Screenplay Junkie #1: Welcome to the Jungle

Posted by on August 22nd, 2008   Filed under: Screenplay Junkie

Hello and welcome to the first installment of Screenplay Junkie, your weekly look at the schizophrenic world of Hollywood screenwriters. I’m your columnist Adam Volk, film school reject, comic and video game geek and unabashed screenplay junkie. By day I work as a writer for a small Canadian video game developer, by night I’m a wannabe screenwriter trying desperately to break into the industry and cram my hack drivel down Hollywood’s gaping maw.

So what can you expect to see here each week? The answer is probably best summed up by the old theory that postulates a thousand monkeys working on a thousand typewriters could somehow create the world’s greatest novel. Hollywood of course, seems to have adopted this model head on and when you stop and consider some of the cinematic travesties unloaded on unsuspecting audiences, it’s not too hard to imagine chimp feces cluttering the floors of the writer’s room at most Hollywood studios. Of course, there are also some decidedly non-simian writers working in the industry. Screenplay Junkie is all about exploring the overgrown jungles of Hollywood and separating the primates from the predators when it comes to the strange world of screenwriting. Along the way we’ll check out the latest in screenplay reviews and news, take a look at some of the upcoming screenwriters in both LA-LA land and abroad and examine films both past and present from a screenwriting perspective.

Of course, a column is only as good as its readers, so that’s where you come in. Got something to say? Have a comment, column suggestion or rant you’d like to make. Feel free to drop me a line at: adamjvolk@rogers.com or better yet, post a comment here on Film Junk.

So welcome to Screenplay Junkie, the place to be for your soon-to-be weekly dose of Hollywood screenwriting goodness. Let the monkey poo-flinging begin!



  • Matt

    First! jk. This looks like an interesting ne feature on filmjunk. I wish you the best of luck, Adam. I just hope this doesn’t go the way of “The Short Works Of”, “Versus”, and filmjunk’s “DVD Commentaries.”

  • Welcome to Film Junk Adam. As a director (who has mainly done no budget guerrilla shorts) and writer (working on the second draft of his hopefully first feature) I’m looking forward to your articles. Hopefully you know more about breaking into the industry than I do.

  • Reed Farrington

    Adam, I’m an avowed film buff and even though filmmakers like Steven Spielberg place screenwriters at the top of the filmmaking heap, I have no favourite screenwriters. What’s up with that?

    (OK, I’ll have to admit that I’ve liked everything that M. Night Shyamalan has written, but maybe that has more to do with M. Night Shyamalan the director. :-) )

  • I confused about whats going on, but i look forward to reading more of your new column adam

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  • It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times …! You stupid monkey!

  • Ah good ol’ simpsons, classic

  • bob

    silly man, the most important part of that analogy is that the monkeys have an infinite amount of time. (and i believe it’s to recreate the entire works of william shakespeare, not the best novel of all time…but that’s irrelevant). the point of the theory has nothing to do with writing, it’s a commentary on the nature of infinity. sorry to nitpick. look forward to the column.

  • Reed Farrington

    Adam, I would love to hear what you think about the screen-writing talent (or lack thereof) of any of the following people: John Logan, Quentin Tarantino, Joe Eszterhas, Paul Haggis, Woody Allen, Harlan Ellison, and Ray Bradbury.

    I’d also like to hear any comments regarding script doctoring.

    I have always thought that the reason why Hollywood movies are so boring is that writers follow screen-writing rules that make everything seem the same. Or maybe it’s because film executives like formulaic films that remind them of previous blockbusters and so they end up stripping the originality during the process of rewrites.

    Another topic of interest that you could address is the difficulty in adapting books into screenplays.

  • Reed Farrington

    Adam, it’s Reed again. Sorry if I’m cluttering or hogging the comments section of your post, but I don’t have any other adequate forum for my thoughts.

    I just watched the 2003 movie “The Human Stain” and at the risk of derision from Jay for his disdain of the human propensity to focus on the present and ignore the past, I have to say that this movie has become my favourite film of all time.

    Imagine my surprise when I went to Rotten Tomatoes and discovered that it only has a 41% critic-rating. (I have to add that the “important” critics looked on the film more favourably.)

    Bringing screen-writing into this discussion, I have to admit that I watched the film only because Nicholas Meyer wrote the screenplay. (He wrote (uncredited) and directed Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.) Okay, having Nicole Kidman in the film influenced my decision as well.

    Another topic that I would like for you to address is screen-writing credit arbitration through the Writers’ Guild. Nick Meyers has done quite a bit of uncredited screen-writing like for “Fatal Attraction.”

    I realize that a screen-writer can’t take all the blame (or credit for that matter) for what gets put on the screen. Maybe you could mention some examples where writers think that their writing has been ruined by directors, actors, or even other writers.

    “People are becoming dumber, but more opinionated.” – a line from “The Human Stain.”

  • So, The Human Stain beats out Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo on the Reed Farrington quality list?

  • As an aspiring writer myself, it’s good to see the direction of this new feature. Good stuff, Adam.

  • Reed Farrington

    Lately, I’ve been thinking that I’ve confused Rob Schneider’s The Animal with Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. So my all time favourite comedy might be Rob Schneider’s The Animal instead of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.

    But I don’t think I would put any comedies in my Top 10 favourite movies of all time. I can’t think of any “perfect” comedies.