No Connections No Screenwriting Career, Right? by Markus Redmond
Film Courage: Markus we interviewed you in 2015 I believe?
Markus Redmond, Writer/Director/Actor/Producer: Really?
Film Courage: I know it’s been a little bit.
Markus: Yes. That’s a long time.
Film Courage: Your interviews have many, many views. Many, many comments.
Markus: Really?
Film Courage: Some of them [the comments] positive, some of them not so positive. I have a question I’m wondering if you can address? And that is some of the people [commenters] felt that you were able to get a film made or sell a script because you had prior connections? Can we dispel that myth?
Markus: Oh yeah…totally. I’m completely locked in because I was on a [TV] show a long time ago so I know all of the studio executives and I know all of the producers and all of the investors and they just give me money all the time so it’s super easy.
Film Courage: And you just meet them? You go to Dan Tana’s for lunch?
Markus: They call me all of the time and go “Hey Markus…we are trying to make this film? Would you like 30 million dollars? We are going to distribute it through Warner Brothers?” And I’m like “Yeah, great. Sounds awesome!” Happens all of the time.
Film Courage: People who don’t live in LA…because for Los Angeles…
Markus: …I’m lying.
Film Courage: Yes, I can tell. Sarcasm. But some people don’t realize…they think that you can be bartending and meet Hollywood producers and screenwriters and get some friend’s script out there this way. That’s not really how it works here.
Markus: Well here’s the thing…like…yeah…that’s possible. It’s all possible. I have a friend who was a PA [production assistant] and he was working on a studio lot and a very, very, very big movie star was shooting a movie on that lot. So everybody was super excited about it and my friend the PA was like “Gosh I’ve written this script and this movie star is perfect for it. How do I find a movie star?”
They couldn’t find him. He was always not around. So they figured out which car was his and the PA put the script on the movie star’s windshield and the movie star took the script and my friend ended up being represented by the movie star’s agent.
So…yeah…all kinds of stuff can happen. It doesn’t mean that that is going to happen. It doesn’t mean that you are set in stone.
Trust me, I mean I’m flattered that folks think that I was that big of a deal on Doogie Howser, M.D. [TV show]. I was not. I was like the lowest guy on the totem pole. I didn’t have extra connections. I was working in an industry. I was doing my best to pay attention to things. I had an agent who had no interest in my scripts.
I think I told the story the last time we talked [Film Courage video interview in 2015]? I had a friend who was an actor, he had a friend who was a manager. I did not know the manager. I had written the script. My friend was like “You should meet my friend the manager.” That’s how it happened. I mean I guess if the concern is you had an advantage because you had a friend, yes I did.
Would I have had that friend if I had lived in Kentucky? Probably not, you know what I mean? But that doesn’t mean that if you’re in Kentucky you can’t become famous in the film industry because that happens a lot, too. Like people enter contests or they submit their scripts to to the Sundance Film Festival Lab or whatever it is? And they’re in Wisconsin or they’re in Idaho or they are wherever and somebody sees that script. They don’t have any connections, they just have a great script…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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