Every screenwriter dreams of writing that one screenplay Hollywood simply can’t say no to. The type of script that grabs a reader from Page One, keeps them turning the pages with pure anticipation and wide-eyed excitement, and then, most importantly, leaves them with such a positive impression that they have no choice but to pass the script up to their superiors and get the ball moving to acquire the script, package it with talent, and then greenlight it for production. It’s about writing a script that has managers and agents scrambling to represent you - and studios, networks, and streamers lining up to make an offer.
That’s the dream.
This type of script is the elusive undeniable screenplay.
The industry uses that term as a way to encapsulate what they are looking for in a script. The general idea is that if you write something so exceptional that nobody can possibly reject it, Hollywood will eventually come knocking.
There’s only one problem - it’s a myth.
There’s no single path to writing an “undeniable” screenplay. And no script is immune to rejection. Many of the most successful and acclaimed screenplays and movies have been rejected time after time after time. We could spend hours listing the scripts nobody in the industry believed in and the movies no studios wanted to make. From Rocky to Star Wars and before and beyond.
Here’s what’s really behind this industry term - it’s not about finding the secrets to writing a script that can’t be denied. Instead, it’s the pursuit of writing an undeniable script that matters most.
With that in mind, here we discuss the general elements of an undeniable script, and how you can go about developing, writing, and marketing one.
1. It Starts with a Concept That Demands Attention
Before we get into screenplay aesthetics, great characters, excellent dialogue, strong story arcs, and masterful pacing and scene construction, let’s discuss the one element that gets your script read in the first place - the concept.
Hollywood is a business. Studios, production companies, networks, streamers, and distributors need stories they can sell to an audience. While it’s romantic to think that all great writing is enough to overcome any obstacle, the reality is that an excellent and well-written screenplay built around a concept nobody wants to produce is going to face an uphill battle.
This doesn’t mean that your scripts need to be about superheroes, elaborate action sequences, or massive cinematic spectacles. Some of the best and most compelling concepts are quite simple.
- Speed takes place primarily on a bus that can’t slow down or it will explode.
- A Quiet Place takes place in a world where if you make a single sound, you can be killed.
- Buried follows the story of a man trapped in a coffin buried underground in an unknown location.
- Obsession follows an innocent wish a young man makes to have his crush love him more than anyone or anything in the world, only for the wish to be taken a little too literally.
These are concepts that immediately inspire curiosity. When people are curious, they want to know more. Questions begin to pop up in their heads.
- How is the protagonist going to survive that situation?
- What happens next?
- Can the writer sustain that premise for an entire movie?
That’s what an undeniable concept can accomplish. It creates immediate curiosity.
Here’s something else to consider on that front. If you can’t communicate what makes your screenplay interesting in a sentence or two, you may have a difficult time convincing someone to read it, regardless of how beautifully it may be written.
2. Offer Something Familiar But Excitingly Different
One of the biggest misconceptions about originality is that screenwriters need to invent something nobody has ever imagined. Good luck with that.
Humankind has been telling stories since they learned how to communicate. As we evolved, people were telling stories through plays, novels, folklore, mythology, and countless other forms of entertainment. Hollywood has been telling cinematic stories for over a century.
Most of the fundamental concepts, conflicts, character archetypes, and dramatic scenarios have been explored many times over.
Originality doesn’t always come from inventing something new. Most of the time it comes from taking something familiar and approaching it from an unexpected direction.
Audiences love familiarity. It’s comforting. It’s safe. It helps them understand what kind of experience they’re being offered. They love their favorite genres, story types, and character archetypes. But they also want to be surprised. They’re thrilled when a screenwriter or director plays with their expectations by offering something familiar but different.
That’s the balance that makes a script undeniable. Why? Because Hollywood knows its audience. Hollywood knows audiences want something familiar but different. They don’t want to risk a script that tries too hard to be original, unique, and different for the sole sake of being original, unique, and different. They want something that will get people to buy tickets or click play on the screen, and then they want that audience to experience something different and exciting in a familiar sandbox.
If you’re writing a contained thriller about a woman being stalked inside of her own home, there’s nothing original about that. We’ve seen countless variations of that story. But what if the woman discovers that the person stalking her is someone she thought was dead? What if the house is designed to prevent her from escaping? What if her house is a replica of her actual house, and she’s actually being held captive on a spaceship? What if she’s actually a ghost who thinks she’s alive, and the person stalking her is the new tenant?
Suddenly, a very familiar premise begins to take on a very different identity.
You can apply this philosophy to characters, tone, settings, and perspective. Cobra Kai was a success not because we saw the Karate Kid again. It was because we were seeing the original movie’s premise through the eyes of that film’s antagonist, and the ramifications that ensued.
Taking something familiar and turning it on its head in a creative way can make a script undeniable because Hollywood wants what the audience wants - something familiar but creatively different. The trick isn’t to avoid familiar storytelling territory. It’s about finding a way to make that territory undeniably your own.
3. Write a Purely Cinematic Script
An excellent and undeniable screenplay should be a cinematic experience, not a literary endurance test.
- Your scene description should be vivid without being overwritten.
- Your dialogue should reveal character and advance the story without constantly explaining what the audience can already see. Each line of dialogue must matter. Anything extra should be dropped. It is a visual medium.
- Your scenes should have purpose, moving the narrative forward while revealing something important about the characters and the circumstances they’re in.
- Your writing should be lean.
Screenplays are blueprints for movies. They’re meant to read as if the frames of the movie are unfolding in their minds without delay.
A script is undeniable when the reading experience feels like you’re watching a movie, not reading a manuscript. Great screenwriting isn’t about showing readers how beautiful you can write. It’s all about making them forget they’re reading a screenplay.
4. Create an Emotional Experience for the Reader and Audience
An excellent concept may get Hollywood to open your script. Having a different delivery of a familiar concept can keep their mind at ease, knowing there’s an audience for what they’re reading. Making them feel like they’re watching a movie and not reading a script can prove that you’ve written something very cinematic and producible.
But there’s another element that can elevate a script from being good to undeniable. Emotion.
The best movies are emotional experiences that leave the audience walking out of theaters with a feeling of catharsis. The screenplays and movies that linger in our lives are those that connect with us beyond the mechanics of the concept and plot.
- Jaws is a compelling concept about a shark terrorizing a beach community. But what makes the movie work so well is that it wasn’t just about the shark. It was about Chief Brody’s fear, determination, and sense of responsibility to keep the community safe.
- The Shawshank Redemption isn’t just about a man trying to survive prison. It’s about hope, friendship, dignity, and his refusal to allow terrible circumstances to destroy his human spirit.
- Die Hard has great action sequences and thrills. But it stands out most because of the grounded hero trying to survive so he can reconnect with his estranged wife and just say sorry for the things he failed to do in their marriage.
Yes, a concept’s external conflict draws us into the story. But it’s the internal, emotional conflicts that make us care whether the characters survive those external conflicts.
Give your characters something meaningful to lose. Force them to make difficult decisions. Put them in situations where their greatest strengths can become weaknesses. And then have them overcome their weaknesses to discover new strengths they never knew they had. That is undeniable catharsis that readers and audiences can relate to.
5. Meet Undeniable Genre Expectations
When you choose a certain genre umbrella to write under - or even a blend of genres - you also need to meet that genre’s emotional expectations.
- Horror audiences want dread and fear.
- Thriller audiences want suspense, twists, and turns.
- Comedy audiences want laughter.
- Drama audiences want catharsis and compelling human conflict.
- War movies want authenticity and honor.
- Action audiences want, well, action.
A script becomes undeniable when its audience is serviced properly. You can take all you have hopefully learned in 1 through 4 above, and then truly “stick the landing” by delivering on the genre expectations as well, which includes bending, twisting, and manipulating those genre expectations.
The Myth of the Undeniable Screenplay
Now comes the hard truth you may not want to read. But bear with us because there’s a silver lining in everything.
You can accomplish everything discussed above and still have your screenplay rejected.
You can develop an excellent concept with a different and exciting spin on what audiences have seen before. You can write it in a way that is purely cinematic, where the reader forgets they’re reading a script and just feels like they’ve just watched an amazing movie. You can enhance that experience by giving the reader catharsis by way of emotion embedded within the characters and stories. And you can perfectly nail the genre expectations in an undeniable way.
You can do all of these things and still see your script rejected. Back to the Future is an international treasure. It was rejected more than you may believe before someone took a chance on it.
Undeniability is subjective. It always has been and always will be.
What “undeniable” really is in the eyes of Hollywood is a goal that should be pursued to a screenwriter’s greatest possible abilities and efforts. That is what is needed for your scripts to be considered. But after those efforts, it’s out of your hands.
Luck plays a part, yes, as far as whose hands your script gets into, and whether or not they find your script undeniable. But you can also make your own luck by ensuring that you’re doing everything you can to market your script to the right people.
- Don’t send your queries to companies not making your kind of movie.
- Don’t try to directly query the biggest names in Hollywood.
- Feel free to take some shots in the dark, but limit your expectations and don’t let any rejection define you or your script.
There’s another saying in Hollywood that is very prevalent in development circles - the cream will rise. Hollywood knows there are undeniable screenplays out there. They know there are screenwriters who have chased undeniability with the above five elements of undeniable scripts, and other undeniable elements beyond.
They know the scripts will rise and present themselves, be it through major competitions and fellowships like Final Draft’s Big Break, cold queries from unknown screenwriters, or through basic networking channels via agents and managers passing the hottest and most “undeniable” scripts up to Hollywood decision-makers.
You just need to write them. That’s where you start.
Undeniability is subjective. When the cream rises, the best scripts that pursue the “undeniable” goal will make their way towards the right development executives, producers, production companies, studios, networks, or streamers. And amongst those Hollywood decision-makers will be those that look upon your script as truly undeniable to them.
Pursue these five elements of undeniable scripts. Then be sure to format them cleanly. Keep everything short, sweet and to the point. Shave away any formatting, character, dialogue, story, structure, and plot fat until you have the leanest script possible to go along with those undeniable traits.
There are no secrets to writing undeniable scripts. It’s all about the pursuit of undeniability that matters. Then just let the cream rise.