Trottoria

I was recently reading transcript of a VC panel at the Tech Crunch50. Ross Levinsohn of Velocity Interactive Group was asked the following question and had a killer short response.

What’s the difference between the typical Hollywood script funding process and the VC funding process?

Ross Levinsohn: The process works the same way. Scripts trickle down from Spielberg on down until it dies or gets funded.

Right to the point – I thought Ross made a great comparison.

My experience with venture capitalist is quite limited, though I am a fan boy at heart. It does feel like everyone wants his or her script to be optioned by Spielberg (Founders Fund/Kleiner Perkins/Greylock, etc)

What ends up happening, is that proven screenwriters get their scripts pushed to the top of the pile, giving Spielberg first crack at the proven powerhouse writers. This is ONE of the reasons that Spielberg can consistently produce great movies – the pile of scripts that he is picking from is essentially the crème de la crème (Facebook, Quantcast).

Though, to add on to Ross’s point – Not every Spielberg movie is a great success, look at the latest Indiana Jones (cuil.com).

Sometimes a script needs to be based down the chain for its true greatness to emerge. Can you think of an example?