The Casablanca Screenplay Project

Casablanca is one of my favorite films of all time. I found this interesting. 26 years old but interesting. Not sure what it means to struggling screenwriters:

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In 1982, freelance writer Chuck Ross retyped the script of Casablanca, changed its title to “Everybody Comes to Rick’s” (the title of the original play) and submitted it to 217 agencies as a script supposedly by an unknown writer.

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Ninety returned it unread, for various reasons (it was their policy not to read unsolicited manuscripts, they weren’t taking on new clients, or they were no longer in the agency business).

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Seven never responded. Eighteen scripts apparently got lost in the mail.

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Thirty-three agencies actually recognized the script.

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Eight noticed a similarity to Casablanca, but didn’t realize it was Casablanca.

Thirty-eight agencies claimed to have read it, but rejected it. Of those agencies that actually read the manuscript (or claimed to have), the majority did not recognize it as Casablanca, nor did they think the script was good enough to be worth representing.

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Three agencies expressed a desire to represent the work.

Read the entire story at: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Casablanca_Rejected