Screenwriting Professor Richard Walter remembers when Gregory
Widen wrote “Highlander” in one of his classes almost
fifteen years ago.
“I gave him an “˜A,’ and 20th Century Fox gave
him $2 million,” Walter said.
This phenomenon isn’t uncommon in UCLA’s Master of
Fine Arts screenwriting program. Regarded as one of the, if not the
most, elite programs in the country, UCLA’s program spawns
more major Hollywood films than you may realize.
The list of Hollywood movies written by UCLA M.F.A. students and
graduates is very long, and includes “Spiderman,”
“About Schmidt,” “Road to Perdition,” and
more recently, “Sum of All Fears” and “A View
from the Top.” According to Walter, the list is just the tip
of the tip of the iceberg.
The success of the program, according to professors and students
alike, lies in both the design of the program itself and the
quality of the people involved.
“We have the luxury of picking the best people because we
have that great reputation,” Professor Hal Ackerman said.
“It feeds off itself.”
The original script for the Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle, “A
View from the Top,” was actually written in one of
Ackerman’s Advanced Screenwriting classes. Students write
full screenplays in workshop classes every quarter.
“The workshop format is very conducive to giving and
getting feedback about your work,” said current second-year
M.F.A. screenwriting student Mark Arneson.
Wall Street Journal called Walter “the prime broker of
Hollywood’s hottest commodity: new writing talent.”
With professors such as him, many scripts eventually make the
transition from school to screen.
But when writers sell their screenplays, they also lose the
rights of the story to the buyer. In such situations, the script,
which the writer has worked on perfecting, frequently changes from
sale to production.
“By the time you come out (of school), you don’t
just settle for a good screenplay,” Arneson said.
“You’ve written a good screenplay and made it better
and better and better.”
In some cases, the original authors believe the studios change
the screenplays for the worse. Such was the case with “A View
from the Top.”
“I know that Eric (Wald, the writer,) is not particularly
pleased with the final product,” Ackerman said.
Arneson ultimately attributes improvements in his writing to a
combination of help from professors and students. According to
Walter, the intelligence and work of the students is what makes the
M.F.A. screenwriting program so elite and appealing to
applicants.
“You can’t get blood from a stone,” Walter
said. “As good as the faculty is, we’re only as good as
the students.”
UCLA is able to draw top writers into applying because of its
proximity and close relations with Hollywood. The goal of every
writer is to have his screenplay made into a film, and when
professors see material they think can be produced, they do all
they can to help the writer.
“The writing just jumps off the page,” Ackerman
said. “You get a feel that the writer has complete control of
the story and characters.”
After reading “A View from the Top,” Ackerman got
that feeling. After reading “Highlander” years ago,
Walter got that feeling. And while films written in the program
fill every genre, professors still look for the same things.
“Genre is secondary to story,” Arneson said.
“That’s the heart of screenwriting.”