Some screenplays are like Marley—dead to begin with. Westerns. Or disaster films. Or a movie about two octogenarians tending each other through their final days of leprosy. But maybe only five percent of screenplays fall into the Marley category. But a much larger percentage than that are dead by page 15. Because by then an experienced reader will either be hooked or bored. And if he’s bored, he may skip to page 50, read a few more pages, then on to the end, a cursory glance— —and the ball game’s over.
