When I was a screenwriter, I was doing it for mercenary reasons.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I consider my job as a screenwriter to pack a script with possibilities and ideas - to create a feast for the filmmaker to pick from.
I started writing screenplays myself and eventually directing.
When I graduated college I needed to make money while I was pursuing acting, so I read screenplays and made a living writing coverage on them for studios.
I used to write bits and pieces of comedy material for various comics that were at the Windmill... as well as my film job, I was under contract, I was allowed to do that and everything.
If I was a political mercenary, I would be using my talents in another line of work.
Obviously, you know, I am known as an action director, and being a film editor previously had been a great advantage for me as an action director.
I've been a screenwriter for twenty-five years. Every one of my books have been optioned for movies and I have written a few of those screenplays.
I write screenplays that don't get made and pilots that don't get picked up, and I re-write other people's movies, and those are all different kinds of fees.
Being a professional screenwriter is perhaps the hardest occupation. Because nothing is ever yours and, by the nature of the medium, you are never ultimately responsible for your work. It can be interesting - if you have another outlet.
You know, I became a director out of necessity. I was writing comedies, and I couldn't find anybody to deliver it correctly.