Writing what's Popular

I don't spend much time thinking about what's popular. What's popular will always change and a script spends so much time in development that by the time you sell a spec on a hot topic by the time it hits theaters it could be 5 or 10 years later. It might be different if you were an established writer with the opportunity to pitch on a regular basis and someone that had the power to greenlight your script was in your corner already.

Spielberg can make any movie he wants about whatever he wants. He has the power to bring about social awareness to anything he pleases - Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, etc. Maybe he feels that with his power/money, he's somehow morally obligated to make films that hit on social/historical topics. Whether he means to or not, all of his films have one thing in common, a good story.

I agree with Zag. What's popular today, may not be popular tomarrow. Write the story you want to tell, don't try to base it on what you think the audience wants to see. Who knows, five years from now, Westerns may be back, and cheesy scary movies will once again be buried six feet under-hopefully along with reality shows.

Steph

What Stephanie said. Nobody knows what's popular until it BECOMES popular. Hell, the "next big thing" in movies could be stories about Albino midgets and the bipolar hermaphrodites who love them, but nobody would know that until one actually came out and made it big.

Write what you want to write. If you write to what's popular now, you're material will already be dated by the time it gets finished and the next trend or fad or ideal will have already taken over. Given, there are some things which in the future will still echo in everyone's mind (just look at the number of 'Nam-related films made in the 80s -- some ten to fifteen years after it ended) but unless you're handed a writing assignment by a studio or executive looking to cash in on a current trend, I would think it to be simply a waste of the time you could be spending writing something original.

Although riding the "popular" train will most certainly cause you to always get in the station late, you can however keep an eye for general trends on what producers are looking for.

Lately, I am seeing requests for "Thriller with strong female lead" or "Supernatural Horror with core cast and few locations-- no vampires please."

You can also keep an eye out on general societal trends.

Are things with Hindu themes seeping into our culture? If so, it might be a good idea to shop a screenplay around that's inspired by that.

That's what I think Spielberg was doing.

That's what I think too.

You'd think,

"The Eyes of Mara" by Joseph Calabrese
(yet another shameless plug to get on Google searches),

my supernatural Hindu action adventure script would be getting some traction and although everyone who reads it loves it, no one wants to commit the cash.

Not yet.

Its time will come.

A good story is a good story. I think that's why someone like Spielberg is doing -- looking for a good story. Period. Someone like him is not going to "follow" a trend -- he will be leading it. He was the one who did "Schindler's List" when nobody would ever touch it. He also did the Color Purple when it wasn't chic to do African-American drama, casting a virtual unknown in the lead...