Submitted by Tandybaum t3_118mxsw in television
This has to be in the top few examples of biggest swings for a creator?
He went from making Scary Movie sequels to Hangover sequels to freakin Chernobyl and then to FREAKIN Last of Us.
Can’t wait to see where he goes next but it almost can’t be up at this point.
Great comment. It’s truly outstanding and it has to feel amazing to come up through the ranks like this and then absolutely kill it.
To go from maybe have a good reputation with the people in the know to now having a reputation as one of the greats of all time.
I know that he was a script doctor who did lots of uncredited work on screenplays, but does anyone know which films/tv shows he helped write on that he didn’t receive credit for? I can’t seem to find any info
So you're saying he spent his early career being not great but not terrible?
That's literally most working writers. Everyone has to start somewhere. Reliable work gets you consistently hired
I'm quoting a great line from Chernobyl...
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Every big name started out doing whatever it took to pay the bills. Peter Jackson made Meet the Feebles before landing LoTR.
I feel like Bad Taste, Meet The Feebles & Heavenly Creatures were funnier, darker, more ingenious and made with more heart then anything he’s done since.
Same.
David Fincher's first directing credit was Alien 3.
Don’t forget the phenomenal second season stand-alone episode of Mythic Quest — Backstory!
He went to Princeton (he was Ted Cruz's Freshman roommate, who he famously hated) so he's obviously a smart guy.
Also in addition to the credits you see on his imdb, he did a lot of script doctoring, and developed a reputation for being able to come in and fix scripts last minute. That gave him a ton of cred within the industry.
Writers gotta take work when they get it.
And being a screenwriter in particular sounds like a nightmare of a job.
One actor has a schedule conflict so you gotta rewrite the story to remove him. Another says they need more lines so you do that. The producer says there's not enough giant spiders happening.
Makes me think of Jordan Peele jumping from MAD TV/Key & Peele -> Get Out, Us, Nope pretty weird when get our first was being advertised and you see Jordan Peele’s name on the trailer I kept going “the same Jordan Peele!?” Some people are just multi faceted talents
He also had a guest appearance in Season 1 of Mythic Quest in between making Chernobyl and TLOU....which makes it even weirder.
Not even just a guest appearance, but a recurring role in half of season one, as well as one episode of season two. And playing a great character too.
Everybody starts somewhere. Most creative types don’t jump out of the gates with a masterpiece. George RR Martin is another example - he was writing small-scale, niche horror and sci-fi stories for more than 20 years before the release of the first Game of Thrones novel
The hangover sequels are unnecessary but still funny as hell though
Every big writer has begun small until they hit the goldmine.
I remember an interview with Mazin a number of years ago. It might have been with Brian Koppelman.
Mazin said that he made a very conscious and calculated decision to move his career into other genres. He asked his agent and reps to start putting his name into contention for things that he normally would not be considered for.
I think he said the first project he secured on this new trajectory was writing on The Huntsman: Winter's War (the sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman).
It’s amazing right? It’s like something magical clicked .
Something something clicker
Hey, You have to learned to fail before you can succeed.
I remember Clyde Phillips doing the ‘90s sitcom “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.” I wouldn’t have predicted that he would be the guy who would give us “Dexter.”
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Hangover 1 was great though.
Agree but he was only on 2 and 3
Oh, didn't know that.
sehnsuchtlich t1_j9i2k45 wrote
I covered this a bit in a previous comment, I'll quote it here:
> Talent and work ethic both is hard to come by in writing. If someone comes in who has a history of spoofs and comedies and gives a really solid pitch and spec script, they're much less likely to roll their eyes at his resume than the average moviegoer.
> Hollywood is forgiving of working writers who write schlock for money if it's competent schlock. Writing is a more working class profession in the industry (and less nepotistic) than acting because it's less glamorous. People come into the industry having to take whatever job they can to pay the rent and build a name.
> Plus, his spoofs and comedies were pretty successful so that doesn't hurt.
Basically, Mazin spent decades building up a name as a reliable writer who delivered what was asked of him. He built a considerable amount of reputation in Hollywood, so that gave him a foot in the door when he wanted to do Chernobyl, something near and dear to his heart and not just a job.