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SimplyScripts Screenwriting Discussion Board  /  Comedy Scripts  /  Max Becker
Posted by: Don, January 31st, 2010, 5:16pm
Max Becker by L. E. Bond - Comedy, Noir Tragi-comedy - Set in the late 40s and inspired by William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Max Becker is a black comedy about Hollywood film producer Max Becker who destroys other people’s careers to become head of the studio only to find that success and power are fleeting. 114 - pdf, format 8)
Posted by: c m hall, January 31st, 2010, 9:03pm; Reply: 1
In many places the tone and the pacing of the script sound true to the noir films from the 1940's -'50's but I wonder if it's worth the effort.

The most entertaining aspects of your script (the tension between characters, the friends/enemies attachments that form and quickly reform) seem to me perfectly suited for a stage production.  
(Maybe that's why Shakespear didn't write for the movies.)

The script makes some clever nods to MacBeth (eg. the unimaginably rapid progress of television) but other references (the Three Witches) seem like filler.  

The other layers of references (don't play/sing it again, Sam -- I'll Get By / As Time Goes By) seem to me to cloud the mood, rather than deepen it, but subtle things like that might work in an actual film and only seem heavy handed in the reading of the words on the page.

I can understand the fascination with the golden age of Hollywood and commend your effort.
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