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More often than not, budding writers encounter unexpected detours on the road to Hollywood. Screenwriter David Weissman took one through Las Vegas, and it changed his life and career. Weissman and his writing partner, childhood friend and fellow Philadelphia native David Diamond, had been collaborating on comedy scripts since 1988, writing some 15 stories over the course of six years but selling none. Hoping a change of venue would rejuvenate them creatively, they took a trip to Vegas and came back with something better than the tourist-customary hangovers and empty wallets. Their jackpot was what Weissman calls a great "epiphany" about screenwriting, and what it would take for them to break through. "It's not about us. People could care less about us," Weissman recalled during his February talk with Scriptwriters Network. "They don't care what we find funny. We need to move toward what others think is funny.'' Despite their longtime friendship, similar tastes and natural chemistry as a writing team, the two found it necessary to analyze ideas and approaches they had previously overlooked, and it changed forever the way in which they discussed and planned their movies. "We looked at it like, 'How would Disney make this movie? What does the audience want?' " And they had to make their unique senses of humor mesh with those audience considerations. After continued struggles, their approach paid off when they sold their first screenplay, The Whiz Kid, to 20th Century Fox in 1994. But their arrival in Hollywood really didn't hit home for them until the recent success of The Family Man, for which they wrote the screenplay. That film, starring Nicholas Cage, has been a happy experience for the writers, Weissman said, although it took six years for the film to get produced and released from the time they sold the idea and wrote their first draft in 1994. One problem, Weissman said, was getting the right stars and director attached to the project. Getting the script into shape was also a challenge -- Weissman estimates it went through 20 official drafts and 60 unofficial drafts. In the end, the writers' basic vision was maintained and the key, he said, was having strong producers and a director, Brett Rattner, who stood firm despite studio qualms about issues like the film's ending, which is not the traditional flat-out "happy" finish favored by Hollywood. Weissman said one of the most fortunate elements of the film was the casting of Cage, whom the writers had in mind when they came up with the story. But once his writing chores on the film were done, Weissman confessed, the most interesting thing about his experience -- besides meeting the stars -- was enjoying the great food on the set. Ultimately, it was Weissman's love of film comedies -- he counts Tootsie, Stripes, Ghostbusters and Herbie the Love Bug among his favorites -- that got him moving toward movie work. But his writing career was by no means planned in advance. "I never actually decided to become a writer. It just sort of happened," he recalled. Weissman's life journey had taken him in many directions before the Vegas trip. After high school, he went to Israel to study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He later went to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, then Brown University in Providence to study Chinese history. His partner's film-writing trajectory was somewhat more direct. Diamond studied cinema at New York University. He later worked for a Hollywood television producer who was seeking projects for a new features division. Diamond had been seriously discussing movie ideas with Weissman back when the two were rooming together in Madison, and it was not long before they were an official writing team. The pair was by no means an overnight success, but their enthusiasm got them through the difficult times. "Desperation is an incredible motivator," Weissman said. "We had a sense we could do this, and we both loved doing it." While their lives have since changed greatly (both Davids recently got married), several things remain constant. One is the difficulty of getting any project produced no matter what your track record is. And the process of creating a great script remains challenging, he added. "It's difficult to do poorly and even more difficult to do well." To meet the challenge, the two have devised what Weissman described as a "relay" process that works well for them. Before starting to write, they spend two or three weeks planning out each scene. ("We're big talkers," Weissman said.) Then Weissman, for example, will write the first 15 pages, hand them off to Diamond for re-writing, then go on to the next 15 pages. This not only makes the team productive but also helps avoid ego clashes, since at all times "the movie is in control," rather than one writer, he added. "Working as a partnership is the greatest thing that could happen to me as a professional writer," Weissman said. "We were best friends long before we were partners, and that dictated how we would work together." Deadlines are important to make, Weissman advised the audience, but never at the expense of quality. "Don't hand in anything but your best work. Producers would rather it be great than in on time (and needing major reworking)," he said. Their desperate days behind them, the team's next work to hit movie screens will be the sci-fi comedy Evolution, set for release in June. The film brought the opportunity to work with producer/director Ivan Reitman, one of their cinematic heroes, and Weissman said the experience was akin to taking a graduate course in comedy movie-making. But class got off to a rough start. "He couldn't have been less interested in us," Weissman recalled of their first meeting. But Reitman asked to see their script for what would be a re-write of the film the director was working on, about a new life form being discovered on Earth. At their next meeting, Reitman paid them what Weissman considers the highest of compliments: "It was one of the best rip-offs of Ghostbusters we've ever read." While it needed more work, the director said one scene in particular was among the funniest he had ever seen. On subsequent drafts, however, Reitman proved to be a stern taskmaster, sometimes causing the Davids to become frustrated and discouraged. In the end, the Davids found Reitman to be extremely honest and often blunt about what he wanted, but ultimately a "naturally funny guy" who gives good writers their due. "He can be incredibly demanding, but if you give him what he wants, he's extremely appreciative," Weissman said. Weissman and Diamond are currently working on a remake of Too Many Husbands for producer Douglas Wick, another hero of theirs, having produced one of their favorite films, Working Girl. But while Weissman is happy about where he's at, he also realizes the hard work never ends. The Davids are looking forward to the production of Guam Goes to the Moon, their story about a wealthy industrialist who starts his own space program on the island of Guam, and other projects that have been in the works for several years. (The Weitz brothers of American Pie fame are producing Guam.) Weissman finds the writer's life satisfying in spite of the complications in getting movies made. At this point, he said he has no plans for seeking out more control -- for example, by pursuing directing or branching into other genres -- and is quite happy to be a team player in the process. Most of the Davids' differences with producers have been contractual rather than creative, he said, and they're always mindful of the fact that as writers, "You're always replaceable." "We don't feel a creative deficit in writing. We don't feel the need to be in control, and we feel good with not being in control," Weissman said. "We'd like to keep writing and keep getting better at it." Network member Lou Hirsh is a former journalist currently working at a Los Angeles-based Internet company.
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