p>\n

“CONNECT FOUR: DIAGONALLY, IN 3D.”<\/p>\n

Pretty sneaky, sis. It’s like ‘T’ says, y’all, “It’s all about gettin’ yours. It’s all about survival.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You read that right… my headline is a reference to a bad ICE-T movie. The one where he’s got crazy dreads and rich white guys hunt him in the forest. But the movie business IS a game — one where the rules constantly change. And the players change too. Oh yeah, and the points system, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=210"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210\/revisions\/220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}