Marc Scott Zicree, Screenwriter/Author: I’m not here to write stories I’ve
seen a million times. I’m here to write stories I haven't seen a million times.
Film Courage:
if you only had three rules in which to guide your screenplay, what writing rules would those be?
Marc: Make sure that all the characters are distinctive from each other and have their
own distinctive way of speaking and know what they care about, know what they want,
know them, write them as people not as generic cab driver generic and whatever anything tell a story
that pays off in a meaningful way and not just for the main character but try and have
it pay off in an emotionally satisfying way for a variety of your characters and
and have something fresh in it fresh and fresh and meaningful so that it isn't something you've seen
a million times I'm not here to write stories I've seen a million times I'm here to write stories I
haven't seen a million times and and that doesn't mean it can't be inspired by the tradition I write
in and it's fun like for instance in space command all the space command personnel
are named after famous science fiction writers I grew up reading so there's Clifford D. Simak and
sturgeon and Ray Bradbury and you know Ursula K. Le Guin and and so forth and that's very fun and
the funny thing was at one point I had a character named Murray Leinster after science fiction writer
from the 50s and and I cast Victor Manso who's latino and I thought well he doesn't look like
a Murray Leinster so then I had to think of a science fiction or fantasy writer a latino one
and finally I remembered Jorge Louis Borges who's a great fantasist from Argentina and so I named
the character Jorge Louis Borges and so that was fun that was very fun so but I just you know I
but I would just make sure it has to be original truthful the characters have to be vivid and it
has to has to take us to an emotional place that's satisfying those are the those are the big ones
and I mean a film can have a lot of drawbacks for instance no one script is going to be
everything to everybody you know you can't like for instance you might want to write something
about transgender rights at some point and maybe maybe you'll put in a transgender character in
one script or maybe ultimately you want to write about that in a big way that that might be the
the main drive of your story but again I don't ever write message things you know you have to
have a story that's engaging Elaine [Zicree] will start with themes I rarely do I usually
start with a character or an actor that I want to work with or it can be on almost anything it can
be almost anything and but I always arrive at the same place which is a story that I want to tell
so just as there's the Bechdel test is there a “message test” so that we as filmmakers okay
yeah you know you know that that it's a message film if when the lights come up everyone's gone
you know so you know I mean you know I mean rod rod certainly used to be very cognizant he had
a lot to say you know politically and socially but he knew that you had to create characters that the
the people cared about like when Burgess Meredith is the last man on earth you care
about him you're engaged by that man and and you feel sorry for him what happens to him
you know it's I mean I don't know any really good writers who don't put the focus on character in
science fiction you know whether it's Deckard in Blade Runner or whomever you know there's people
that you care about Ripley in Aliens I mean great example you have to there's there's so many films
and tv shows where you don't care about the people and you don't and it's just forgettable it's just
forgettable so it's really important to to do that and you know and and again I'm not here to
change everyone's opinion my goal of skit is to convince people to be compassionate
and convince people to be that that the power of love is important that we're we are united
by our commonality far more than we're divided by our opinions you know and so that's what I would
urge people to recognize you know and so that's I mean my big message is compassion and that's a
good message I think to have why do we care about Ellen Ripley we hear about Ripley because she's
she well first of all in Aliens she cares about someone other than herself she's trying
to save that little girl even if she dies she's willing to sacrifice herself but also
she's the smartest person in that movie she's the most competent person in that movie that story is
about her where she starts traumatized and step by step by step to save other people she has to take
control and command she knows what she's doing and the fact and and again it's a great
marriage between character and actress because corny weaver is able to play a powerful woman
where she's no less feminine she's just competent and and you believe every single thing she does in
that movie it's terrific it's one of my favorite films it's a great film how was she received how
was that character received at that time well it's very funny when alien came out you know originally
Ripley was a male character and they change through a female character and and I thought it
was great but my brother Jim my brothers grew up in orange county I grew up in LA when my parents
divorced when I was three and my brother Jim said “Oh man that woman she was such a bee.”
He was like so traditional now I think he'd have a different opinion he was young back then
but it's like he was from a much more conservative background it was like you know so he was like
riled up about having a woman character that's wrong but I thought it was just great I loved it
from the first so and that was what ’83 ’79 ’79 oh sorry ’79 aliens was ’70 was ’86. but the fun
part was before the pandemic 2019 I heard that there was a high school there was a high school
in east in bergen new jersey and it was the the art teacher and the english teacher had an idea
that instead of doing like you know Brigadoon or Oklahoma for their high school play they
would do alien the entire movie and they built everything from scratch the aliens suit the the
15 foot space jockey the space suits the chest burster everything and they thought they'd just
fly under the radar that no one would hear about just parents would come see it but then of course
it went viral so Ridley Scott put up some money and they were able to put on another performance
and they were in the eye of the media storm and so I flew to new jersey north bergen new jersey to
spend the day talking to the students so because I knew they were going to get a lot of promises from
Hollywood and I knew those would all be false probably and would fall flat and their hearts
would get broken and I want to say here's how it works and if you come to Los Angeles I’m happy to
to guide you and you can all be members of my round table wherever you are and so forth
and so I spent the day with them and then as a surprise Sigourney Weaver showed up and she hung
out with the kids and she introduced the play and it was just wonderful I actually posted the entire
play on Mr. Sci-Fi and it's so great when the Chessburster comes out there's blood everywhere
it was wonderful and and I said to them I said the kids this is Hollywood what you're doing right
here is Hollywood Hollywood is wherever you're creating something that has meaning something that
you gave it your really best effort and and it was a I'm so glad I went it was a wonderful experience
that's great i'll have to check it out yeah we'll put a link below this video it's really fun
awesome well people can watch you know the first hour of space command they can watch the bonus
episode they can watch that they can watch my just sulu star trek episode all on mr sci-fi sure are
you in Elaine yeah yeah just it's super fun yeah it's enjoyable and then we can see your dogs too I
love the fact that I get to have my own network I mean I wasn't planning that I just had lunch with
Glenn Mazzera who was a friend of mine who was the show runner on walking dead and we were having
lunch and he said you know you know so much about science fiction you should have your own youtube
channel and I thought good idea and so so I called it mr sci-fi and just started it up I didn't do
anything really to promote it now as I said we've had millions of hits and closing in on 100,000
subscribers and it was just like great because I can I can do something short or something
that takes a lot more effort but you know it's it's really fun because I'm so so enthusiastic
about science fiction I've loved it since I was a kid and sulu why should we care about sulu well
when I was a kid watching Star Trek Sulu [Hikaru Sulu] was my favorite character and because George
Takei was just so great and he was so smart and so competent and loyal and honorable and just
wonderful and he never got the great Sulu episode and I then found out that there were a group of
fans in upstate New York making their own star trek episodes and Walter Kanye who played Chekhov
was flying up there to make an episode about his character and Dorothy Fontana who story added the
original star trek had written that script so icon and my friend Michael Reeves back when they were
going to bring star trek back as a series in the 70s came up with this great sulu story and so I
contacted the guys in upstate New York and I said listen Michael and I both wrote for Star Trek the
next generation the Michael's an Emmy winner would you be interested in doing this episode
and they said sure and I said but I want to direct it and they said fine and and so then I went to
george and I typed up the outline of what the story was going to be and I said look you you
never got the great Sulu episode you you deserved and I said this is it and so he said I’m in and
Michael and I wrote the script and it took me six months to prep and to a solid year we shot we shot
it in a matter of two weeks and then it was solid year of editing and visual effects had 700 visual
effects shots and when we were shooting I said to george next year you and I will be on in Japan
speaking to the world science fiction convention and screening this episode after which
we'll answer questions and you'll be answering in Japanese because he's fluent in Japanese
and i'll be answering english and I said a year after that will be nominated for the Hugo which is
the top award in science fiction and all of that happened oh wow and so because it was I'm proud
I'm very very proud of that episode and it's every every I gave every bit of everything I knew how
to do in that to write and direct and exactly produced that and my contract was that no one
could touch a frame of it I had total directorial say and so it's exactly what I wanted to be and as
I say we cast Christina Moses and she's phenomenal every take was just gorgeous and I'm and I've
worked with her since she's in space command now as well as being in the middle million little
things on abc but she and she'll be in magic time and and some of the other projects we're doing
so it's fun you build an ensemble of friends who who you love to work with how much of what you
write is trying to be original versus trying to give the audience what they want well I'm pleased
when the audience gets value from what I do but that's not why I'm doing it I'm doing it because
I have something I want to say something I have experienced or something I've observed
that's meaningful to me and I it's so and and there's just so many wonderful pieces I mean
the lovely part about what I do because of it's science fiction I get to create
a universe and that's the thing that science fiction brings that other genres don't tend to
if if you see a story set in the modern day it's just about those people it's about that story but
if you tell a really good science fiction story the universe is a separate character in a way
like for instance blade runner you can do stories in the blade runner universe you can do stories in
the star wars universe or star trek universe and that's extremely beguiling and I love that and
it allows you also to work with visual design and because I was a painting sculptor and graphic arts
major I have a very strong visual sense and I also know the history of science fiction design I mean
I think it's incredibly cool and unexpected that we have big silver spaceships now thanks
thanks to Elon Musk they look exactly like the ones I saw in when worlds collide or
on the book book covers from my childhood and that's just a thrill I love bringing a science
fiction reality to the screen it's it just you saw so many of my of my skills and enthusiasms
do you think you'll be going up to space in one of the various no carriers okay let's
see what happens there's a few to choose from it's not something that I'm eager to do but
it's not something I wouldn't mind doing either but I do know personally no astronauts
and scientists at nasa and JPL and all of that stuff's really exciting so there's a member of our
roundtable who's a science fiction writer and his day job is he drives the mars that's a cool thing
rover has two watches one is on earth time and one is on mars time which is just super cool yeah
sorry I'm late I was you know right yeah I said a crater oh wait yeah wrong watch but yeah very fun.