MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Bruce Griffiths

An interview with screenwriter Bruce Griffiths regarding the Find the Funny Writing Competition.

A: BIG TURKEY. It's a comedic - but still scary - twist on the 'giant creature amok' genre. A military experiment goes wrong and escapes - as military experiments always do - and on the eve of Thanksgiving a small Texas town becomes dinner for a giant, genetically-manipulated, man-eating turkey. Only one man can stop it, and he's turkey-phobic. It's Green Acres meets Godzilla, with a giant turkey.

A: Co-writer Simon Dodd and I entered Big Turkey in about five other, more general contests with much less satisfying results. The big drawcard for us with Find The Funny was the contest is exclusively for comedies. As we're both TV comedy writers, we figured, okay, if we can't at least place in this one, we're in trouble. When we won, we breathed a big sigh of relief; our belief in how funny this script is was validated by people whose focus was comedy, probably the best judging panel we could ask for in a way.

A: All the awards and then some. We've very satisfied. For what is in fact their inaugural year, Find The Funny really have their act together. They've actually exceeded our expectations, as far the awards, taking a very active role in getting the script to people in the contest aftermath, and people beyond what was promised.

A: We won! How much more feedback do we need??

A: It's definitely helped. We had ICM and UTA contact us the day of the result. They're both now reading the script, as are a number of others agents, managers and producers who have requested the script from the Find The Funny organizers. We're through doors that we otherwise wouldn't be. It's put us directly into the hands of some of the best packaging companies, and some of Hollywood's most forward-thinking producers, and it's the sort of script that is ideal for that.

A: We've both been writing comedy for TV and radio down here in Australia, where unfortunately we're off the Hollywood radar. We've written more TV sketches than we'd care to count. We currently have a television series in limbo (formerly "development") with the ABC network here - completed 2nd drafts for two episodes, and two rough drafts and two detailed treatments for further episodes - which has stalled due to network personnel changes. We've just pitched the new folks a new idea which will hopefully get the old one rolling again. A screenplay I (Bruce) wrote solo, KILLING THE PEOPLE UPSTAIRS, won Santa Fe a few years back, and received a Recognition of Excellent (Top 5) in Slamdance, and was subsequently optioned by Maxmedia (co-producers of THE OTHERS) with the option then bought out by Working Title. After a couple of years of development, that one has gone into turnaround and I'm now trying to find it a new home. Prior to BIG TURKEY, we co-wrote another screenplay, which is as relentless as BIG TURKEY as far as jokes-per-page, but a little too unconventional as far as Hollywood's 'rules' (with BIG TURKEY we were very careful to hit the right chords) and our intention with that [first] one is to do a rewrite to make it much more L.A.-friendly but no less funny.

A: No, we both live in Sydney, Australia. (You can see the Bridge from Simon's balcony.) We've no plans to move to L.A. - we've both got families here - but we don't see flying in for meetings, pitches, etc, as a hassle. We're always happy to jump on a plane. We get to imagine our movie on a poorly-lit 10"x7" screen with the soundtrack muted by engine drone and interrupted by waffle from the cockpit.

A: We have a few ideas for what we'd like to write next; we're just deciding which one to pursue. In the meantime, I'm working on a new screenplay with a fellow stand-up comedian, and Simon is working on a new comedy feature with a couple of former soap writers and recently completed a very funny play. It's hard to know exactly what to do next - as I mentioned, we intend rewriting the feature we completed before BIG TURKEY; it's a question of whether to do that or embark on a totally new idea - which of those will have us best (and soonest) prepared for "What else ya got?" And we'll keep on pitching TV series ideas here until someone stays in office long enough to make one.

Posted Friday, May 13, 2005