Simple screenplays with big ideas are a lot easier to sell

The elevator pitch may still be alive

This is a pill I’ve had to swallow dry.

Because I love a complex, mindbending story. If you saw my first movie, Down Below (which is free on Tubi now in the link), you’d know that simplicity is the farthest thing in the Spyder arsenal when it comes to storytelling.

That being said, the scripts I’ve sold or got optioned have been the most simple ones.

This is an objective fact. The ideas were original. The premise was fresh, and unique still. And the title was explosive. But the execution was fairly, let’s call it… in the wheelhouse of the genre. Not bland. Not predictable or cliche. But not way out in left field. Some dialogue was wild. Some character reveals were mysterious.

I’m not saying originality isn’t there. Heck, I wrote the scripts.

I’m saying… they weren’t reinventing the genre. They weren’t changing the game. They were damn good movies within the genre I wrote them for.

Today’s title “Simple screenplays with big ideas are a lot easier to sell” means exactly what it means. You may have more luck with the script that you can pitch in an elevator. Complication is harder to get financed. But you can.

You always can make the impossible possible in this town.

Excuse any typos you’ve read. I’m sleep deprived. We just did a 4am shoot on my new movie, The Weeping, in the bitter cold with the amazing Reggie Lee!