About posting 'THE' script up... any script.

Ok folks it looks like some of you do live in a land of make-believe. I get hundreds of scripts a year sent to me. Some by novices that just want to hear that they are on the right track, that their script has some... any merit.

Other times I get sent scripts by the screenwriters themselves, sometimes before they send them to the studios, before their agents see them. Why? Because they like to get my feedback on the script, because it's a 'geeky' project and for whatever reason "they" (the writer) thinks I have some sense. I know... their obviously deluded. But they send the scripts to me... for me. They send them with a very upfront statement of, "This doesn't go to anyone but you." And I respect that because it is their material, their work and their trust in me. And I have nothing if my sources feel they can no longer trust in me to keep them secret and to treat their material with the respect they ask of me.

Other times I get sent scripts by agents, publicists, etc... They send them usually with the hopes that I'll mention the scripts on the site. That I'll love the script and begin hyping it on up for their client, and sometimes the script is great and I will begin pushing it on the site. BELIEVE ME THOUGH, I do not even begin to cover EVERY script I get sent. I've got hundreds of them and it's quite a bit of reading... not always very rewarding.

And then there are the scripts I get, or are sometimes allowed to read for a very short time in a room with no xerox machine and I don't get to own. The ones I get... on my own... usually have no stipulations from the sender, as... well they don't own the script and have no vested interest in the script. However, I treat the script as though the original author had sent it. Why? Because I respect them.

'HARRY WHY DON'T YOU POST THE SCRIPTS?'

Because I would be sued and shut down. I operate inside the United States of America. There are LEGAL issues at work. When working with images, I'm dealing with 'fair use', but when posting the entirety of a script.... that oversteps the rules of 'fair use' and infringes on the copyright holder.

It has nothing to do with me being a 'greedy bastard'. In my opinion, posting scripts would help fans have a better understanding of the process. They would see that often times the faults of bad movie making falls on the director or the studio or the actors, and not necessarily on the writer's head as is so often the case in reviews.

Secondly, for the fans that wish to become screenwriters it would give them an amazing familiarity with the artform of screenwriting. I WISH I could open this door for you, but I can not. First I would need the permission of the original author, whoever owns the script (ie studios, producers, etc) and I would want in in writing. Then.... BAM the script would be posted in a blink of the eye.

'HARRY, YOU LYING SACK OF SHIT, DREW'S SCRIPT-O-RAMA POSTS SCRIPTS WITHOUT BEING SHUT DOWN ALL THE FUCKING TIME!!!'

Drew, shockingly, does not post scripts, he posts links to other sites that post the scripts. And as anyone familiar with say the postings of THE GREEN MILE script or BATMAN scripts or any other script... well you'll see the links change quite a bit because the individual sites get shut down.

Garth at DARK HORIZONS, Patrick at COMING ATTRACTIONS, THEFORCE.NET folks, everyone who's sites you read know this. They don't post scripts because... they want to exist as a site. I want to continue bringing you news and reviews for as long as I can type.

I don't want to have a site that's up for 3 hours, I want a site that I can share my excitement and joy at the art of film for the entirety of my life. And posting scripts endangers that. In fact it would shut me down faster than anything else I could do. And ya know... it would be a fascinating court battle, but ultimately it would be a court battle I would lose.

A lot of times we (all the sites online) play fast and loose with the rules, but as John Saxon said in ENTER THE DRAGON, "There's a point I won't go beyond." And who here amongst us can argue with words like that? Not I...

Feel free to be frustrated. Write the studios letters, ask them to publish more scripts (1. They become available to folks like you and 2. It gives the screenwriters more credit and money and 3. It helps the general populace become familiar with a writing style called screenplays)

And that my friends is the REALITY of the situation. No bullshit. No lies. That's the way it is.