So dare I ask Scott... exactly what kind of exploits did you put Joe and Jane and Mort and Pesty through?

(I know these characters intimately because by age 12 I had a shoebox filled with over 500 of these infernal comic strips... I also dedicated my first root canal to the Bazooka company... grumble harumph...)

Scott,

Great lesson and an interesting look into the workings of Hollyweird.

Keep Writing!

@Jeff: Honestly all I remember is it was an animation / live-action story and that people really liked it. It may seem impossible to imagine a writer could forget masses of information like that, especially when they dedicated hundreds and hundreds of hours writing the story. But I've written around 30 movie and TV projects, then several others on spec that haven't sold. Plus worked up dozens of pitches. That's a lot of narrative material.

So my rambling way of saying I barely remember anything of the project. I'll see if I can dig out a hard copy of the script. I know I have it somewhere.

Bill Martell had something to say about this -- well, not Bazooka Joe, but when you're at the bottom:

http://www.scriptsecrets.net/tips/tip272.htm

I used to work for a company where one of their slogans was, "Take the money!!!"

First design teacher said don't work for free and always start with the grid. I scoffed (esp at the latter, equiv to story structure), but within a few years I understood. Working for free or too little devalues whole profession, and yourself, and there are already so many forces at play that devalue creatives' work. Always, esp when you're working for free or low pay, take the work to the next level, so that it might become something more than it might have been, and might actually become a door to a better opportunity for you.

Thank you for sharing your stories, Scott, they instruct and inspire.

Great post, Scott

Johnson & Johnson buys brands that people know and makes them bigger and stronger.

If you had a butt load of money would you buy some nifty new car from some homemade mechanic or would you buy a ferrari?

If you're the head of the democratic party do you pick some municipal board member or a state senator to push for president.

Are we really surprised a hollywood studio picks a well known bubble gum character to develop into a movie?

am I going to put 200 million dollars behind a pet project and live the rest of my life in the gutter for blowing 200 million dollars or am i going to try and grow my studios brand.

but what about Inception? that's an original idea, right? But built around a brand called Christopher Nolan. the brand, "Guy who made the last two batman movies that everyone went to see"

this is why my movie based on VELCRO is going to bank me seven figures.