Script doctor
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A script doctor, also called script consultant,[1] is a highly-skilled screenwriter, hired by a film or television production, to rewrite or polish specific aspects of an existing screenplay, including structure, characterization, dialogue, pacing, theme, and other elements.[citation needed] Script doctors generally do their work uncredited,[2][3][4] for a variety of commercial and artistic reasons.
There are differences between a script doctor for TV shows and for cinema. On a TV series there is usually only one script doctor, which is the script editor.[5] In cinema, a script doctor is usually much more qualified than a script editor.[6]
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[edit] Background
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Script doctors are usually brought in for scripts that have almost been "green-lit",[7] during the development and pre-production phases of a film, to address specific issues with the script, as identified by the financiers, production team, and cast. They may also be employed during post production, to help address narrative problems that crop up during the editing process.
The use of script doctors was first revealed at the 1973 Academy Awards when Francis Ford Coppola thanked Robert Towne for his work on The Godfather. Since then, the use of script doctors has been downplayed within the industry, to avoid overshadowing the work of the original writers.
Under the WGA screenwriting credit system, a screenwriter must contribute 50 percent to the story and/or characterization in order to qualify for credit.[citation needed] Uncredited screenwriters are not eligible to win the Academy Award for Best Screenplay or the Writers Guild of America Awards.
On his website, John August revealed that when commissioned to doctor a screenplay, he is provided with a digital copy of the existing script, so doctoring requires little physical retyping.[8]
A number of prominent independent filmmakers, such as John Sayles, have worked as script doctors in order to earn the money and clout necessary to make their own films.
[edit] Notable script doctors
- Judd Apatow: The Cable Guy, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer
- John August: Blue Streak, Jurassic Park III, Minority Report, The Rundown, Iron Man
- Roger Avary: True Romance, Natural Born Killers, Crying Freeman
- David Ayer: Taking Lives
- Julian Barry: The River, Eyes of Laura Mars
- Noah Baumbach: Tower Heist
- Mel Brooks: Get Smart
- James Cameron: Point Break
- Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais: Never Say Never Again, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys II
- Michael Curtis: Lethal Weapon 4, House on Haunted Hill, Girl Next Door
- Joss Whedon: Speed, Toy Story, Waterworld, Twister, X-Men, Captain America: The First Avenger
- Frank Darabont: Minority Report, Saving Private Ryan
- John Fahy: Miramax Films, Weinstein Company, Fahy Films
- Carrie Fisher: Hook (Julia Roberts' dialogue), Lethal Weapon 3 (Rene Russo's dialogue), Made in America, My Girl 2, The River Wild, Love Affair, Sister Act, The Wedding Singer
- Scott Frank: Saving Private Ryan, Dawn Of The Dead, Night at the Museum, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
- William Goldman: A Fish Called Wanda, Twins, Chaplin, Last Action Hero, Malice, Fierce Creatures
- Akiva Goldsman: The Specialist, Charlie's Angels
- Phil Malin: Dexter, Californication, Life, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- Ben Hecht: Monkey Business, Queen Christina, A Star Is Born, The Prisoner of Zenda, Angels With Dirty Faces, Stagecoach, Gone with the Wind, Foreign Correspondent, Journey into Fear, The Outlaw, Lifeboat, Gilda, Duel in the Sun, The Paradine Case, Rope, Strangers on a Train, The Thing from Another World, Hans Christian Andersen, Guys and Dolls, The Man with the Golden Arm, North to Alaska, Mutiny on the Bounty, Cleopatra, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, Casino Royale
- Buck Henry: Get Smart
- David Mamet: Ronin
- Tom Mankiewicz: Superman, Moonraker (the centrifuge scene), Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
- Robert McKee: Adaptation
- Mort Nathan: Golden Girls, Kingpin
- Steve Oedekerk: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
- Patton Oswalt has mentioned doing some script doctor work in his stand-up act, most notably Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
- Alexander Payne: Meet the Parents
- Billy Ray: Stuart Little
- Dean Riesner: High Plains Drifter, Das Boot, The Sting II, Blue Thunder, Starman
- Chuck Russell: Piranha 3-D
- David O. Russell: Stuart Little
- Derek Rydall: Diamonds, No Turning Back
- Shane Salerno: Breakdown, Alien vs. Predator, Ghost Rider
- John Sayles: The Fugitive, Apollo 13, Mimic, The Quick and the Dead, Piranha 3-D
- Kevin Smith: Overnight Delivery, Coyote Ugly
- Aaron Sorkin: Enemy of the State, Bulworth, The Rock, Excess Baggage and Schindler's List
- Tom Stoppard: Sleepy Hollow, K-19: The Widowmaker, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
- Wesley Strick: Batman Returns, Face/Off, Mission: Impossible II
- Quentin Tarantino: Past Midnight, It's Pat, Crimson Tide (Star Trek, The Enemy Below, and Silver Surfer references), The Rock, Hostel
- Rawson Marshall Thurber: Tower Heist
- James Toback: Disclosure, Crimson Tide
- Michael Tolkin: The Haunting, Dawn of the Dead
- Robert Towne: The Godfather (the scene in the garden between Marlon Brando and Al Pacino), Tough Guys Don't Dance, Crimson Tide (the dinner scene discussing nuclear war)
- Sheldon Turner: The Amityville Horror, Snakes on a Plane, Law Abiding Citizen
- Norman Wexler: Lipstick, The Fan
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Honthaner, Eve Light (2005) Hollywood drive: what it takes to break in, hang in & make it in the entertainment industry pp.87-8
- ^ Paula Hyman, Deborah Dash Moore (1997) Jewish Women in America: A-L p.444 quotation:
[...] that great uncredited Hollywood profession of script doctor--or, as Fisher calls it, script nurse.
- ^ Jackson,Kevin (1998) The language of cinema p.225 quotation:
The script doctor may not always be credited for such rescues, but word will usually get out anyway: Robert Towne, for example, is well known to have doctored many scripts, and in recent years Quentin Tarantino has also made some swift ...
- ^ Hurd, Mary G. (2007) Women directors and their films p.150 quotation:
She then became a script doctor, one of a small group of writers who are paid handsome fees by studios to do uncredited work on a script.
- ^ (1972) [ Theatre quarterly: Volume 2], p.82 quotation:
There is only one script doctor on a TV series and that is the Script Editor. He often must rewrite a script entirely to satisfy the director, who comes in to direct long after the original author has taken his money and gone on to another job.
- ^ Jones, Sarah (2003) Film p.14
- ^ Dina Appleton, Daniel Yankelevits (2010) Hollywood dealmaking: negotiating talent agreements p.239 quotation:
Script Doctor: A writer hired to "spruce up" or "fix" a script, usually by inserting jokes or otherwise adding some "juice." These highly paid writers are often hired by studios for brief periods of employment, most often to work on scripts that are very close to being “green-lit."
- ^ http://johnaugust.com/
