The Burden of Packaging and Development Has Fallen Solely on Writers And Hollywood is Worse For It

I’m so tired. I know that’s not an original thought, especially for a writer, but I am goddamn exhausted.

Over the last decade, there has been a marketed change in the way Hollywood greenlights movies and TV shows that place all the work on the writer. This change has everyone I know dragging and has affected every facet of the industry.

Today, I want to talk about the burden of packaging and how it has crippled the industry from making decisions, neutered great executives, and made Hollywood into a lazy town that needs a kick in the ass.

Let’s dive in.

‘Superbad’Credit: Sony

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Packaging is Killing Me

I grew up in a family that loved movies and TV shows, but I don’t think I ever knew what a screenwriter was until I saw the movie Superbad. I was obsessed with this coming-of-age movie and saw it so many times in theaters.

The vulgarity, the jokes, and the relatability all connected with me on a deeply personal level. After seeing that movie, I knew I had to be a screenwriter.

And so, my journey began.

Since then, I’ve had a movie made, worked in TV, been on the Black List twice, and have a few projects in active development. And a lot of dead ones. I’ve lived out my Hollywood dream, and wake up every day trying to keep it going.

But what I’ve seen over the last ten years has changed my perception of Hollywood and of the movie that brought me here.

In a recent interview, the writer of Superbad (along with Evan Goldberg), Seth Rogen, had this to say about what would happen if they tried to make this genius movie today: “When I was young and we were making films like Superbad, Sony bought the script, then they hired a director. They believed in this movie. If that movie existed now, we would have to get the director and the entire cast attached beforehand.”

Yes, even with one of the greatest and funniest screenplays of all time, the entire burden would have been on Seth and Evan to find all the talent associated with that movie if they wanted Sony to make it today.

‘Superbad’Credit: Sony

What Packing Looks Like Now

Gone are the days when studios would buy screenplays they love and send them to actors and directors, in order to develop something they want to make. Now, development executives leave the entire development process to writers and their reps.

This is all done without anyone paying the writers. And if no one pays them, their reps also don’t get paid.

Studios have farmed out this entire process to the people who make nothing, and are picking from there.

This has serious ramifications across the board.

It’s not enough to write a spec everyone loves. I’ve been on The Black List. It’s nice, it feels so good to be recognized, but it’s the start of the line, not the finish. After that, you have to get a director and main cast attached in order to get a studio behind it.

If you’re lucky, you’ll have a producer’s help with that. They’re also being paid nothing, just like you, and are making the phone calls to get the script out to agents.

So far, no one has made any money yet, and we’re involving a ton of people.

Now, you and the producers and your reps are trying to convince these agents that even though your script currently has no money behind it, they should attach their big-name clients to it so that you can all go to the studio and ask for money afterward.

Oh, and if they attach, the agent gets no money yet either…unless the film shoots and their client gets paid.

Of course, these agents are really picky about what they assign clients to. They want writers with proven sales and maybe don’t want to assign people without directors, or vice versa because they want their clients’ value to stay strong in studios.

You don’t want to attach a bunch of actors to a script, go to a studio, and have them reject it.

Same with directors; they don’t want to have their value be zilch because they take a bunch of scripts to studios and get those rejected as well.

At this point, I bet you’re kind of pissed at the development execs at studios. I would be , too. but they’re as screwed as the rest of us. Because this format of packaging took away their jobs, they’re getting fired left and right.

Fewer development execs means the ones who are left have piles and piles of screenplays and full packages to sort through to pick something their studio makes, and even if they pick one they love, they still have to send it up the ladder to see if their bosses like it.

If they don’t get movies made, they can never advance. And never advancing means no raises or it means being fired. And when you’re fired in that crowded job market with no wins under your belt, you’re just as poor as the rest of us.

‘Superbad’Credit: Sony

The Whole System Needs to Change

None of this is working. None of it. Everyone is losing money, and that loss of money is hurting the economy in Los Angeles and probably all over the world. Fewer movies and TV shows are being made, fewer crew jobs, fewer futures, it all sucks so badly.

So how do we make it better?

We need a health development process back. We need studios that employ execs to do the development and packaging themselves.

If you had studios employing a lot of execs to do these jobs, they would be more invested in the world with writers on the ground floor; getting scripts acquired and writers paid would improve the lives of not just the creatives but the people who represent them.

When they attach actors and directors, money can be spent in pre-pro to pay producers and directors a fee while the projects are lined up.

Ideally, I’d love to find a Hollywood where more money is put into fostering new voices and ideas. I actually really like developing ideas with executives, but when you get paid nothing and they take home a salary, it’s hard to slow down and let an idea gestate between you because you need rent money and they do not.

If I ran a studio, I would put a ton more money into overall deals.

I would get many young writers working for me on yearly stipends to develop scripts and TV shows. and then I would have my executives overseeing a few of them and assisting with packaging the ideas that seemed best or most ready. I would also make sure writers get payouts for the hits they produce.

But that’s just me.

‘Superbad’Credit: Sony

Summing It All Up

There are many perspectives on how to fix all of this, and I want to hear your thoughts. This is a complicated issue, but as is, it’s a broken one where no one is making any money, and the voices of people are being shut out because they cannot afford to stay in a Hollywood where they can’t pay their bills.

It sucks to see so many people leaving and to have to stand on the precipice myself sometimes, even after achieving success.

Let me know what you think in the comments.