Levine cracks wise

Paul Levine’s new SOLOMON Vs. LORD series is attracting lots of buzz, which is an excellent reason for his alma mater of Penn State to interview him about the books, writing for TV and pearls of wisdom for aspiring writers:

Newswire: What advice would you give any young grads who want to break into Hollywood?

Levine: Marry a blood relative of Jerry Bruckheimer.

Newswire: Lacking that, when aspiring authors or screenwriters sit down at the computer, what should they be writing?

Levine: Ransom notes, maybe. Look, it’s really hard to break

into the business. Some people suggest writing a spec script. I think

that’s a useful exercise for polishing your craft. Be advised, though,

how difficult it is to sell a script. Years ago, Elmore Leonard said,

“Writing a script and sending it to Hollywood is like drawing a picture

of a car and sending it to Detroit.” It’s still true today, except

you’d send the picture of the car to Tokyo. There are entry level

positions as assistants or script readers. In the television business,

assistants – they used to be called secretaries – sometimes manage to

sell a script to the show they’re working on.

I’m thinking Jerry’s going to have to invent a ton of relatives…