Screenwriting : Borrowing and Stealing: The Devine Right of Screenwriters. by Phillip E. Hardy, "The Real Deal"

I don’t so much take lines. But I will see a scene or discussion between characters and branch that into an entire story.

I heard a character say “she was drunk and wrote a plan to kill her husband. He found it and divorced her”. It was a single line in a romcom.

I created an entire story about a man that developed a plan to kill his wife then changed his mind. She is then murdered and he has to try and prove he didn’t killed her. It was a comedy like Cohen Brothers comedy.

: ) if Sorkin said he stole, he was either joking, or lying convincingly. OR even more likely he was acknowledging those that taught him the principles : D

Sandeep:

Any prolific screenwriter who has watched movies and television shows, and I've seen thousands of them, has been influenced by other writers. Consequently, that is probably reflected in their work. I sincerely doubt Sorkin was being disingenuous when he said that. It's a widely quoted statement.

(grin) definitely not disingenuous in all the three scenarios i surmised!

I love that quote, because it always makes me try to delineate the difference between "good" and "great." Best I've come up with is that it comes down to the (metaphorical) distance--the further you "take" the idea from the scene of the crime, the more likely you are to get away with it--puts a different spin on "taking an idea and running with it!"

Script I did some consulting on had a "Neo-oracle" scene from Matrix completely stripped off down to dialogue...only it was happening in a trailer and was like 100 times goofier...

Nevertheless, it was a greenlit feature, money to shoot provided...

Just stumbled upon early-early draft of the "Stranger Things" pitch deck...man, Duffer bros. "borrowed" from any themed 70-80 film/show they laid their eyes on - Jaws, down to E.T.

I broke down the pilot of Broen/Bron before starting my last TV script. I liked the pacing and wanted to understand better why it worked so well. So I did a careful transcript, and included how long each scene was on screen. Then I quite deliberately sought to imitate that pacing, in terms of timing, amount of dialogue and switching between characters/storylines.

Steal is "steal' no matter what the romantic and fine couchings. A true creator creates the uncreated out of nothing, from a moment, a spark.

Sorkin once more imitates the quote from Pablo Picasso "Good artists copy. Great artists steal." It just proves he is just good, not great.

Kiril:

A couple years ago, I downloaded a copy of the Stranger Things pitch deck and thought it was very innovative. It definitely had an influence on of my work.

Chistiane:

Well done!

Dan MaxXx:

I couldn't have said it better myself and I might steal what you said. But you're correct. Since the early days of filmmaking directors like DW. Griffith, Erich von stroheim and Jean Renoir have been influencing filmmakers for Generations. And of course Akira Kurosawa has been a huge influence on American filmmakers.

Nathan:

Though I wouldn't pick Sorkin as one of my favorite screenwriters, I will say that A Few Good Men, The Social Network, and Moneyball demonstrate he's a top-tier talent.

Phillip E. Hardy, "The Real Deal" That's precisely my point of view; I didn't say he has a lack of talent; he is the master of dialogue, no doubt about it.

Nathan: Definitely.

It's funny how many writers don't realise this but Sorkin is paraphrasing Pablo Picasso's “good artists borrow, great artists steal.” line.

Study your hero's heroes. You'll quickly see how heavily influenced their art is.

CJ

I read about the Picasso version of the quote. So he even stole the quote. Haha!