Tales of a Hollywood Screenwriter

Tales of a Hollywood Screenwriter

Share this post

Tales of a Hollywood Screenwriter
Tales of a Hollywood Screenwriter
Sometimes that script on your shelf was meant to sell in a different time period than you wrote it! (full story of a spec sale)

Sometimes that script on your shelf was meant to sell in a different time period than you wrote it! (full story of a spec sale)

I wrote in a script in 2016 ...

Spyder Dobrofsky's avatar
Spyder Dobrofsky
Mar 25, 2025
∙ Paid
3

Share this post

Tales of a Hollywood Screenwriter
Tales of a Hollywood Screenwriter
Sometimes that script on your shelf was meant to sell in a different time period than you wrote it! (full story of a spec sale)
1
Share

Coffee is hitting. And I know most of you writers out there have one, if not many scripts, that are sitting on your computer, gathering digital dust. You may even ask, why the hell did I bother writing that if nobody will read? (To that, I say, give it a read again and you’ll be overjoyed by the story you told, and remember you enjoyed writing it!).

But back to my story. We all have scripts that we thought were magic, that we couldn’t even get one read on.

It sucks.

I remember one in particular. I had met a producer who specifically told me he could sell a horror movie on a western set. I took this as go to Starbucks for the next 3 weeks and bang out a story. I did. It was called Teardrop. When I reached out to the producer, he didn’t respond. In fact, he, as swell as the other few execs I knew, told me that HORROR WESTERNS are impossible to sell. It is the worst genre to have written. (This colossal flop called Jonah Hex had just come out, a horror western). If you had written a horror western on spec, you were doomed. It was an instant pass. Without even getting a read!

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Tales of a Hollywood Screenwriter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Spyder Dobrofsky
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share