“AAHAHH!!!”
Two questions.
Number one. Why is Mel Gibson fighting a beaver puppet?
Two. How did this movie get made?
The Beaver is a 2011 dark comedy about depression.
It is so pitch black dark it’s basically a drama — with a talking beaver puppet.
The movie was not a hit.
It was a failed comeback attempt for Mel Gibson after anti-semitic tirades, DUIs, and allegations
of abuse.
But you can’t forget that this movie is deeply, unflinchingly, weird.
It got made at a time when the top ten movies at the box office were all parts of larger franchises.
Jacob: "You guys...
...really look great together."
How did this happen?
“Allow me to briefly explain.”
If you go to screenwriter Kyle Killen’s old
Blogspot blog, there’s a clue.
A post from December 11th, 2008 called “Blacklisted.”
That’s because in 2008, Kyle Killen landed on
the top of “The Blacklist.”
Since 2005, a survey called The Black List has recorded the most liked, unproduced screenplays
bouncing around Hollywood.
Industry insiders submit their favorite unproduced screenplays, and then the anonymous votes
are tallied and published.
It’s that simple.
But it’s quickly become a huge source of buzz.
And it’s based on scripts alone.
And by looking at The Blacklist's success, you can learn something about how all these
movies — from number one to number 216 — actually get made.
When Franklin Leonard started his black list survey, he didn’t have a master plan.
Just a big idea.
Franklin: You have a much greater chance of making a great movie with a great script, than you do if you don’t have one.”
So he started something in December 2005.
“The Black Llist started as a...survey. My job was I was working for Leonardo DiCaprio’s film production company."
"My job was to find great scripts."
"I felt like I was doing a very bad job at my job. I wanted to do a better job at my job."
“I sent an email to 75 of my peers and said send me a list of your 10 favorite screenplays
that haven’t yet been produced, and in exchange I will send you the combined list.”
"They all voted."
"And I put it all on an Excel spreadsheet."
"Ran a pivot table"
"Output it to PowerPoint."
"Put a quasi subversive name on it: 'The Black List,'
was a reference to both the Hollywood blacklist of the McCarthy era."
"And sent it out.”
"I think that the The Black List only could have come into existence at the time it did."
The first Black List went viral the same weekend that Lazy Sunday went viral online — from Saturday Night Live."
“The way in which we consume information online and the way in which we share information online,
that was, I think, the beginning of that moment where all those relationships and
all of that that we were comfortable with in terms of sharing information, for better or for worse, started changing.”
Suddenly, a list of great stories could show up in one place and be distributed around
the world, thanks to the internet everywhere.
That 2005 Black List included future hit movies like Juno.
But to understand its real influence, you have to go beyond the list.
Let’s say getting a movie made requires a certain amount of buzz.
Let's make the metaphor really literal here.
Take 2011’s top movie, Harry Potter And the Deathly Hallows, Part II.
It’s a franchise, last one was a hit, it has huge stars — there’s no question about buzz.
It gets made.
Now imagine a movie like The Beaver.
“I think it's important to remember that, every year, there are something like 50,000 screenplays registered at the Writers Guild. Every year."
"If you are a particularly industrious reader, maybe you’ll read a thousand screenplays a year.
So, obviously, there’s a gap of some 49,000 scripts. Just in that single year that are submitted to Hollywood generally— that you're not going to read.”
Now The Beaver was not plucked from nowhere.
Kyle Killen had representation, and it had been picked up by a production company.
Steve Carell was even attached before the 2008 Black List came out.
But this movie was not Harry Potter.
Winning the Black List made the buzz public
and, at the same time, sustained that buzz through actor and director changes.
It kept going until a movie about a talking beaver puppet improbably, miraculously, actually got made.
“We just say: send us a list of your favorite screenplays that haven’t yet been produced.”
“You end up with a list that includes everyone from, Aaron Sorkin and David Benioff,
and people who literally this is their first screenplay and they've just arrived in Hollywood or they're still living outside of LA.
Kyle Killen was not yet a Hollywood insider.
But the Black List clearly helped his movie keep buzzing.
Dissecting hype is hard.
Take 2012’s Argo.
It got 28 votes on the 2010 Black List.
It already had a reputation.
It was based on a great 2007 Joshua Bearman Wired article, optioned by George Clooney.
They got former CIA agent Tony Mendez involved.
So it had energy.
But the buzz kind of leveled off.
Then after the 2010 Black List came out, Ben Affleck decided to direct.
The Blacklist didn’t make Argo or Juno happen, but it got the scripts noticed.
It didn’t singlehandedly greenlight the hundreds of movies it’s featured.
Some you’ve heard of.
Some you haven’t.
But it has amplified buzz that isn’t about big stars in amusement park ride adaptations,
toy friendly sequels, or superhero franchises.
It’s buzz about words.
Stories.
Today the Black List is a well-oiled machine,
including its own podcasts, events, and online submission network.
And it’s all focused on generating hype about...writing.
“I know when I am reading a good script because the rest of the world ceases to exist...and
and when you’re finished, you’re a little sad because you don’t get to spend more
time with those characters.”
The Beaver was not a box office hit.
It ended up in 216th place in 2011.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating?
61%.
Fine, but not great.
In the beginning of The Beaver, there's a scene where Mel Gibson is about to walk back to his car...
and drive home.
But then he stops.
Mel sees something mangy and weird in the pile of trash.
He pulls The Beaver out.
And then?
Everything changes.