Film Courage: How did you get your first script in the hands of John Carpenter?
Jim Agnew, Screenwriter/Producer: Well it was the first thing I wrote. I’d been working as
a producer on indie films and music videos and commercials and like I’m going to take the leap
into screenwriting. So I saved enough money for one year to just work on screenwriting and had
this idea to do a very pulp fiction type horror film, kind of non-linear. I had a friend who was
a screenwriter (Sean Keller) who had become my writing partner and we’d never worked together,
we just decided to write it and after three months just working on the script with like
no expectations we ended up getting a manager from it because it was so unusual and odd and
different than what was out there and then from there I get a call a few weeks later saying John
Carpenter read it, loves it! I grew up watching his movies and by the way he’s the greatest guy
on the face of the earth. He’s the coolest dude you could ever meet. He read the script, liked
it and was very interested in directing it and his process was to sit there with the script and
read it aloud to us page-by-page and everything that he didn’t like or thought wasn’t good he’d
go “Come on, you can do better than that.” Which was a learning experience in itself
and it showed, it taught me a lot about what directors are looking for and what they want and
he's a great teacher. The film never got made but it was a really good experience and then from that
we actually did an uncredited rewrite on his last film THE WARD, so it worked out great because
we got paid to rewrite the film. So we’ve worked with Carpenter twice and he’s a really good dude.
Film Courage: And so this was the second script that you and your writing partner?
Jim: That was actually the first one.
Film Courage: Okay, sorry…but how did all of this get in the hands of John Carpenter?
Jim: Well I had spent time, the first 10 years of work in the film industry I worked for production
companies and produced some indie films and things. So I kind of knew how the business
worked a little bit. I had an unfair advantage to most people just stepping in. But I spent
10 years working in the world and making some connections and also understanding how scripts
work so I really had worked on a few things where it’s like I could probably write as well as that
or even saw what other people were making and some other screenplays and was like I think I
could do that. So that’s kind of where it came out of. We also knew that we had to
write something that was really unusual and out of the box. We didn’t write a script to be made,
we wrote a script to get noticed and that’s where I think really it worked. It was like Okay if this
gets made, great. But people will not forget this script and it did what it was supposed to do
because it got us a manager and then later it got us an agent from another script and it just kept
the ball rolling and people still asked about that script and we’ve optioned it I don’t know
maybe six or seven times in the last 15 years. It still hasn’t been made but it’s done well.
Film Courage: When you sat down with John Carpenter, where was this? An office building?
Jim: Yeah, I’m not going to say where his office is but he has an old Craftsman. I think maybe he
lived there 20, 30 years ago that he still owns. It’s been converted into an office. So it’s cool.
You go in there and all of his posters are up, all of his scripts are there. He just sits in the back
office. Most of the time when we would talk about the script we would also talk about basketball
and music and all of these other things. He gave me a lot of advice about the film business. He
would say people are going to rip you off, they’re going to do this, they’re going to do that,
don’t start writing until you get paid, do this and that. One of the best stories I have about him
is when we were doing a rewrite on THE WARD for him there was a big conference call
with all of the producers and everybody kept telling us what to do and he stopped everyone
and he just said Hey, let them go do what they do. And it was the coolest thing because
we knew all we had to do was just talk to Carpenter. It’s like I don’t have to deal
with everybody else and pretty much the script (the rewrite) we did was the movie that we saw.
Film Courage: And when he started going through the script and saying you can do better than that,
did he show you what better was within the script?
Jim: No, he let you…he kind of treated you as a professional. It’s like this can be better which
means you need to go figure out how to make it better. And some lines he was
like You know a hero would never say that? The lead of the movie wouldn’t say that.
It was a good education in understanding that
they are not going to do the work for me and things I didn’t do correctly in the script
and that’s not necessarily their job. It’s like this isn’t working so you need to give me option
A, B and C. So that’s a really good lesson from somebody who knows films backwards and forwards.
Film Courage: So when you and Sean left there with your [script], whether you put paperclips or
post-it notes or whatever, how are you racking your brain to ask Why didn’t he like this?
Jim: No, it was just like I can’t believe we’re hanging out with John Carpenter
more than anything but he was so…he’s probably one of the best people I’ve ever met, not just
in the film business but just a great person and super cool and just gives great advice and
he didn’t do it because from a place of like Come On? It was like You can do better and
he would say You can do better. You know what just really pushing and really dug the script.
To have someone with the movies you watched growing up say that it like you better listen.
It was part of educating…I still…I’ve been doing this 15 years professionally as a screenwriter.
I’m trying to educate myself all of the time to get better everyday. So it’s a good lesson.
Film Courage: Jim, were you paid for the script?
Jim: No that one was just work to try to get it to the finish line. That happens sometimes. Sometimes
things are optioned and sometimes things are not. If you have a good attachment like a director like
him you know you sometimes work on trying to get to the next level to go out and get the financing.
So not every job or every project you work on, you’re not always getting paid. Sometimes you
have to make that decision, do you want to do the work to try and get to the next level? Or do you
want to try to get paid? Sometimes no one is going to pay you so it’s like either the market doesn’t
want it right now or will want it with attachments or it’s a tricky thing. Most people in the film
business won’t make money unless multiple people want to buy the project. If just one person wants
to make it they’re like sure we will give you an option, we’ll do this. We may have optioned
that script. I don’t really remember but it was never purchased and a lot of times you just get
an option. You don’t get paid for a script. You read these stories of people selling a script
here or there, that happens. But if you’re more in the indie world (10 million and under), you option
a script, maybe they give you five grand, maybe they give you 10 grand, maybe they will give you
a $100.00 and when the movie gets made, the first day of shooting is when they actually pay you for
the script so want to be a team player and get the movie made you have to work a lot for free.
Film Courage: So going there you and Sean both knew we are not going to
be paid but we see the opportunity down the line?
Jim: Exactly. It was like having a master class
where the guy is sitting there and you can ask him anything you want, so yeah it’s great.
Film Courage: What’s the story behind your first screenplay sale?
Jim: So the first screenplay sale was the script we wrote after the John Carpenter project which is
called LA GOTHIC. This was called DAMNED and this script got out and it was picked up by a pretty
big producer and they arranged the financing for the film and they actually paid for the script.
What happened was a few days before shooting it was fully cast…I think they were shooting on
like a Monday and this was Friday. The cast was getting on plane flights to fly out to
Missouri and they gets these frantic calls like don’t get on the plane because the money fell
out three days before principal photography and that happens sometimes in films. Until
you’re…actually I even have the theory that on an indie film until you’re actually finished shooting
that’s when you don’t really have to worry about the money so much. You have to worry about
post but I’ve worked on films where sometimes they don’t have all of the money that they say
they do. So it’s a problem that happens but it was sad, we got paid at least. We got the rights
to the script back and they were great to give us that back because the movie didn’t get made
and we optioned it several more times but it was very disappointing because that was the first
thing I thought was going to get made and it didn’t. It got very close and it fell apart
but you know, you live and learn and then you move on to the next project and keep going.
Film Courage: So that didn’t deter you?
Jim: No, not at all! No. It actually made me think even more okay we’ve got to work
even harder on the next project and get something made because it came so
close and finally we’re making some money as screenwriters and we were like let’s do it.
No actually…it actually emboldened me to even go harder at things.
Film Courage: In a case like that who call the actors,
the location…is that the producer that is making all of these horrible calls?
Jim: Yes.
Film Courage: That’s probably got to be very difficult and so
there was no chance of maybe in a month…it was basically this is done?
Jim: They talked about it but usually in these kind of projects if that happens
it’s kind of hard to regroup. You spend so many months putting the whole team together,
doing everything, getting the actors in line, getting their schedules, making deals and then
for it to all go sideways and not know when you’re going to pick it back up, it’s very difficult. It
does happen don’t get me wrong but it because like okay…there’s a little bit of a jinx on a
project at that point so you just kind of have to move on and just try to make the next one.
Film Courage: This was your first screenplay that you wrote?
Jim: Second.
Film Courage: With Sean…and with the first one did you
expect anything from it (this was the John Carpenter one)?
Jim: You know the expectations were just to get noticed, really. Because it was really kind of
crazy and that’s another thing to talk to a lot of people about it’s like what are your expectations
with the script? If you write something to sell it or to get it made or get noticed and a lot
of young screenwriters I think don’t try to write something to get noticed. Because if you want to
do this for a living it’s something that you’ve got to like…you’re not just going to be writing
one script, you are going to be writing every day, all of the time and have tons of scripts.
Film Courage: Do you think the chain of events would have happened today?
Because things have changed so rapidly in so many ways, so you think
that same story could be duplicated? Either one, whether you get a script that you know
you won’t be paid for but into the hands of some master-class person, basically a master.
Jim: Definitely. It happens all of the time. A lot of people who become big writers they write
a script that turns into a sample and even I have had that several times in my career where there is
like a sample of a horror film that everybody was into and then a thriller that everybody was into
and then I recently wrote a really big action film that’s getting a lot of traction right now
but it’s also just in the last few weeks has got me up for some big writing gigs because if you’re
trying to get a job for an 80 million dollar action film, you can’t show them a one million
dollar horror film. You have to have that sample that gets people’s attention and professional
high-level producers read, they know by your sample if you can do the other job. So you know
you have to have samples that fit the type of work you’re looking for. So it was a great example.
Question For The Viewers: Do
you have a screenplay sample for the kind of movies you want to make?