Now that I have a sizable catalog of scripts, I've been revisiting older ones and reworking and trimming them. Talk about a fresh perspective! As far as I'm concerned, they're never finished until they're filmed. It's Sunday and it's pouring rain outside. A good day to write.
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I have a script tucked away that I have considered rewriting, but it hasn't happened yet. I guess because something else is born and I end up working on that. Perhaps the fact that I think about it means that someday a rewrite is an order!
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That is so true that you can have a new perspective when you revisit a script. I had written this one script over 13 years ago, but sort of put it aside. Suddenly I started to think about. Finally, a friend bought up the topic of that script to me, so I took that as a message... LOL. I went back and rewrote it last year! Have a great day! :)
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I tend not to revisits work, unless it is just a long writing process.
I am a different person and different writer.
I have outgrown a lot of what I wrote.
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Have to agree with Craig. If I write something and it's good, time will pass and I can pick it up and not want to change it. Kay's point is great too though in that a contemporary script needs to have all references to pop-culture and tech updated to current and relevant terms unless it's a period film. This is all editing and updating though. Not rewriting. Only thing I hate about re-writing is that it's easier than working on the new script I'm trying to map out. So I see it as a distraction in some cases. Albeit a fun one.
Supposedly, Tony Gilroy's calling card spec script, "Beirut", was rediscovered by a Prod Company cleaning their shelves. 25-years from script to screen.
Ever since I joined Stage 32, I've been busy refurbishing scripts I'd written during the 1980-1994 period...not only to get them up to snuff as far as format is concerned, but also to be- in the case of period pieces- historically accurate.
And touching on something M L. brought up, out of all the contemporary scripts I'd tackled during the 1980-89 period, the only one I was able to update and bring into the 2010s (going on 2020s) was "Andrea." (For me, converting "Andrea" from MTV Age to Internet Age was easy...okay, comparatively easy.)
Two contemporary efforts of mine from the 1990-1994 era are next on my "to refurbish" list...but I'm going to leave them in the 1990s and make period pieces out of them. Thought it'd be easier that way.
Jim, how long does it generally take you to refurbish a script?
Phillip, it takes me anywhere from one to two months to refurbish a script. (And that's not counting times I go back to reread a newly-refurbished screenplay of mine and end up catching goofs I missed and should've taken out of the script in the first place!)