I just completed a screenplay I worked off and on for 5 years. How can I find a legitimate Producer?

Question

I did submit the screenplay to a well-known competition but it's a non-profit and even if I win
( will know in a few months) I can still shop the script. Even if my screenplay needs revisions the concept I believe has the potential to be a major action movie. It will need a healthy budget since it is set in the future and will require animated sets to blend with the rest of the script. I want someone with a major, solid background to option the script. The idea behind my plot is so unique I am sure it has never been done. I can't post it here!! But, my question, how do I find a legitimate group or producer to read it and possibly option it? I don't want to submit it on a web site. I want to send it to a real person who has a name and a track record. Any ideas? Thanks! If you're answer helps and all goes well your name could show up in the movie credits!

Answer 1

1. David Rabe
http://www.caa.com

2. Felton Perry

3. Michael Miller

4. Bob Balaban
Chicagofilms [us]
101 Fifth Av, 8th flr
NY, NY - 100003
212.645.3000
Fax [phone]

5. Robert Sickinger

6. Mark Burnett Productions
650 N. Sepulveda
LA, CA - 90049
310.903.5400
Fax [phone]

Answer 2

Voice of gloom here. I worked as a script analyst, read over 1,000 scripts in a three year period. Everyone of those writers thought they had a brilliant, well-executed script. Nine-hundred-ninety-five of them were wrong.

Don't send your screenplay to anyone, yet. Get a copy of Robert McKee's "Story". It is the bible of screenplay writing and is essential because the concept for a film is a very small part of what a successful screenplay is. Compare what you've written to the descriptions of successful screenplays in his book. Join a local writers' group, listen to your script being read out loud (it's a lot different than it sounds in your head). When the smart, honest people in the group tell you it's the best thing they've ever heard, you're almost ready.

Register your script with the WGA (Writers Guild of America); it's relatively inexpensive and proves when you had the idea.

If you have written a truly amazing screenplay with wide audience appeal, it will almost certainly be made, eventually. There just aren't enough good scripts around. But if you do get someone important to look at your script and it is poorly written, you have blown that contact forever.

Answer 3

If you want a major motion picture company to produce it and make a lot of money off of it, you will need an good agent.

If your goal is to have your vision come to life and are full of other story ideas you might want to consider shopping it to legitmate independent film companies. You could use a snippit of your good idea/script for a short film to submit to film festivals.

Downside would be that there would be little to no pay upfront for the script. Upside that most all independent film companies submit their films to film festivals that major motion picture money goes to looking for new talent and ideas and many newcomers, whether actors, writers or producers, have found success going this route. Robert Rodriquez broke through as a producer this way, Vin Diesel, though known for his acting, directed and starred in a 20 min short called Multi-Facial which was seen by Stephen Spielberg at Cannes which "Saving Private Ryan" and Leigh Whannel did an 8 minute short movie that the producers at a film festival like so much that they optioned it and made into the movie "Saw", which he also wrote and starred in.

Best of luck to you!

Answer 4

If I were in your shoes I would contact well-established organizations dealing with theater arts ... either in your own community, your state, or some other location that have a solid reputation for legitimate theater arts productions. You can generate a pretty good list of names of people who are "in the business." Then do your homework ... contact people on your list, ask questions, take notes, compare their recommendations. If you are really fortunate, some of these people will be mentioning the same names of people or places that you should feel very solid about contacting.

This may require some time and patience, but your screenplay is worth it, right? You definitely want to get it into the hands of someone who knows what they are doing. Best of luck to you! Stay focused on your primary goals. That is how success and luck cross paths.

Answer 5

One way to go might be to purchase a copy of the HOLLYWOOD CREATIVE DIRECTORY and go from there. This book lists thousands of prodcos, both major and minor, lists their major players and contact info, as well as submissions guidelines. Keep in mind that very few of the bigger players will look at unsolicited scripts. Why not? Because just as you are looking for a producer with a track record, these producers are looking for a writer with a track record. Unlike you, however, they have enough clout and enough of a supply of unsold scripts to pick and choose with whom they want to work.

So how can you get solicited? One way may be to make friends at the lowest levels of the prodco, perhaps with one of the mailroom guys. These guys are unofficially development execs in training or producers in training. AND they would love to find a script that they could champion and bring to their superiors, because they see such an opportunity as their ticket out of the mailroom.

Good luck!

Answer 6

You need a literary/film agent to shop your script around to poducers etc.

If you are in a major market - you should be able to find an agent, to at least read it, or, more likely, an assistant will read it and pass it on to the agent, if it the type of work in which the agency has an interest.

Answer 7

You should check out www.firstwriter.com

It's only $3.99 a month and they have a huge number of publishers, agents, contest listings (some that pay thousands) and a whole lot more. As a fiction writer I haven't spent a great deal of time looking over their screenwriting resources, but if it's half as good as their fiction it'll be an amazing place to start.

Xander

P.S. Good luck!

Answer 8

you might want to find an acting agent in your area. They often double as literary agents and have contacts in the business. If they aren't literary agents themselves, they probably have contacts with some. You want a literary agent that specializes, or at least has experience in film scripts.

Answer 9

Good Luck to you and if you are looking for a great and talented singer that is a secret in the music business get back to me. My singing is true and serious to me. Thanks for reading!

Answer 10

you may want to try get an agent. and try the screen writers gilled