MONDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
WHO'S THE BOSS?
On a very basic level, a story is about a person with a
problem. Before the flood of popular fiction threatened to inundate your local bookstore,
stories were usually named after the person who had the problem - good old Will
Shakespeare wrote about JULIUS CAESAR and HENRY V and HAMLET and
OTHELLO and MACBETH and RICHARD III and that great buddy comedy TWO
GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. Cooper wrote about THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (not "A Group Of Mohicans")
and Defoe about MOLL FLANDERS. Mark Twain wrote about TOM SAWYER
and did that spinoff novel HUCK FINN.
All of these stories are about a person with a
problem - Julius Caesar discovered that all of his friends were lying to his face, all the
time they wanted to take his place, the back-stabbers! Hamlet comes home for his
father's funeral, discovers he was murdered, then sets about to discover who done it... but worries that if he discovers his mom or uncle done it, he'll have to take the responsibility of becoming king... and he'd rather party. If
we go back further in time to another guy with a murdered father and a hot-to-trot
mother we bump into Oedipus Rex - a person with some really weird problems. It was
those Greek guys who came up with the word "protagonist" - the lead character in your
story. The person who has the problems.
The protagonist is the center of your script. The story is ABOUT your protagonist.
But who is your protagonist? Once the producer buys your script, he's going to
spend $15-25 million for the star of the film; then hire some character actors or
secondary names like Samuel Jackson or Julianne Moore or one of those Wilson brothers at $2
million to $500,000 for the rest of the roles. Is it obvious when reading your script who
gets the $25 million?
It's only ONE character, and the script will be about THAT character being forced to
confront and solve an EMOTIONAL CONFLICT (character arc) in order to solve an
EXTERNAL CONFLICT (plot). Your script is going to be ABOUT the lead character's
problems, so it only makes sense that he's in as much of the film as possible. Plus, the
producer will insist on it. They want to get their $25 million's worth.
Do you know who your protagonist is? It's only one person, and you will have to
chose who that person is. A story is character in conflict. Not a PLATOON in conflict,
not a FAMILY in conflict, not a CITY in conflict. All of these are abstracts. You can't hire
Tom Cruise to play a city... and no producer can afford to hire a city full of Tom
Cruises!
The word "protagonist" and the concept that a story only has one lead character wasn't the invention
of some Hollywood studio boss or story editor or script guru - it's one of those Ancient Greek words that
has been around since the beginning of dramatic works. One of those story basics since the beginning of time.
From Mirriam-Webster:
1
a: the principal character in a literary work (as a drama or story)
b: a leading actor, character, or participant in a literary work or real event
2
: a leader, proponent, or supporter of a cause : champion.
Though there are practical reasons for only having one lead character (cost factors, ego factors) the main
reasons are *artistic* and *quality* factors. The reason why those Greeks came up with the term "Protagonist" and
the concept of a single character as a lead wasn't Tom Cruise's paycheck... it was *what works best* vs. *what seldom works*.
They were only interested in quality. As I've mentioned in some other tip, when you have one lead character 110 pages is about them,
when you have 10 lead characters, 11 pages are about each - and that means we never get past the surface of
the character because there just isn't enough time. But, oddly enough, many new writers gravitate to multi-protagonist
stories for just this reason - instead of going deep into a character they can just skim the surface. They don't
*think* this, they just find multiple protagonist stories easier for them to imagine and easier for them to write. They
*like* them because (subconsciously) they are easier for them to imagine writing, easier for them to understand. It's
a trap.
ENSEMBLE CASTS?
But what about MAGNOLIA? What about GOSFORD PARK? What about THE DIRTY DOZEN? What about INGLORIOUS BASTERDS?
Tom Cruise plays one of the roles in MAGNOLIA... a film from a
writer-director-producer. Writing a script like MAGNOLIA might make a great sample and get you and
assignment (writing a single protagonist star vehicle) but it's a tough sell and isn't likely to
end up on screen unless you plan on
following the
same path to the screen as MAGNOLIA did - become a hot writer-director-producer (by first directing
HARD 8 - a single protag movie) and then
get Tom Cruise to work for pocket change. Though I like Paul Thomas Anderson's films, MAGNOLIA set no precedent for studios to
make more ensemble cast film, it made much less than the average film starring Tom
Cruise. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 made $215.4 million in the USA and $545.4 million
worldwide, MAGNOLIA made only $22.4 million in the USA and a total of $39.2 million
worldwide. So if Tom is only in 1/5th of your movie you only make 1/10th of the income
in the USA... and it's even worse when you include the rest of the world! Outside the
USA MAGNOLIA only made $16.8 million - it was a major flop!
One of the things to keep in mind is that a film might be a critical success, an Oscar nominee, and a damned good movie...
but do awful business and be the kind of thing studios and producers aren't interested in making.
We think that because
foreign films often have multiple protagonists that multiple protagonists are popular
overseas - WRONG! Foreign audiences feel the same way about multiple protagonist films as domestic audiences do
- the most popular films in artsie countries like France are single
protagonist comedy films like WELCOME TO THE STICKS. The multi-tag films
are often produced through cultural programs and don't really have to appeal to an audience. American
Producers are looking for scripts where they can cast Tom as THE lead character... like NIGHT AND DAY...
Heck, the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE TV show was an ensemble cast, but they changed the entire
concept for the movie so that they could have a single protagonist - Cruise. All three M:I movies were
Tom Cruise star vehicles... as is the fourth, GHOST PROTOCOL.
Similar story with GOSFORD PARK, and if you watch THE DIRTY DOZEN again
you can't help but notice that Lee Marvin is secretly the star. He's the commander of the squad,
he's in almost every scene, he's the guy with the problem (getting those criminals to act like soldiers)... it's his story! The other
guys are supporting roles - supporting Lee Marvin's story. INGLORIOUS BASTERDS,
even though it's about a *team* of Jewish commandos in occupied France, the team's
leader, Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) is the obvious lead character - he gets all of the speeches and
most of the close ups. The other guys are supporting characters... Even though one of the guys, Donny, gets his own flashback. It's still Aldo's show, he's the lead.
(In the new PROTAGONIST Blue Book I have a chapter on writing actual ensemble cast screenplays and how they work.)
DUAL PROTAGONISTS?
But what about that ROMEO & JULIET thing that Shakespeare wrote? Two names
in the title, is it about two people with problems? Sort of... In romantic comedies like MY
BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING, Julia Roberts
is the protagonist... she's also the protagonist in RUNAWAY
BRIDE, but it's Hugh Grant who plays the lead in NOTTING HILL. Even when it may
seem like the script is equally divided between two characters, usually one of them
carries the main arc of the story. Romantic comedies and buddy films are the closest we come
to an exception - where we might actually have two equal protagonists. But if you are
doing an ensemble piece about five friends who get into trouble, usually one character
will still be the lead... the others will be subservient to him.
Sure, there *are* rom-coms
where both characters have equal time, and there *are* buddy movies... but usually when there
are more than two leads, one character is the protagonits. In AMERICAN GRAFFITI,
Richard Dreyfus is the lead character of the ensemble... he has the main character
arc, same with BREAKING AWAY - Dennis Christopher is the lead character and the
other guys are his pals. Christopher is the one who has the physical problem (he's
stuck in this darned small town) and the emotional problem (he discovers that his idols
are jerks) - it's his movie. So often when you have what seems to be an ensemble story it is really
about a protagonist and his pals. His pals may have their own subplots and even character arcs, but
they are still supporting characters. Often reflecting other aspects of the protagonist's problem.
So who is your script about? Who is your protagonist? Who has the
emotional conflict that they are forced to conquer in order to
resolve the physical conflict? Which character is the person with the problem at the center of your story?
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