An excerpt from Reals’ script review for Queenpins which will be available 12/20/21:
Hi All You Awesome Writers!
I hope everyone is having a fantastic holiday season! Though not exactly a “festive” script, Queenpins is one that the Captain asked for us to review and, since it’s the season of giving, I thought I’d take a look!
A couple of things before we start:
“Inspired By” – The title page for this script reads:
INSPIRED BY TRUE DISCOUNTED EVENTS
“Inspired By” (at least from my understanding) is a fairly loose term. Essentially, you can say almost anything is “Inspired By” a true event which provides more leeway in regards to the accuracy of the narrative.
In addition, you have less to worry about in terms of having to obtain the rights and permissions to a true story.
To illustrate this, you can find a cool article on Screen Rant that leads with this quote:
“The scam inspired the making of Queenpins, but it’s not a perfectly accurate retelling.”
It’s not just “Inspired By” stories that can be (and often are) exaggerated, though. We see many modern horror films liberally use the phrase “Based On A True Story” even though the “True Stories” in question are dubious at best.
An interesting discussion of “Based On” vs. “Inspired By” can be found on Screencraft.org HERE and is worth checking out if you have questions or have a “True Story” idea / script and want to be sure you are using the correct terminology.
Ultimately, I would suggest being very careful if you are writing a script involving parties that are still alive, as you may open yourself up to a variety of issues and may have to wade through a sea of rights and permissions paperwork.
The reason I bring all of this up is because, to quote Screencraft.org:
“True stories are some of the most desirable types of stories in Hollywood…”
And our very own Hank has said as much many times, like in his review of the script for Silk RoadHERE.
Essentially, if you can find a great “True” story and write a compelling screenplay which incorporates some of the more interesting real-life aspects, you have a leg up on many of the scripts that land on the desks of executives every single day.
Represented By – Again, on the first page you might notice that CAA, Anonymous Content, and Marquee Entertainment represent or are involved in this project in one way or another.
We, as fledgling screenwriters, might not have this advantage, but it’s always good to pay attention to who is representing what project. That way, if you have a similar script or concept, you can reach out to some of these individuals and see what they think.
In my experience, it’s always better to reach out and take your shot rather than to stay silent and wonder what might have been if you’d taken a chance.
Now that we’ve looked at two specific ways that this script likely got produced, let’s take a look at the actual script itself and talk about what worked and what needed work!
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