Thursday, November 11, 2004

What does it take to get my script read?

I've been knocking my brains out for months trying to get my movie script together. I think it's a good, plausible script with straightforward, believable characters and good dialogue. The locales are real and there's lots of action. There's also a lot of insight. The story is set in the world of professional sports. Something I know a great deal about, having spent the better part of twenty five years working as a producer, in or around every major league football, baseball and basketball/hockey arena in the United States and around the world. My movie is a "buddy" picture. However, the story is not about two guys who go out and play sports together, share common interests, get drunk, have a bar fight, get laid, and enjoy the hell-out-of-themselves. It's about two young women who do these things! The script details the lives of two women in their twenties, from different socio-economic backgrounds, who meet each other on the practice field of a ficticiuos semi-pro, women's tackle football team. They form an instant bond with each other and become best friends. The team they join barnstorms across the country playing other local women football clubs. Sometimes as halftime entertainment, they play abbreviated exhibition contests during regularly scheduled NFL games. They get a taste of "The Big Leagues." And they like it. This also allows them a chance to rub elbows with some of the players and stars of the NFL. As they learn, the world of professional sports is not what it seems. It's hot, dirty and nasty. It's a world most fans never see. Even at the semi-pro level, the participants fight for every inch on the football field and for every second of name recognition. The story is unique in that it portrays women who have moved beyond the liberation movement and now see their struggle for equality on the same playing field men now inhabit. Not content to play on their abbreviated turf they realize that their only salvation can come on an extended and level playing field. Their final victory comes not at the expense of others but as a consolidated effort they've organized.