To say I am disillusioned with the Hollywood machine is quite an understatement and I wouldn’t care for sending anything I’d written Stateside.  This may sound awfully pretentious of me (as if they would read anything I had written anyway), but I have my reasons for making such a lofty statement.

Why repaint the Mona Lisa?

Every time I see a remake of a classic film, it irks me.  What on earth is wrong with the original film to warrant a remake? My case is point is Carrie,  Sissy Spacek’s performance was just incredible, unforgettable, perfect!  I feel I would be a betraying the original to even consider viewing the updated version.  To me it’s a very lazy choice to remake a movie; there are heaps of scripts coming through the door, original, fresh scripts that are being dismissed to remake and ride off the back of past successes and glory.  Its the easy option, and no doubt they are making a wise move on not taking a risk financially on anything new. But come on Hollywood; take that risk and stop ‘dumbing’ down the audience.

This is just my personal opinion though and I know that many disagree (they certainly did in a Facebook writers group discussion recently…) but I respect their opinions, they enjoyed the original and would like to see what someone else can do with it as it has a good story foundation.  I understand too that films or stories can be inspired by others (mine is inspired by many performances say and no doubt scenes have woven themselves into my subconscious from the many movies I have seen) but my heart will sink and break when Enter the Dragon is remade, it’s probably only a matter of time too.  All I can hope is that the audience who haven’t seen the original will fall upon it in years to come and be delighted and in awe like the original audience were.

As I continue on with my story I will intend to stay on my unique path in how to deliver it.  My writing buddy friend has told me that Hollywood stick to the 3 act structure mostly but I just do not feel that it’s right for my story at all.  For starters its TV so there’s more acts to consider (commercial breaks potentially for a non-public service broadcaster), but then it just feels wrong instinctively to try and attempt to split out the story and categorise it into acts. This may be the ramblings of a total rookie, but I have never done anything conventionally in my life so why start now?  Bertie’s original story may get lost in a sea of re-writes – I am not naive to think that’s not what happens, but to keep on my own journey and write how I feel is more important to me at this stage, rather than having a formula or structure at the back of my mind, that’s so limiting.

Ultimately I guess it depends how much you need to bend to the powers that be that makes a writer successful, perhaps.

Thanks for reading, Vikki x