Film Courage: if you were to get notes and maybe they wouldn't put it in these terms but to
"dumb down" a script oh yeah had that happen oh you have okay in those exact
words okay so what is dumbing it down and what would that be and what is like
braying raising the vibration if you want to use it yeah term. Jeffrey Reddick: No I mean um I
wrote a script and returned to Cambodia like actually it was a TV movie and it
was a sequel and Judd Nelson was in the first one and so they got the him back
and the director back based on my script and literally the one of the creative
executives like called the producer probably about a month before they
started shooting and was like you know we think the scripts just too smart for
our audience so we're gonna bring somebody into to dumb it down and so all
that meant was that they just went for the very generic with the characters
it's just the base generic stuff so it's like it was based on a the first movie
was based on the killer who needed inspiration so he started murdering
people and he lived in a cabin by the lake and would scare people women and
drown them in the lake and then he would write about it so I wrote a script that
was about then making a movie about the the first movie so it was kind of very
screamish and so like in my script this is his one simple instant but they might
script like he was dating the lead actress and so all these other actresses
was like throwing themselves at the director and he was like in love with
what the leading actor so he and they're like what you know he should be sleeping
with all the actresses I'm like but that's like the obvious that's just the
most obvious stereotype like I'm trying to do something different so they made
you know so that's dumbing it down it's like going for just the base like
simplest thing we can do with no nuance and I think if you if you when I've
gotten notes that the script needs to be elevated it's just because I haven't
done enough work on the characters you know there's not there's not enough
depth their interactions there are actions maybe you're very on the surface
in some scenes or the story's very maybe those points in the story they're very
on the nose so I think you're I think nuance is usually when they want when
I'm asked to elevate something see a bit add more layers or to add more nuance to
something but yeah dumbing it down I mean that was a prime example where it's
just like they they're like he should just be sleeping with everybody because
he's a director and the producer should be doing coke and you know so it's just
and so it was and so they brought one of their people on it
like they didn't even tell me and the producer would not even ask her to send
me this screener that the script and she's like I can't I'm like is it that
bad she's like I can't I remember watching with some friends I
was like I was in there like a little tear like that in the end when you lit
her like on the side I like a little tear went down my eye was like wow
but it's it's pretty funny watching it I mean it's it's a campy movie so in the
director I think once he saw it I think he cuz he's signed on based off my
original script and I think when he saw this she newsroom he's like screw it I'm
just gonna make this like a comedy and so he just like went really over-the-top
and guns I was like the sound effects and everything so it's almost him was
shot like a comedy version of a horror movie so it's it's pretty interesting to
watch now I don't I should have kept a copy it's like selling on eBay for like
a hundred and some bucks now bro I know I was like wow I should have kept
economy and if we thought about it so do you get more notes to dumb something
down or to flesh something out um I get more notes at the writing stage to flesh
this out but and I think one thing is I want to production that's when things
start getting you know especially in horror movies there were like we need to
get to the kills quicker like that's the kind of the common note that I get for
Horus we need to get to the kills quicker so any jokes or character stuff
that they can cut out they'll try to cut out just to get to the kills quicker so
I wouldn't even say it's dumbing it down unfortunate I would just say it's you
know they just want to get right to the blood and the murder so is there a time
frame when the movie starts you know like within 30 minutes there should be
conflict or whatever yeah same thing is there yeah with films it's usually
there's usually having a death in the opening of a horror film and then you
know ten ten minutes and or fifty minutes and you have another one and you
you kind of keep up they want you to keep up a steady tick with them so it's
um interesting when movies don't do that and I've certainly written stuff where
there there hasn't been a death in the opening but then people you know you
start watching it and it's like people want to get to that death quicker so if
you test market it or you or do a test screen not test my but if you test
screen the film people might be uh took a while to get to that first kill or it
started off boring and they're like okay they want you know so sometimes the
answer is actually just shoot of death seem to stick in the beginning of it
you get it out of the way yeah cuz I'll buy you some I've learned to do that
Natalie cuz I've tried in other films not to do that and I've just learned
that if you if you open with a really big death that will give you a lot of
like real estate to build your story it's not cuz people will still be thing
about that death for a good five or ten minutes and so you've got some time like
build characters and not have to jump right into another one right away so
instead of the hero's journey the serial killers turn right there's different
things that they need to follow as well yeah and then too in terms of the the
evil character are is there times when you know it you're making him to
humanized or to to likable can you tone them down and make them so you don't
know what the motive for yeah I mean I've written a couple of like thriller
kind of horror movies and I think you want for me it's like you want to either
have a villain that that just terrifies everybody completely or is a fun bill
and because they kind of relish the bad stuff they're doing so it depends on
what kind of killer they are I mean you don't want to romanticize your killers
like if you know and I try to stay away from even though I watch him and I love
them but I try to save from more of like the torture II like you know let's like
let's tie a woman up and like torture for 10 minutes and that's how a guy open
towards Jim for 10 minutes like I try to stay away from that kind of stuff cuz it
just doesn't hold my interest for very long when I was young I did because it
was bloody and that's all I cared about but but you know if it's a killer like
that you don't want to humanize them I don't think because it doesn't because
in your in this weird place where it's like okay I'm just watching this person
like torture people for 90 minutes and now you're trying to make me have
sympathy for them and you know it's again there's enough of that in real
life like there's enough sure you know there's just enough really bad people
out there in real life though I think when you go to watch them horror movie
you want to be like scared entertained but it's still you want to escape I
think you you don't want to go there to be reminded of like real life stuff so
yeah real life sociopath is gonna be like the neighbors like oh he was such a
nice guy even though he's quiet and he was chopping up people so it's like you
don't want to necessarily have that be your your killer in a horror film well
going back to carry though you could see why she got to that stage yeah and you
just like you had said and I felt the exact same
I wish he'd gone to that stage earlier yeah but so I think with Carrie you were
able to feel maybe more empathy yeah she was never I mean because it kept they
kept had John Travolta and oh my gosh I'm blanking on the character's name but
the mean you know the girl yeah a mean girl and you know so you had the
villains who were actually so she was still she was always the hero that just
got pushed to the breaking point and so you can you can have it I think somebody
like that you can have somebody who we get to see turned dark because of the
circumstances they're put into but if it's a kind of a traditional hormone who
you've got like the good you know the good person versus the the evil killer
like I think there's you want to you want the audience that maybe understand
where the person is coming from but if you get too far into where they
sympathize with them like I think that's one of the reason the one of the
disagree to me my friends have about that movie don't breathe you know I
thought it was beautifully shot and well done but I thought the program I won't
spoil anything for anybody I thought that the protagonist the kids were very
unlikable and then I thought the antagonist they
went too far to make you sympathize with why he was doing what he was doing like
we need you know but the whole set of this is in the previews but when the
whole set up is three kids are gonna go bot go rob a blind veteran you know that
kind of you're kind of set up some character that you're like yeah we don't
really like and then you find out this isn't a spoiler either but the money
he's got the money because his daughter got hurt by a drunk driver so it's
like okay you're really bad people no like you're robbing from a blind veteran
who has money because his daughter got hurt by a drunk driver so it's hard to
you know so they throw him beat they throw in moments in the movie where they
you know flashbacks or scenes where they try to make you they try to force you to
feel like some sympathy for the characters but it for me it just didn't
you know I was just like you look you lost me at the beginning and then they
didn't they made the villain so so sympathetic that you actually yep I
wanted him to like end up just killing them at the end of it which is not I
don't think what you want a movie
you