Dear nairalanders, i want to know if anyone in here has successfully sold any of his/her script to Hollywood companies before. And of course doing it online. In my neighborhood a banker was offered 11 million naira for her screenplay. she advised me to stop dealing with the nollywood industry and aim where the real thing is. Though she gave me some websites to visit but i want to also hear the opinions of my family(nairalanders). Please if u have useful information please post it. I appreciate.

Hollywood script world works like this:

You (scriptwrite) to Agent to Producer/Production company.

First, you send what is known as a query to these agents. A query is more or less a synopsis of your story. I will advise you to google more on query writing before you attempt anything.

You'll send this query to these agents. If anyone of them is interested in your idea i.e your script story line, he will demand for the full script. After that, if he likes the script, well, congratulations.

A typical agent receives over hundreds of thousands queries per day. Im not trying to discourage you, but to let you know what you are up against. Its a muddy water.

Spend enuf time with Google and ask her for detail info on what av written above.

Goodluck.

@Briareos.
thanks for dropping that concise info. but what i really want to know about is how one can come up with the kind of script that can fit into the hollywood style. i mean reaching the world audience. how do u handle the settings of newyork when u are in naija. the story i am developing for my attempt at hollywood, is a cross-country film (lagos and new york). how can i bring the setting alive. its a musical/gangster film which started from lagos and ended in new york. and i also hear that some themes would not fly on hollyhood market. i would be glad to hear from you bro.

The things you need to know are:

Hollywood is very competitive. Some great movies that could have done very well elsewhere gets swept under the rug.

If you are targeting a Hollywood production, you have to know their immediate audience is the Americans. So, no body will touch a script that the theme is not palatable to the Americans.

You have a chance if your script touches on any of these themes;
Great Epic,
Renowned Political event,
War,
Great depth romance (lovers that cant be together due to any of the above),
Adaptation of the story of a great figure.

These are just my ideas and it isn't restricted to only them.

What I'm just saying is that any theme that doesn't appeal to the Americans will be hard to sell in hollywood.

Even the black hollywood is still strugling. Their dont do that well at the box office.

But if you are confident about your theme and you want to continue;

There are lots of way to go about your writing:
Google maps,
Search online for directories, Google maps,
Read some novels; they always describe the streets in details,
Google maps,
Google.com,

Also, you can talk to some Nigerians that stay abroad here on nairaland. They can help you out with the street layouts if you ask nicely.

Once again, Good Luck!

thanks bro for all the support and love. your advise has been taken and will be adhered to. but one last thing i would want to get from you is the issue of formatting. i understand that their is the hollywood standard of formatting which must be strictly adhered to, if u will be given a second thought. but how did u get your own screenwriting software? please tell me the site to get it from.

i hear final draft remains the best but i also know its quite expensive. are u using it? if there are other reliable ones, please let me know. and i hope it will work on my pentium m dell laptop. thanks.

Nope, I don't use final draft, matter of fact, i dnt use any software.

Instead, I downloaded a MS Word template for screenplay.

The formatting is not restricted to HW alone, thats the standard for screenplays.

Check dis site for more info and also the template.

www.keithloh.com/writing/filmscript/templates.html