But movies don't work like that any more, at least, not at that scale. So while they were out hammering on the screenplay set designers and storyboardists and character designers and this whole army of people started working on Oblivion even though they didn't quite know what it was about yet. One of them was a buddy of mine, who told me "man, what we've seen so far ain't so good." Lo and behold, shortly before Christmas two years ago Disney told everyone to go home because the script was terrible and they were putting the whole project on hold.

I'm really confused by Hollywood screenplay writing. Why do so many movies have shit scripts? Why couldn't they have paid a writer with a good track history? The writer's cost is a tiny fraction of the overall budget, yet it makes up a massive proportion of the impression on the viewer.

Hell, aren't there enough starving writers in Hollywood that they could throw out a pitch and hire the best screenplay put forward among multiple independent writers?

My close friend moved back down to LA this year to pursue a career of writing and directing movies. The impression I got from discussing it with him was that there are plenty of brilliant writers down there and it's a cut-throat world to make a living...yet I also feel that it's normally the shit that floats to the top.