The screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s latest sci-fi film, Disclosure Day, went through quite a few changes before filming even began.
Steven Spielberg’s latest sci-fi film, Disclosure Day, was written by David Koepp. And Koepp is hardly a newcomer to the business. He wrote Jurassic Park and Panic Room, as well as films in the Spider-Man and Mission: Impossible franchises. So he’s been around the block a few times.
You’d think he knows what he’s doing, and that he must have written exactly the kind of sci-fi film Spielberg wanted on his very first attempt. Okay, perhaps a few scenes needed a little polishing, but surely not that many.
So how many drafts did it take before they finally started shooting?
For once, 42 really is the answer to the ultimate question.
Of course, that doesn’t mean the entire screenplay had to be rewritten from beginning to end 42 times. The process involved revisions, adjustments, fine-tuning, and restructuring. But even so, that’s an enormous amount of invisible work, most of which the audience will never see. And it’s often during this invisible work that the difference is made between a film that works and one that completely falls apart.
Of course, that difference is also made later, through directing the actors, cinematography, editing, and countless other stages — and ultimately, in the viewer’s mind. But the point is that the raw material of the story takes shape in the screenplay.
The Art of Balancing
Spielberg hasn’t simply followed Hollywood’s franchise trends. Rather than always creating stories within pre-established cinematic universes, he consciously seeks to bring original, high-concept ideas to the screen.
Today’s studio system is less accommodating to original ideas. Familiar titles, sequels, and established franchises are easier to sell. Audiences already know them, look forward to them, and even expect them.
With an original story, however, everything has to be built from scratch. That may be one reason why the screenplay needs to be rewritten so many times.
Then there’s the fact that we’re talking about a science fiction film. An alien story, in particular, as Disclosure Day appears to be.
So it’s not just a matter of building the film’s world, but of creating a world that draws on more than reality as we know it. Making that world truly work takes considerable effort.
And the fact that, according to descriptions of the film, the whole thing is essentially a social thought experiment makes the task even more difficult.
If the information we have is correct, the story explores how humanity would react to the news that we are not alone.
Even scientists find that question difficult to answer. It’s an enormously complex scenario, with countless factors, possibilities, and variables.
If you want to explore all that in a single film, you have to make choices. Some things need to be emphasized, while others have to be left out.
And that’s no easy feat. It’s a tightrope walk over an abyss of possibilities.
Sculpting a Story
According to Koepp, the constant rewrites were largely about this process of adjustment and fine-tuning.
Should there be more action, or should the story become more philosophical and contemplative? Should the focus be on the thought experiment itself, or on the characters? And if the balance shifts too far in one direction, how do you bring it back?
Inspiration, the original idea, and the story outline are just the starting point. There are infinitely many ways to tell the same story.
And a screenwriter has to make decisions at every step. Once the whole thing is written, they have to go back, reassess their choices, and see whether the story has actually become what they wanted it to be.
Sometimes, fine-tuning means changing just a few words. Other times, entire storylines have to be sacrificed.
Version after version after version.
Many screenwriters follow a golden rule:
“You have to write something bad before you can write something good.”
It might sound like a trite piece of self-help advice, but it’s actually a fairly accurate description of how most screenplays come into being.
Perhaps nothing from the first draft will make it into the finished film. But if the work has been put in, it can still provide excellent raw material.
The writer gets to know the characters, finds the right tone, and establishes a foundation to build upon.
Then they get to work like a sculptor, with hammer and chisel in hand.
They remove something here, add something there, and begin to smooth out the rough edges. If it doesn’t work, they start again.
And if it does work, they keep refining it until it becomes what they originally imagined.
And sometimes, it takes forty-two rewrites before it finally becomes a film.
