At some point, after you’ve read enough scripts, you start to feel like a disaffected homicide detective:
Exec: “what’d we got?”
Me: “looks like an attempted ‘The Hunger Games'”
“And?”
“Characters all cut up into cardboard – never had a chance… And you can see here, Act One struggled, and then… got dragged unconscious into the other room by Act Three.”
“What about Act Two?”
“Still searching for the body.”
“Sweep for dialogue?”
“Just your typical madman’s psycho-babble, nothing identifying.”
“How bout the perp?”
“We traced the number on the title page to a Starbucks on Wilshire. Trail goes cold from there.”
“Alright, we’ll take it from here. They need you down in Chinatown… meets Forest Gump.”