Did we ever have to ask ourselves why we got into the wild and incredible world of show business to start with? Of course not, we never had to ask, we always knew. Even before we finished our first script we knew what we wanted in show business, in film making, in the magic and excitement of a world called Hollywood. That fire in the belly, that absolute knowledge that you know what you want the world to see is the fortuitous culmination of minds set in that direction for many years. Once a screenplay writer starts writing it’s like when an alcoholic takes that first drink. It may take years to fully actualize that knowledge into a personal goal program, but you knew, we all did, when fingers first typed "INT. LIVING ROOM." Don’t try to deny it. You knew!

We wanted, each of us, to make wonderful, exciting films. Films that make you want to go back and back and back and back. Then you have to rent the video; then you have to buy the video; then you MAKE all your friends and family watch the video. You give the video for gifts, and you introduce your children and grandchildren to those films. We all want to tell stories that make that kind of magic. Everyone has their own version of what constitutes magic, but we all know it’s what we want out of this obsession which has taken possession of us.

Which brings us to the question of the hour: does the business reflect what the people want, or are the people convinced to want what the business is offering them.

The person or group or prodco or agency that finds the answer to that question will hold the magic wand to make Hollywood history, win the hearts of the world, and make an obscene amount of money. Everyone wants to do that hasn’t been done much in recent memory, and take wonderful stories, and make them come alive. Maybe we want the good guys to win, against heavy odds. Or maybe we want the good guys to be good guys so that children can look up to them and want to be like them. Maybe we want women to dream of the hero, and men to wish the heroine would look their way. Hopefully we want parents to hope their children grow up that way. In a perfect world all writers and producers want their films to become training films for future generations to grow up to be like their heroes. The heroes we give them. Real people, with real thoughts and dreams and hopes and ambitions and ethics and morality. Some just want to make a lot of money entertaining, and that isn’t a bad goal, but if we play to the lowest common denominator, we need to remember that we have tremendous influence on the minds of the world, young and old alike. What are we teaching, what are we saying. What magic are we producing for the world to take in and digest and regurgitate in the form of behavior. Is that the result we were really looking for, or has money overtaken thought and ethics?

The world of movies, television, Internet productions, videos, CD’s, games, and other diversionary entertainment has stretched beyond what anyone could have ever imagined. There is money and enough for everyone, but must we… should we… be encouraging the basest of entertainment? Or should we raise the consciousness of the world? Again that big question that has yet to be answered adequately by anyone: Does the BIZ reflect what the people want, or are the people convinced to want what the business is offering them?

Wouldn’t it be nice if all the powers in the business wanted to make great pictures without spending enough money on each one to support several small countries. I absolutely believe that can happen. Can we send the box office results right through the ceiling without the budget having already knocked a new hole in it.

How wonderful if the purposes of Hollywood could be to make great mainstream, high concept, world-wide interest films for a reasonable amount of money and without being horrifying.

So much high-quality material is available already. Where the problem really lies is in the manner in which scripts make their way to the decision-makers. Agents should be the answer, but often they are more interested in stopping a quality script from making it (it isn’t by or for one of their favored already-successful clients) than they are in finding the next really great script. So they reject anything that doesn’t smell of money right from the title, or relate in the first five pages to one of their clients. What a waste! What an incredibly narrow-focus policy. Yet it is reality.

If the Agents would seek for the brightest of new writers and stop looking for proven successes, Hollywood would be like a wilting plant that has received a drink of water and been taken into a sunny area.

If studios would have a whole team to look and not just someone to "weed out" they would find some of the gems they are missing.

Can we hope? Should we dream? Might they someday actually go looking for a good story to tell, and not the big bucks? I think they would find even more bucks if they were giving the people what they want instead of what they think the public should be wanting. Politicians run polls, but they are heavily-weighted to get the answer they want. How about a poll by Hollywood, say by Variety or the Hollywood Reporter, or SAG, or the Academy in which the questions are:

1. Are you more likely to go to a movie with a lot of action?

2. If so, does the action have to be horrifying and bloody?

3. Would you go to a film with heart thumping action but no gratuitous violence against humans or animals?

4. Would you go to a romance movie if they never disrobed?

5. Would you find a sweet and tender kiss and hug more romantic or less romantic than sweaty, graphic sex scenes?

6. Would you rather see the magic of an angel or a good person, or the black magic of a wizard or a warlock?

7. Which would you rather see blow up, a building or a person?

8. Describe for this poll what you as a viewer would really like to find on the marquee of your theater.

9. Describe for this poll how you think an action movie should end.

10. Describe in ten words or less a perfect movie.

If you haven’t seen Galaxy Quest, you need to. It’s a fun little satire for sure. I loved it. But it had one heck of a message. If someone viewed our films from another, more advanced, world and thought it was who we really are, would they blast this small planet out of existence, or would they invite us to join the rest of civilized universal society?

I’m afraid to know the answer.