Strike-Idled Screenwriters Get Creative

Cash-strapped scribes pitch novels in place of screenplays
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 28, 2008 4:42 PM CST
Strike-Idled Screenwriters Get Creative
Striking film and television writers picket outside Paramount Studios, Jan. 23, 2008, in Los Angeles. The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a joint statement they will start informal discussions Wednesday aimed at full negotiations and an end...   (Associated Press)

The 12-week-old writers guild strike has brought film and TV production to a grinding halt but has fostered a boom in another area, the LA Times reports: print fiction. "Writers who have ideas but never had the time are turning to their book projects," says the VP of a talent agency. Recent weeks have seen a surge in book pitches.

The financial reality of turning from screen to page is harsh: Books offer a fraction of a Hollywood script’s payout and take more time to develop. But there is the upside of not having to deal with the producers, says one screenwriter who’s decided to turn an unhatched film project into a book "rather than hear an executive tell me the story was too dark." (More Hollywood writers' strike stories.)

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