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Interview with Alex Ross of WriteMovies.com

An interview with manager, producer and webmaster Alex Ross of WriteMovies.com.

by Catherine Tudor

How has WriteMovies changed since 2000? How has it stayed the same?

Wow! Has it been that long? Amazing... Well we went from 6 pages on the net to well over 3000. Our staff grew from one to over 20 in four different countries. We developed a huge network of contacts with writers, directors, producers and executives in the US as well as France, Germany and England. We discovered more writers such as the Academy nominated Iris Yamashita (LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA) and produced one of our contest winners ourselves (THE LIST/Warner Bros.). It has not been easy as a flood of contests opened up in our wake diluting the effectiveness of these as a gateway for hot new talent and also creating qualitative issues. We elected to vociferously participate in the evolution of screenwriting and passionately got into the debate between scripting gurus and executives who think that a good script can be manufactured, (the writing by numbers school of thought) versus those who believe it comes down to practice, talent and having a nose for a good story. Deep down I guess we stand convinced that the late 60's and early 70' were still the best era for creative filmmakers, when they enjoyed the greatest amount of freedom and that things went in the wrong direction with the advent of JAWS in 1975 and the gradual take over of the studio system by marketing gurus and outfits like NRG (National Research Group).

How has your life changed?

I have gotten more into producing. We were not able to effectively act as advocates for the great writers we found simply as a contest entity. Right now we are committed to a play, a musical, a low budget movie and mid-budget one ($19.5 Mil) out of the projects we have found. Producing THE LIST was fun, apart from the investor defaulting half way through the movie. But we got it done and Warner Bros. obtained a wonderful romantic comedy after a bidding war engineered by Endeavor.

Do you feel any wiser?

More experienced, beaten up to some extent, but after some soul searching, in it for the right reasons. Over the last ten years we have done business with the likes of Stallone, Andrew Niccol (TRUMAN SHOW), Sandra Bullock etc. so all of that has provided us with a huge learning curve. One of the people who inspired me when I moved to LA was Diane Cairns who was head of Lit. at ICM and had two writers up for Oscars in that year. She told me that every movie that gets made is a minor miracle. I thought that with all the ICM assets at her disposal, she was nuts. Every day that has since passed has gone to confirm her point of view.

Have you kept your sense of humor?

Would it surprise you that I am word perfect on most of the Python movies?

Any regrets?

Absolutely. If you don't have regrets you never took risks or you are a liar. But at the end of the day, we feel good about where we are. Whatever we committed to we gave 100% to. We also treated writers with respect, having dealt with hundreds of thousands of writers from all over the world in up to 5 languages. Could we have gone more Hollywood, done more lunches etc.? Yeah. But the guys who were in it for the game are long gone and we are still there and growing.

You began WriteMovies as a way to open new doors to writers. Do you feel you've opened many doors? Give us a few examples.

Sure. Hundreds of writers got representation after doing well in our contest or re-writing their scripts after using our consulting service. A number of movies got made such as Jon Rosten's VALLEY OF ANGELS all the way up to Marcus Folmar's THE LIST (Warners) and Iris Yamashita's LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (Warners).

After having added another decade under your belt as a manager, producer and webmaster, how do you now advise anyone who aspires to write professionally?

Concentrate on finding your voice. Seriously. There are too many writers who become derivatives of other writers. What's the point when there is an original? Don't get overwhelmed by the "How to" industry out there. Read one or two screenwriting books such as Linda Seger's: "How to Make a Good Script Great", do not spend the rest of your life reading these things. Live a little. I can always tell when someone sends me a cop script and their research has been watching ten episodes of NYPD BLUE. Years ago I had a meeting at Warners with Mike Cimino, he had just spent the night in the back of a cop car in east LA with Oliver Stone, researching a project. Those guys had serious Oscars to their names and still knew that the only way of finding good material is by getting down and dirty. The other thing is, write. Don't talk about it, write. Then get top of the line professional feedback. Not from your friends or family, people with experience not scared to tell you the truth. Finally, understand marketing: how can you help a producer or executive sell your story? And understand, you are in the entertainment business. If you come across as a crashing bore at a meeting or party, it will work against you. I have seen mediocre writers score because of their personalities and great writers suck the energy out of the room and a pay check out of their pockets.

What's next?

We are going to get a lot more aggressive. Fighting for writers rights, exposing abuse in the industry. I am presently working on a doctorate that takes a very close look at the decision making process at the studios and you would not believe the stuff I am finding out... Finally, we are now in touch with thousands and thousands of writers all over the world, it's a great community, people learn from each other, open doors, get things made. We aim to use that as well as our experience in finding great material to get more of it made with the goal of becoming a mini-studio.

Previous interviews with Catherine Tudor:
http://www.prairieden.com/interviews/ross.php
http://www.prairieden.com/interviews/ross2.php


© WriteMovies, 2010

Updated: 04/08/2010

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