Material First, Never the Package

“From the beginning of my time at ABC, everything for me had been “What’s it about?” or “What’s the story?” or “What’s the material?” not “Who’s the hot person of the day?” or “What was the last hit?” My focus had always been the idea, the story, the concept. I strongly believed that at Paramount we had to concentrate on developing scripts from the beginning rather than going backward and being dazzled by all the promoters with stars and packages, which was the way movie studios were then run.”

“That process applied to every aspect of what we began to do. How we conceived projects, how we developed the material, how we controlled it was how we differentiated ourselves from everyone else. We weren’t interested in packages, already formed elements presented to us, with actors, director, and writers pre-identified. We wanted to control the idea itself and go from there. When the script that emerged was worthy, we would attach elements we deemed appropriate. Nothing and nobody was forced on us.”