Brian Grazer demonstrates the Impact app at his Santa Monica home. The entertainment business has embraced modern technology when it comes to streaming shows, targeting ads and using data to predict what you’ll like. When it comes to hiring screenwriters, though, Hollywood is a Luddite, relying on personal relationships, phone calls and lists of proven scribes cobbled together by talent agencies and studio executives. Oscar-winning filmmakers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard said they’ve witnessed that problem during their nearly four-decade-long partnership making movies including “Splash,” “A Beautiful Mind” and “Apollo 13.”
Promising writers blow years of their lives trying to get agents and have their work seen by the right people. “It’s called ‘development hell’ for a reason,” said Howard, 66. “It’s not just hard, it’s deeply flawed.” So what are they doing to fix it? Their Los Angeles-based startup Impact Creative Systems has spent the last two years connecting up-and-coming talent with studios through its competitive screenwriter accelerator program — an eight-week boot camp that helps scribes get their scripts in shape to pitch to executives. This week, the company expands with the launch of an app called the Creative Network, which allows executives to find talented writers […]
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