Writer Explains Why Hollywood Movie Studios Struggle To Find Good Movies Will Continue

Nov. 23, 2012 - PRLog -- To fully understand the creative process of writing, one must first understand that ... "Creativity cannot be contained in a vacuum ... it must breathe ... it must expand." As an educator, author, writer, and one who teaches writing as well as "The Process of Writing," Hollywood must lend itself to searching beyond its current and traditional pool of screenplay writers to have any chance of finding the golden days of old in good movie making. My latest book, "Why I Sued Eddie Murphy" is a clear example of how "protected elements" of my stageplay "No Harm, No Foul" (me being from the non-traditional writer's pool) ended up in Eddie Murphy's hit movie, "LIFE" (with all of the writing credits going to Robert Ramsey and Matthew Stone from the traditional pool of writers) without my authorization. The fact that LIFE was a big hit supports my point.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kru6CCxyiLQ&feature=relmfu

There are millions and millions of writers of all genres around the world and yet-- Hollywood (producers, directors, superstars, investors, studio executives for the most part) relies on a hand full of writers, mostly from "The Writer's Guild of America" (WGA) which is the union for "professional screenplay writers"; the traditional pool of writers.  In doing so, Hollywood is, 1) implying that unless a writer belongs to the WGA neither the writer or his/her work is worthy of a Hollywood production and 2) relying on such a small community of writers to feed the artistic appetite and entertain (write movies) the globe is the epitome of "placing creativity in a vacuum"; in otherwords ... placing the fate of movie/screenplay writing into the hands of a few.

Some of the most perplexing aspects of Hollywood movie making is the selection process. Who decides what movies (screenplays) are going to be made? How is it decided, What is the criteria, and perhaps the most important aspect is ... "What is the person's qualification" who makes the screenplay selections"?Unfortunately, there are more questions than good answers to these critical questions.  No doubt, there are some great producers with tremendous track records of selecting, producing, directing (sometimes starring in) good and occasionally great movies such as: Steven Spielberg, Tyler Perry, Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, Melvin Van Peebles, and Brian Depalma. These artists have been able to entertain us with good movies in the sense that the movies were box office successes which in turn translated into many people watched and enjoyed them. Whatever process these artists used worked for them while other artists and their movies are failing in alarming numbers.

There is a very strong belief that many decision makers in Hollywood have no artistic abilities, background, or qualifications to decide what screenplays are produced. The argument is that "these type of people simply have the money, power, influence to make movies and they want to become a part of the movie industry world. It is this senario that is strongly believed to be a "movie flop maker." The thoughts are, these people "wouldn't know a good screenplay if it slapped them in the face" and that "they hire people (actors, directors ...) for reasons other than their abilities", are just a few reasons.

Big budget movies are seen as a "hit or miss", or "a poke and a hope."  A successful movie like, "Skyfall" (James Bond 007 latest franchise installment) or Disney's/Marvel's "The Avengers" can do wonders for a producer, director, studio, and all involved as they smash box office records around the globe. On the other hand, a big budget flop like Universal Studios' "Battleship" or Paramount's "The Dictator" can do just the opposite; causing investors to take massive financial losses, hurting the actors careers, giving the boot to studio executives, and giving future investors "cold feet". It is widely believed that small budget films with strong story lines and focus more on the human relationships and interests is the way to go.

Hollywood "Remakes ...." is very high on the "movie flop maker" list. Too often remakes bomb at the box office.  Rarely are they as good as the original, in many cases not enough movie-goers are familiar with the original, and many movie-goers simply have no interest at all in seeing a remake. Again, this goes back to "who's making the decision and why".

The decision to produce so many remakes have serious implications that are detrimental to the entire movie industry. In short, many writers (screenwriters, playwrights, novelists...) interpet this as the movie industry saying, "There are no more good writers on this planet, thus ... Hollywood has no choice other than to "RECYCLE or REMAKE old movies." Not only is this a very dangerous mind set to the movie industry, but there is a community of artists who strongly feel that Broadway's current struggles are a direct result of "RECYCLING" far too many old stageplays and that unless this trend changes ... "We may never ever again see the Broadway of old whereby shows played to critical acclaim for years; instead ... we may well be fed an overdose of star studded limited runs on Broadway in the future."

A rarely talked about "killer of good movies and flop maker" is COPYRIGHT THEFT. Not only does this silent killer destroys the lives of the original artists, their families, their careers, but more often than not it leads to bad movies.  The reasons for these bad movies are very simple; the copyright thief in his/her or thier efforts to conceal the theft of another artists work chops up the orginial work, rips it apart, screws up the plots, dilute the dialogue, under develop characters--- all in an effort to conceal the theft and thereby telling half the story and feeding the audience a "flop maker" made to order.  

Even worse than the theft itself, is Hollywood's long standing approach to copyright theft. Instead of identifying copyright thieves and banning them from the industry, the studios vigorously protect the thieves and purposely and willfully destroys the true artists in the process; as if to send a message to any artists who dare to complain or sue over their infringed work. "No one knows this better than me.  I fought Eddie Murphy, Universal Studios, and others for more than ten years in the case of Hudson v. Universal Studios".   http://www.poorpennyproductions.com/index/mn20719/Gregory_Hudson__Eddie_Murphy_Universal_Studios_Hea

Gregory L Hudson has a MFA in Performing Arts Management, BA in Theatre, Founder/Artistic Director of Poor Penny Productions, Inc., has written numerous screenplays, tv pilots, stageplays, and authored 4 books: "Why I sued Eddie Murphy", "Monologues: Dramatic Monologues For Actors", "Showtime: Comedic Acting Scenes for Two Actors", and "48 Poems: Reflections Of A Poet".