Marc Scott Zicree, Screenwriter/Author: As you get older, if you have any
kernel of wisdom you stop competing with other people and you just realize you're here
to find the truest expression of your heart that you can share with the world.
Film Courage: You say with the fans give them kind of what they want at the heart of the story
but then open the world wider is that sort of like the saying I know you better than yourself?
Marc: Not exactly because as I said earlier I'm i the same as my audience. If I'm enthusiastic
about what I'm working on, if I find a story that interests me, I'll be able to tell a story I think
that my audience will like I never worry first of all I never talk down to them I never worry about
what will please them I'm just trying to tell a story that I think is meaningful that meaningful
from a character standpoint for instance and I'm always writing about things that I'm either
love or frustrated about or want to comment on but always it's through the characters if the
characters don't work none of it works and I'll give you an example I came up with this idea
called the show runners network where I'm creating six science fiction horror and fantasy series
with six major show runners so it's rocknell bannon who created farscape and defiance and
seaquest and alien nation and cult he's now ep on evil another partnership I have on another
one of the shows with mark ferguson hawk ostby who created and we're show runners on the expanse and
also did iron man and children of men and so and then one of them is a rod sterling project as well
and so so when I started this project I sat down and I wrote up 200 ideas for tv shows and and so
every day i'd come up with 10 ideas and just write them down no censorship at all and and
so then rock rock no bannon and I went down that list and and we saw what sparked for both of us
and something a pet peeve of mine is now there's certain kinds of black stereotypes
you can't have on tv or latino stereotypes or misogynistic things right but older actors
either are playing coming down with cancer coming down with dementia or the funny grandpa
or the funny grandma and the seniors I know in my life and the seniors that I I'm one of them now
these are vital involved engaged people they are not those stereotypes and
so I was very frustrated with that so I came up with an idea for a show called sweet haven
and ironically I came off this before the pandemic and the basic notion is a a bioengineered disease
gets out of hand and kills everyone in the world under 60. and so the people 60 and above
have to figure out how to keep humanity going when they can't reproduce and so it's a very fun idea
so rock and I worked up the plot line and elaine and I wrote the pilot script from the outline that
rock and I had worked up and then we cast it and it has robert picardo from star trek voyager and
it's got barbara bain from space 1999 and it's got gates mcfadden from star trek the next generation
and mike harney from orange is the new black and on and on is this amazing veronica cartwright from
alien and the birds amazing amazing cast and and and they play these very interesting and active
characters james hong from blade runners ended in big trouble little in china but they are not
going to be playing the stereotypes they're going to be playing fully rounded people in that world
and so we've done two table reads via zoom and we're going to shoot in the near future so but
again it's just I was excited about that idea and lovely thing when you can raise money is that you
don't have to worry about oh is this something the networks would buy I don't care frankly
I mean if they buy it great it makes my life easier it gives me more money to play with but
I don't at this stage of my life I don't need approval I need I need to be effective so it's
a very different energy the wonderful thing is as if you've succeeded as you get older if you have
any kernel of wisdom you stop competing with other people and you just realize you're here
to find the truest expression of your heart that you can share with the world and if
people are moved by what you create if they are made better in some way even entertainment is
not it's not something to to dismiss it's an important thing you've succeeded I mean every
day I'm just trying to be the best version of myself and be open to I i love collaboration
I l the actors are my collaborators the the designers are my collaborators everyone
and and even today when elaine and I I direct with elaine because elaine is a better director than I
am and she's an actor's director she was a trained she was an actress and a director off broadway and
I'm an okay director I'm good visually but but when elaine and I direct together it's better
it's better the work is better the out the what comes out is better and but what that allows me to
do for instance today we were looking at sets and getting ready to shoot some scenes we're going to
shoot in a few weeks and elaine was her vision was different from mine in terms of how many
people we have in this scene or how many extras or and she wanted it few or fewer
tighter on the focus on the scene and so I had to step back from what I was attached to
my way of doing it my design in my head I see the shots in my head and say well let's let's let's
see what she has to say let's see what where she's going with this let's see if it works and that's a
good healthy creative instinct because it lets in the possibility of something better and and
because I'm not threatened at all just grateful I can do that and so when you stop trying to
be there's you're not in a race you're not trying to to beat anybody else you're just
telling a story you're just sharing something that you love with other people and I was thinking
about an interesting analogy yesterday where I heard someone talking about quilting they made
a quilt for survivors of the people who died in 9 11 in the family and and I thought it's funny
no one ever talks about pitching a quilt you don't go and meet with a whole bunch of executives and
say hey I have an idea for a quilt and you spend years just telling the idea of what you have the
idea you have for a quilt and you never actually make a quilt people would think you were out of
your mind right the point of quilting is to make quilts and share them with others
but writers in in tv and film they think that that's an appropriate way to spend their their
lives to endlessly be pitching and well I pitched this and it didn't sell I pitched
that and it didn't sell it's like why don't you just make it make the thing get get people
together make make the work then you're making the the the quilt you're quilting you're not talking
about a quilt someday you may get to make and it's it's so much more rewarding and it's I'm I'm just
I've got my feet planted on the ground and and my head in the clouds it's like
elaine keeps keeps my feet on the ground but but there's such a lovely feeling of accomplishment
when you do something and it comes out the way you want it and it goes out into the world and
people love it I mean even on mr scifi we put out the first hour of space command it's been seen by
millions of people that have got 97 thumbs up well that's great it's great to have that it means that
the people really liked it and and that that helps make me eager for the next day and eager for the
next script were you always this way where you just wanted to do something that meant something
to you that you were excited by and you were staying in your own metaphorical lane no no I
i was at the beginning of my career I was very I i there was no no certainty that I would make it
and there was always this I mean I was very lucky because I i started working writing my first book
at 21 I sold my first short story at 19 and I was running for tv by the time I was 22 or 23
and over the next 20 years the longest period in that entire 20 years that I was out of work was
three months and so I earned millions of dollars I worked for all the major studios and networks
but but there was always sense that it could stop abruptly and it actually did at one point and I
had to figure out a way of reinventing and re a way of getting things going again and fortunately
I was open to new ways of doing things I i was very open to that and so that's allowed me to
be where I am now but but I was not secure by any means I was I was driven by a creative vision and
I loved writing other characters I loved writing whether it was spock kirk mccoy or whether it was
the characters in friday the 13th series or even the smurfs whomever it was really fun to write
through those characters right write what I wanted to say through those those characters you have to
be if I can hear the voice of a character I can write him I have to be able to hear the voice
but but I i was never that secure I was never that certain that everything was just gonna cost along
so I never felt like I could just like take my hands off the wheel going back what I probably
would have done some things differently my my priority was always I always felt that my
obligation cr my creative obligation was to my audience but I often didn't take care of my bosses
as well as I might have I wasn't I wasn't a worker among workers in a way that I should have been
and it's fortunately I still was able to create a body of work but if I if I could go back and
change one thing I would be much more taking care of people in that way and I've never been
a political animal I don't care about those things and I have worked with people who were
and I've also lost jobs to people who were like one friend of mine was recommending me
to be a producer on this show that he was creating and the producer who was running the show didn't
hire me and ultimately found out what he was doing was he was only hiring people who were his troops
so he could even eventually fire my friend because he was political animal and and but at the time I
thought oh I somehow said something wrong in the interview no there was no way I was going to get
that job but and my friend ended up out on his ass and and that's when we realized what it was all
about but but I think I could have taken care of people better and I don't regret in terms of the
work I don't regret any of the work I've done but but that's a lesson that would have been good to
have learned sooner yeah some people aren't good at playing to politics no and I don't like kissing
the ass of people who are mediocre I mean my the one thing that really I was very open to people's
humanity but I could never stand anyone who just said well it doesn't have to be great it doesn't
have to be good it's like we're just here to make sausage I could I could never never never stand
that it's like well you may be but I'm not I'm here to make something wonderful that'll last the
test of time you either stand the test of time I I'm I remember one time on sliders we were
someone pitched a clone story and I said to my boss that story has been done on every other show
every other science fiction show and I was saying we shouldn't buy it and he said well
no but it hasn't been done on our show and I said yes but the audience isn't just watching our show
and the irony was that they bought that script and I had to rewrite it I rewrote and made it
as good as I could and but the thing was it's like had I been making the choice of what we
bought or what we didn't buy I wouldn't bought that because it was cliche already then it was
cliche and I had to fight that cliche when I rewrote it to find some meaning in it but
but it was a radically different philosophy of how to make television because I know from my
own experience that a single hour of television can change someone's life forever for the better
it's a huge responsibility and I never never duck that responsibility I'm very cognizant of it.
What did
you like about this video?