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Home > Archive > Apr 17, 2008

A Screenwriter’s Dream
By Thaya Gilmore
When Hurricane resident Dennis Lynn wrote a science fiction short story as an assignment for a college English class years ago, little did he know that eventually it would earn an option in the movie industry with Paramount Pictures in Hollywood.
He never thought about writing anything in his life. In fact, he hated English classes until he took a class at college.
“The instructor got ill, and a journalism teacher took his place. He inspired me with his teaching,” Lynn said. “He assigned us to write a short story during the semester. When the teacher handed the finished story back to me, he had a note on it that said that I should get it published.
“Years later I sent it to a publisher with high hopes. When it was returned, it looked like the editor bled all over it from his red ink notations. Discouraged, I threw it in a box,” Lynn said.
Later he got it out, he said, messed around with it, but kept putting it away. Several years later, former college roommates called him to have lunch. He learned that one roommate was now a movie producer.
“My friend asked me to give him a copy of my manuscript, and he would read it on the airplane on the way back to California,” he said. “I thought he was just being polite and that I’d never hear from him again concerning the manuscript. I was actually surprised when he called to tell me I should get it written into a screenplay.”
Lynn read many books about writing a screenplay, and someone tutored him on the first screenplay.
He sent the screenplay to his friend, who in turn gave it to a production company that had actor Wesley Snipes interested in it. It was also shown to a top literary agent, Susan Hart. After reading the script, Hart became his agent and later his manager. Nancy Chavez Agency is now his agent in Hollywood.
“When I got an agent, I really got excited because it’s hard to get an agent. For someone new, it was really fast,” he said. “If you want to sit in your house and write, get an agent and let them do the work.”
His first story and screenplay, “Lunar Warning,” has been under option with Paramount for three years, which means they are considering buying the script.
“Since it is a high budget picture, Paramount does research first to see what is entailed in producing a movie of this caliber and what the cost will be in making it,” Lynn said. “To have to wait this long for an answer used to drive me crazy, but I learned that it’s normal, so it doesn’t bother me now. I read that Tony Curtis once said, ‘Hollywood is the most sensational carousel ever made.’”
Once a manuscript sells, agents suggest the writer has two or three scripts completed, ready for submission.
“It really puts a lot of pressure on you. Agents expect you to keep producing scripts, at least one a year,” he said.
Lynn has written 10 screenplays. His next script was “Terror At Dawn,” an action/adventure script that was finished two weeks before 9/11, but it was not good timing for the market since it was a Rambo-type terrorist story. Hollywood then shelved all scripts with terrorist themes.
His next script, “Chick Flick,” is a romantic/comedy/action/adventure which only took six months to write and had an option on it within two days of submitting it. It, too, is now in post production with Porchlight Productions.
“It had been optioned by the Olson twins as their second movie, but since their first movie was a flop, that killed it with them as a possibility,” Lynn said.
“Once in a Blue Moon,” a teenage action/adventure about spring break also has an option with Jack Freedman Productions.
His other scripts are doing well and garnering some interest with producers and actors.
When a screenwriter is offered an option, a silent option is with no pay. With a regular option, the screenwriter is offered money for the First Rights. Agents, actors and actresses hear about scripts through a networking system. Lynn has made many friends in Hollywood and said that entertainment is a business that runs on personal relationships, pure and simple.”
“I have always been interested in seeing movies but never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be this involved in movies,” said Lynn, who was born and raised in Lovell, Wyo.
After his first script was in option, Lynn was approached to be the assistant director for the movie “Point Desolation,” a science fiction movie.
“They wanted some writers and asked me to be part of their film crew. We scouted locations, worked with the camera crew and costumes. It was comprised mostly of semi-professionals who shot commercially,” Lynn said. “It was a lot of fun.”
Lynn owns and operates Luna Dental Lab in Hurricane. He has three children and resides at Sky Mountain in Hurricane.
He writes in the evenings after work, sometimes late into the night.
“Stories come easy to me. I get real excited when an idea comes to me. The hard part is the writing,” Lynn said. “Sometimes I’ll get writer’s block and stop. The process takes about a year from beginning to the finished story. I get this cool idea and just want to see where it goes.”
There are 30,000 major motion picture scripts written a year, with only 360 scripts a year chosen to be made into movies, Lynn said. Some scripts are sequels, others are written by friends of friends, and by professional screenwriters.
“Chances are really slim to even have a script accepted and produced,” he said. “So I feel real fortunate to even have options on several of my scripts.”
He writes mainly PG or PG-13 scripts, but once a script is purchased, they can do what they want with it by adding language, sex, and violence as much as they like.
“A lot of my scripts gain interest with Disney and the teenage audience, such as my ‘Chick flick’ and ‘Once in a Blue Moon’ scripts,” he said. “My biggest worry is if the story is any good. I do research to make sure that what is in the movie is real or authentic and believable.”
Lynn tries to write in all genres. He said the popular genre for scripts today is in this order:  Thrillers, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Comedies.
Lynn said that screenwriting is easier than writing a novel, but rules have to be followed.
“It has to be a unique story. It is not as complicated as a novel. I had a hard time writing a novel,” he said. “You have to imagine and show the action and not describe it in the screenplay, whereas in the novel you have to feel it.
“A screenplay has to flow like a novel but show the action. In the actual script, the writer gives the dialogue followed by an action line. Every screenplay has to be visual. That is the problem going from a book to the screen.”
Another rule is that each script has to have plot points. One plot point is written in the first 15 minutes of the script. The first plot point is what the movie is going to be about. Also the Screenplay can only be about 100 pages, never more than 120 pages. Each page is one minute on the movie screen. If the screenplay needs a rewrite, the writer is given first priority to do it. If it is a sequel, the writer gets the choice to do it.
 “All screenwriters are looking for a one-of-a-kind unique story,” Lynn said. “A good story is about originality not duplication. That’s what makes a lot of those stories, like ‘Star Wars’ or ‘Indiana Jones’ unique.”

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