I
’ ve always looked up to Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio.
Screenplay Review:
They were a huge inspiration when it came to writing about screenwriting. Their Wordplayer
The Lone Ranger
Blog, at one point, was the only real place to find
by CARSON REEVES quality articles on screenwriting. They’ re also incredibly wealthy and successful screenwriters who came to Hollywood with a 5 year plan, made their first sale way ahead of schedule, and have been kicking ass ever since( well, except for Treasure Planet, of course).
With that said, I’ ve always been a little disappointed in them. They spend so much time working on these Disney movies that I’ m not sure I know what a Ted Elliot and Teddy Rossio screenplay looks like. These guys have been such cogs in the Disney machine that they’ ve never written anything for themselves. After reading John Favreau’ s,“ Chef”( which I reviewed in my newsletter), which was basically about Favreau realizing he needed to write for himself again, it seems insane that we’ ve never seen a film from these guys that they created on their own.
Easy for me to say, right? It ain’ t hard to call out safe screenwriting when you’ re not the one making 5 million a film. I guess I have to remember that everyone successful in Hollywood is operating out of fear, fear that one day they’ ll stop being asked to write or direct or act for millions of dollars. When those jobs dry up, THAT’ S when you take your chances. Because that’ s when you NEED to take chances. But until then? Why wouldn’ t you take the money? Which leads us to The Lone Ranger, a script( or a draft of the script)
Genre: Action-Adventure / Western that is every bit the prototype for safe screenwriting. Premise: When a corrupt sheriff takes over a hidden Texas Ranger John Reid has just stumbled onto silver mine, a lone Texas Ranger and a local Indian one hell of a crime scene. An entire train full of named Tonto must team up to stop him. people has been killed. So he takes a team of fellow
About: Okay, this is not the draft that you’ ll see in theaters. rangers and heads to a nearby town, the only town
This is actually the draft that was written in 2009, when that our murderer( or murderers) could’ ve run off
The Lone Ranger was set to be a really big movie. But to. Once there, he finds a semi ghost town, with a then Disney got scared and cancelled the movie, only few suspicious characters manning the local shops. allowing it back once the script was rewritten to drastically This leads him to the town’ s half-crazy Sheriff, reduce the budget. So that’ s what the writers did.
Latham Cole, a man so bizarre he’ s placed a full-on locomotive in the middle of town( he figures by doing Writers: Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio( based on the radio so, the tracks will have to come to him). We can’ t tell if series created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker) Latham Cole is good or bad but it doesn’ t really matter
Details: March 29, 2009 draft – 125 pages because after their meeting, the murderer of all those
106 | WGSA MAG July 2013