Back in the Game
an Interview with screenwriter James Justice

James Monroe Justice had a very unique experience. He sold 6 scripts in the '80's and then couldn't sell the next 20 screenplays he wrote. What happened? What would keep a produced writer from selling?

Once you discover the problem he had, you can easily solve it for yourself. James was kind enough to share his fortune, misfortune, and the solution that has led to his current script being optioned.

HAL: James, thanks for doing the interview. First, can you tell us how you broke into the business?
JAMES: I was living in Gainesville, Florida after getting a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Florida and as trying to write a novel. A novelist friend suggested it would make a good movie. I told him
I didn't know the form for writing movies. He said to get a screenplay and just follow that. So, I did and four months later I had a screenplay hand-written on four legal pads. I showed it to my novelist friend and he made some suggestions for changes. I revised it and typed it out (it came to 168 pages) and he got a production exec at 20th Century Fox. A few months later I met with the exec who told me the script wasn't what Fox was looking for, but he liked my writing and asked if I had an agent. When I said I didn't, he suggested a guy whose office was a few blocks from Fox. I dropped the script off and a few days later the guy called me and said he loved it. I ended up rewriting it a couple of times, getting the page-count down, and when I came out a few months later we got a deal at CBS Theatrical Films.

HAL: How many scripts have you sold and what kind of success have you had in this business?
JAMES: I've sold six scripts outright and optioned another eight. After the first script, I sold another one to Fox, then optioned three to an L.A. production company. After that, I helped an Italian friend of mine who was trying to break in as a director. This led me to writing five scripts for an Italian producer who lived in Florida. Two of them were filmed and released theatrically in Europe and on video here. In 1987, I wrote a thriller script that has been under continuous option to various producers since then. I've entered some contests and made it through the quarterfinals and semifinals, but I didn't really pursue that avenue as a way to break in.

HAL: I know you've also had some lows in the business, can you tell us about that?
JAMES: I've written 35 screenplays, almost all of them originals on spec. About one-third of them I've sold or optioned. I don't know if that's a great batting average or not, but I know there were plenty of dry years in between because I didn't really pursue assignments and remained living in Florida except for occasional trips to L.A. There were years I made hundreds of thousands of dollars and years I made nothing. During the years I worked with the Italian producer in Florida, I let my communication lines in L.A. drop. Later, when I tried to revive them, it was like starting over again, and that was a real drag. I didn't have an agent then, so I had to do my own promotion. I still have two milk crates filled with all the letters I sent out to production companies and agents. I was pretty clueless about the business when I sold my first script. I'd assumed they wanted to make the movie I had written and when they signed an Academy Award winning director he had his own concept of it and I was reduced to writing his vision of my idea, which was about as low as it got for me.

HAL: You had an agent at one point, but you've also marketed yourself to production companies and studios. Can you tell us how you did that and what some of the results were?
JAMES: My agent was a young guy who was very hungry to make it in the business. He really connected with the script I wrote and saw it as his vehicle. So, he was willing to go farther than most agents would. I barely knew how to type at that time, so he would agent all day, them type what I'd rewritten into the wee hours. He wasn't with a big agency, but his drive and persistence got us into a bidding war for the script and we both made out. He ended up getting hired as a production exec by the studio and later got a production deal. After he stopped agenting, I worked without an agent. It wasn't hard getting to the people I wanted to read my material because everyone knew about the script I sold. As years passed it got harder because the business changes so much and people move around. Also, I wasn't "fresh" any more. So, I came up against more resistance because the new people didn't know me or my work.

HAL: I heard a story about you calling the studio and getting the wrong person, but selling him a script, anyway. Is that true and if so, how did it happen?
JAMES: When I made my first deal at CBS Theatrical Films, the company head was Michael I. Levy. Years later when I was promoting myself, I was looking through the Hollywood Creative Directory for people I knew and saw there was a production exec at Fox named Michael Levy. I thought it was the same guy and called his office, telling his secretary to tell him it was me. This other Michael Levy got on the phone and said "Do I know you?" After we sorted out my mistake, he asked me about the scripts I was promoting. I sent him both of them and he really like one, but said Fox wasn't making that type of family comedy then. A couple of years later when the studio changed regimes, he called and asked if I still had the script. I did and ended up selling it to him.

HAL: At one point, you hooked up with an Italian producer who had you write quite a few movies. How did that come about and what was your overall experience with the projects?
JAMES: I mentioned that I got introduced to the Italian producer through a friend who asked me to help him write a script the producer would let him direct. I did and the producer liked my work, so he hired me to write more scripts. It was a great arrangement for about five years because he had his own financing and we didn't have to shop things around. The downside was that he didn't have any artistic aspirations and was looking to make films as cheaply as possible, so the quality wasn't stellar. He paid me well, but hired unskilled actors and wouldn't reshoot even when there were gross technical mistakes. They weren't the kind of films you would want anybody to see.

HAL: Any unique strategies you've used or seen used to break into the business?
JAMES: I didn't know very much about the business when I wrote my first script and just assumed if I wrote something I enjoyed that others would like it too and want to see it as a movie. That naivete worked for me - just having that simple idea and not getting into complexities. Later, after I'd sold the script, I started reading everything I could get my hands on about the business and writing. Most of what I read talked about how hard it was to write a script and how impossible it was to sell one. If I had known that earlier, I might have never written it. I'm not saying not to learn about the business or try to be the best writer you can be. But it's easy to get overwhelmed by all the information being passed around out there. What also worked for me was keeping a positive attitude about my work and being willing to do whatever it took to get my script sold - meetings, rewrites, etc.

HAL: Earlier, you said you had a breakthrough while attending my High Concept Sells class. Can you tell us about that and what you think of my classes?
JAMES: Like I said, I've sold or optioned about a third of my scripts. I've always felt strongly about all my work and didn't really understand why I got a lot of interest in some scripts and next to none on others. I'd read about high concept in numerous articles and books, but never really understood it until I took your course. Then I realized why some of my scripts didn't generate interest. Of the scripts I sold or optioned, only one or two weren't high concept. It's often been said that major innovations in an area come from outside the area. I feel that your unique approach to screenwriting, developed from your corporate training experience, succeeds beyond other approaches in isolating the importances and drilling in the skills. This is extremely valuable because there is so much data and opinions out there that it's easy especially for new writers to get confused.

HAL: Is there any advice you'd give screenwriters who are on the edge of breaking in?
JAMES: Write daily. Commit yourself to persisting for as long as it takes to get established. Ignore all losses and keep focused on your goals. Get yourself and your work out there. And take Hal's courses. Never stop learning.

My thanks to James Monroe Justice for doing the interview and sharing his wisdom with us. I'm sure we'll be seeing many of his movies in theaters in the near future.