E. Max Frye

I was lucky. I was thirty by the time Something Wild (1986) came along, so I pretty much already had my voice. I avoided the pitfalls of the rewrite business, and I moved back as soon as I could to New York and continued to write spec scripts. But I've taught film at NYU enough that I see promising screenwriters take the three-picture deal with Disney, and they just disappear after two years of intense grinding and studio manipulation, notes, and people kicking the shit out of them. Before they know what's going on, they have no voice left - if they ever had one to begin with. Or their nascent kind of voice that attracted the studios and producers in the first place gets stomped right out of them. Show less «

I have selectively worked with directors on rewrites. That's a whole different thing from taking studio assignments and doing rewrites on these huge page-one jobs. I've done that a couple of times and, except for cashing the checks, I've always regretted it. I think that's a soulless endeavor that just leads to creative bankruptcy. I don't know whether what I've done is good or bad; I certainly haven't made as much money as some of these guys. But I live in Paris, I have a view of the Eiffel Tower out my writing room window, and I can pretty much do what I want. So it can't be all bad. Show less «