Sigh.... It seems that having a wonderful script is no longer really all that important in the art of filmmaking. We've all been being led astray. It seems that SONY, taking a page from WARNER BROS' masterful text, is following the shielded studio's lead by doing something called.... OVER-DEVELOPMENT. This is a highly inventive technique that WARNERS has been pioneering in recent years. What with projects like... BATMAN AND ROBIN, SOLDIER and SUPERMAN LIVES. Having a great draft is just a beginning. You see, the real trick is to then continue to throw money at hack writers to write and write and write till eventually you have a script that bears no resemblance to the once worthwhile project. WOW, how do they do it? SWAT was once among the coolest action scripts in development.... Now.... well, here, I'll let Blondie tell ya about it...
Harry,
One of your favorite projects, SWAT, is in big trouble. Trouble that may well spell the end for Hondo and his LAPD brothers. After several months of fine tuning SWAT for Arnold, the script was about to be sent to Arnold when the suits decided it needed something else. Apparently Arnold is such a connoisseur of the written word that each syllable must be handcrafted with loving care and they contemplated another rewrite.
In the meantime, Arnold's wandering interest and the condensing of Tri-Star into Columbia followed by the assumption of studio power by Amy Pascal has led to the complete stymieing of the SWAT project. In search of who to blame, the studio decided Illusion Entertainment should fall on their knife, and pushed them off the project.
As you know, Chris Lee, one of SONY's brightest executives and SWAT's biggest fan is no longer with the studio. However, there is talk of a back lot deal and Chris possibly coming on board as the project's producer.
As good as Chris Lee producing is to the project the bad news is that Amy Pascal wants to scrap all the action and make a "real" movie about a SWAT team. Sounds like a chick flick to me. Unfortunately for Pascal, Universal and Imagine are a year down the road with that very project.
Apparently a new draft has been written by a new writer and word from the grunts in the Thalberg building is that it sucks.
- Blondie
