Rewrite

Had lunch with a director friend yesterday, he wants me to do some rewrites on a script he feels is "awful". This is one of those things that can be interesting or it can be hell. It all depends on whether we both see the same flaws in somebody else's script.

I've done this often, one script that was being filmed in Luxembourg took about ten rewrites. this doesn't mean the whole script, just pieces. Often it's because something in the script can't really be filmed for reasons of location.

The script that was to be filmed in Luxembourg was set in America among farms in Indiana and where the crops were dying because of the environment. Trouble was, as I was landing in Luxembourg, I noticed that all the crops were far from being dead.

That's one aspect of a rewrite. What did I do? I said the crops were poisoned by some strange climate thing. It worked, too. Nobody would even notice it. 

The other types of rewrites are mostly that, where the script said river and we didn't have a river, we changed it to something else.

Then there's the actors. 

I've worked with a variety of actors, most of them were good working actors and they usually were easy to get along. But I've had other actors, some of whom were lead actors, were very insecure and needed to irritate the writers. But the really good actors always manage to make the script work.

Then there's the crazy actors. 

The kind that brings back Brando. But as my director friend says, if you want someone to just be a working actor, they're all okay. But if you want a great actor, they're gonna be a little bit crazy.

So back to this script.

I haven't started reading it yet, but already the director wants to change the first 6 pages, nothing serious. But I am holding back for a day because I get that old feeling that I really won't be able to give him what he wants.

Insecurity is always there. Can I do this? Why am I doing this? Who cares?

The script will sit on the table for a day or two and I pass by it with a quick glance hoping that somehow a mysterious force has removed it.

But I've already passed it four times.

It's still there. Waiting.

But what about the writer who wrote this script first? Does she know that I'm going to change her story. More often than not, a rewrite from someone else's script isn't really any different, just a change of view. 

And it's not necessarily better. 

But I'm getting paid.