THE SCRIPT IS THE THING

In the late 1990's while they were bumming off their parents in Newton, MA, Sam Lanckton and Johnny Mic went to Dunkin' Donuts a lot. I mean a lot. And Al was there a lot too, probably more than any of us. Anyway, during yet another protracted examination of the trivial and absurd, Sam and John wrote a 1 page treatment on lined notebook paper, called "The Screw-Up."

"The Screw-Up" was a cynical take on what it was like to bounce out of college and be left wallowing in a directionless, suburban existence, littered with wasted time. Years passed, and after all the old crews finished college and joined the workforce, Lanckton landed in NYC and JM in Boston.

In 2002, Sam found the "Screw-Up" treatment and suggested to John that they turn it into a script. In part as an homage to Buck Henry's The Graduate, and with more sympathy for their personal experiences, they embarked on authoring a full-length feature screenplay, entitled, "Dropout," later renamed, "The Dropout."

JM went to see The Great White Way. Lanckton blazed a trail to the old Newton Porch Scene, just like the old days. Seeking inspiration in a comedy writing mega-session during the dog days of summer, Johnny and Sam finished the script in Middletown, CT, home of (that's right lil' buddies!) Wesleyan University.

So....drawing upon their collective grudges against the most seemingly politically correct institution in the USA [see PCU (1994)], JM and Lanckton stalked the campus, ate at O'Rourkes, and shat on the front steps of the Olin Library while singing a rendition of "Blue Toads Submerged by a Yellow Bud," a little known Dogjaw (folk indian) tune by Philips-Andover scholarship student, and now regionally acclaimed Dogjaw tribesman and bard, Norbert Frosh.

By the end of their session, Newton Studios had finished the first draft of The Dropout, now accompanied with the whispers of homicidal paranoia and the now famous phrase, "Where are the disks, John?" JM felt good about finishing the the next part of the idea, especially nearby the film school that he had dropped out of nearly ten years earlier.

The Dropout went through five more drafts, before submission to the short lived Damon-Affleck venture Project Greenlight, where it was panned by 3 out of 5 reviewers. Newton Studios let out a collective laugh when reading the one favorable review a Project Greenlight contestant: "This is the best, funniest, smartest script I have read in this contest. Because it is so smart and so funny, I see The Dropout as having a very difficult time getting produced. However, with a good director, a wacky cast, and an interesting visual style, this movie could be a hit."

With this in mind, Newton Studios began preproduction for The Dropout in 2003.

Article Written: May 20, 2007 Author: Bantam Draper, Port Chester, NY