EXCLUSIVE: The writer/director Wachowski siblings have begun to invite actors to meet on their new film Cobalt Neural 9 about a taboo gay romance 
between an American and Iraqi soldier. But agents are telling me it has become yet another “top secret” project they and their actors can’t read. That means they can’t advise their clients whether to be in the pic sure to be controversial because of its “Hard R” storyline. But I’ve learned there is an increasing Hollywood obsession with keeping scripts under wraps right now because of the ease with which these copyrighted documents get published on the Internet. So much so that this is changing the way actors audition for hot button or fanboy friendly projects. More and more, reps don’t get to read full scripts. In some cases, on films like Spider-Man or The Avengers, the actors don’t, either. “CN9 is just the latest of a growing list of scripts that are being kept under lock and key,” one frustrated dealmaker tells me. “How do you do your job and advise clients when studios and filmmakers don’t want agents and managers to see scripts? If actors are lucky, they go to an office and read it with somebody watching. This kind of secrecy only used to happen with Woody Allen and maybe Steven Spielberg. But now it is rampant.”
Reps say it has happened recently on such scripts as Universal’s Battleship, the Planet of the Apes prequel Rise of the Apes, Thor, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Wolverine, the Twilight Saga films, and the two installments of The Hobbit. Regarding actors, agents said filmmakers are shielding scripts is focused on newcomers trying to jump start careers in superhero roles, not with big stars. I’m told that many of the actors vying to play superheroes in Marvel Comics films, Spider-Man included, didn’t get to read entire scripts when they were testing. Instead, they were given pages with villains glossed over to keep their identities fuzzy and had to rely on director Marc Webb to explain the plot and character.
Watch on Deadline
It’s no mystery why this is happening: security. Producers and studio executives claim that if they email or messenger even one copy to an agency, it goes into that tenpercentery’s library — and then becomes fodder for low-level employees who trade the content of those scripts like currency. Suddenly, that copyrighted document is on the Internet. Disturbing but not illegal is having the script picked apart in a forum, or presented as a blog scoop that gives away story reveals. “I doubt a blogger with 60 readers will ruin a movie even if they publish a script or rip it apart,” said one dealmaker who considers the increased secrecy “ridiculous” but acknowledges the bigger problem. “What is more important is the number of movies that are being leaked onto the internet before they are released.”
The box office success of Chris Nolan’s Inception demonstrates the benefit of keeping story details secret. Expect the same under cover treatment with Nolan’s next Batman and his production of a rebooted Superman. Every superhero movie gets this approach nowadays, and increasingly controversial motion pictures like the Wachowskis’ Cobalt Neural 9 whose “Hard R” gay romance storyline Deadline revealed.
Great story, Mike. Loose lips steal scripts is another aspect. I had a story outline and several scenes written to my original ideas and scripting that magically became the movie “Dave.” I had a “friend” see what script I had and later saw that Hollywood dickheads stole my script when I went to see this movie, quite by chance. There would have been blood in the aisles if the thieves who stole my movie script were in the theater. For anyone who saw “Dave,” the Durenberger Motors is not coincidence. That was part of my original conversation with my false friend, a cute little blondie. But yes, I know, I can’t sue over an idea. And yes, I was also a dickhead for NOT COPYWRITING my script outline, storyline, character descriptions and several pages of scenes. Let this be a lesson.
The logline is a bore so I don’t need to read the script, but surely the actors do… as do all of the department heads.
Here’s an idea: if the script is good/great, people will go see it regardless if they have read it beforehand.
I read “The Social Network” a year ago and went last Friday. I didn’t read Inception and finally went after the praise (and it’s overrated).
I didn’t read the Machete script and went because I like Rodriguez. I read “Buried” and can’t wait to see it.
Point is, is the script is good you have nothing to worry about. The percentage of people/audience who read the script is nothing compared to those who don’t. It’s a secrecy gimmick and publicity stunt. As hard as they try, the Wachowski Brothers aren’t JJ Abrams or Spielberg and I wouldn’t see another one of their films if I was paid to, anyway.
Let me try to interpret what the article just said.
If I understand the article correctly, all I have to say is the titles are “Kill Her…Not Me” and “Spycam” and major studios will flock to my door and outbid themselves up to $500K for each screenplay and A-List actors will beg to be in it for only $5M each — as long as I don’t let them read the script! That’s brilliant salespersonship.
Boy, this is sure better than the old Hollywood where you could not get the time of day unless you knew someone in the decision making loop.
Keith Warn
This is definitely an issue, not because enough people will actually read the screenplay in question to make a dent at the box-office but because the resulting “buzz” whether good or bad can spread like wildfire all over the ‘net. How many times do you hear “I heard that movie sucks. I just saw a headline online but it sounded really bad to me.” No one even remembers the source or read the entire article, but the seed has been planted in their head that this movie is a loser. It’s sad because there’s a lot of good movies out there that people should give a try.
INCEPTION is a great example of a movie being an EVENT in large part because of its SECRECY. The “cool” factor of a movie nowadays goes way up when no one knows what the hell it’s about, so it behooves a studio to keep the script under wraps and make sure they have a team of interns monitoring the web every day for their titles; Google alerts and searches can do wonders, people! Do the grunt work.
I lost count of the number of forum posts that said “INCEPTION is just a rip-off of Dreamscape” but I disregarded it because I knew the poster had not seen the movie. But if there was a website that listed the beats of Inception and Dreamscape side by side and they were identical (like happened with Avatar and Dances With Wolves) I may not have rushed out to see it on opening night as I did. I dunno, tough call.
Anaylsis of Inception Screenplay: http://bit.ly/bifC2L
Um…. movies aren’t harmed by their scripts getting out unless the script and subsequent movie sucks…. which is all too often the case.