When I read about SCI FI Channel's original Saturday-night movies (billed as "The Most Dangerous Night of Television", I thought maybe I should try a hand at it for ScriptFrenzy.

I know that I shouldn't be too worried about whether they'd actually buy the script or not -- that's not the point of ScriptFrenzy, really. But if there's a chance, it would give me a bit more impetus.

Does anyone know if SCI FI ever buys scripts "over the transom" for their original movies?

What I do know about SciFi Original movies of the monster variety, is that someone must be killed by the monster within a certain amount of minutes and then every so many minutes thereafter. And, I think, the monster must be revealed within, like, the first 8 minutes or something.

I read all this in an article about Roger Corman, when he wrote a movie for SciFi, which, now, of course, I cannot find. I think the movie was about a cyclops?

Anyway, it seems that they have specific blueprints for their films, so if you can find out what they are and write a script that fits one of them, maybe it would give you a shot.

Good luck!

I'd just read that article today, actually. Here are some excerpts:

"The first rule: Show the monster. The failure of independently produced features to give ample air time to monsters was what drove the Sci Fi Channel to make its own movies in the first place, and the need for frequent shots of the creature remains an article of faith. Of course, some of their movies involve not monsters, but aliens. In that case, rule one becomes: Show the alien...."

"The second rule: Put the monster in the title..."

"Invariably, a Saturday night creature feature runs for 88 minutes. The creature must appear by minute 15.... Cannella tells his writers and directors that he wants a death every eight minutes - including monsters eating people and pooping them out. Their movies come in seven acts. That gives you six cliffhangers, plus a climax, if you do things right."

"When it comes to the stories, Cannella likes plots that are based - very loosely - on headline news...Mansquito is about medical experimentation on humans...Hammerhead...begins with a nod to stem cell research."

I wonder if I my Mecha plot counts as a giant monster? Robots are easier to animate than creatures, right?

Shawnvw, Where did you find that article? I'd like to read the whole thing.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/scifi.html?pg=1&topic=scifi&top...

Thank you very much!

SciFi seems to have very low standards for their original movies, so your chances probably aren't that bad. You could write the next Mansquito!

It used to be that Sci-Fi didn't even employ real (WGA) screenwriters. A bunch of producers and directors got together, spitballed plot ideas, and they'd write the movie en masse, without benefit of an actual 'writer'. Based on what I have seen recently (very recently), it seems as though they may actually be using scripts written by a screenwriter.