Naked Came the Mayor

What if every wannabe screenwriter in the world joined hands to create the quintessential L.A. noir screenplay? Well, it's happening as we speak.

Over at L.A. Observed, Eric Estrin's delightful Script Project is in its tenth week. Eric kicked it off with a few pages that introduced some intriguing characters (a charismatic L.A. mayor, a fading movie star, her industrialist husband). Each week since, contributors from all over the planet file the scene they imagine should come next, complete with snappy dialogue. Eric sorts through the entries, and every Sunday at midnight selects the weekly winner, whose prize consists of an official Script Project t-shirt. (No seven-figure deals here... yet!) Eric posts the winning pages, explaining what he admires about them, and then scribes near and far study them, and then scramble to be the ones to have their new pages selected the following Sunday.

At least as entertaining as the new scenes are Eric's accompanying Script Notes, which help prod and guide potential participants, so that the plot marches forward in logical, if surprising, directions. Sometimes you can almost feel Eric's frustration that the characters aren't behaving quite the way he envisions they should, but he knows that comes with the territory. He freely admits that, as someone who has successfully written for more TV series than he cares to remember, it's easier to be the producer than the screenwriter.

The script, called "Right of Way," is to L.A. traffic what "Chinatown" was to L.A. water. Competing solutions for energy sources and transportation woes are embodied by an eclectic batch of menacing characters, who stand to gain (or lose) fortunes, depending on which course the city takes. But don't let the heavy-duty subject matter fool ya -- it's also got a clever car chase, a mysterious map, 3 unexplained homicides, and an adulterous affair that could rock the tabloids. And that's all before page 36 -- the beginning of the second act.

For a few weeks, Eric kept hinting that we need to see a private-eye protagonist show up soon, but then a writer surprised him and turned in pages that indicated that the mayor himself, a former high-ranking L.A. cop, would step into that role, with a slick Scientology-like cult leader as his nemesis. The first mysterious murder the mayor has to solve is that of his own friend, that wealthy industrialist, even as he's been bedding the guy's movie-star wife. And now she's being held hostage, and he's on his way to rescue her. Whew!

The project is not without precedent. Forty years ago, two dozen Newsday journalists gang-wrote what set out to be a deliberately over-the-top trashy novel, "Naked Came the Stranger." They used the pseudonym Penelope Ashe, and it became a New York Times best-seller. Similar communally composed novels have appeared through the years, all paying homage to the original by using the "Naked Came ___" construction for their title.

Now this isn't the first time that a screenplay is written collaboratively by a group of far-flung strangers who've never even met each other -- the Writers Guild would be the first to acknowledge that, in fact, that's almost a working definition of a produced script these days. But "Right of Way" is probably the first to be written in serialized form, with each contributor sequentially tacking on a few pages to what's come before. Eric is the guiding sensibility whose job is to prevent it all from turning into a complete traffic wreck -- no easy task! -- but even he has no clue where it's all headed.

So go read it yourself and, what the heck, try your hand at it. I did, and because it was the first week and there weren't too many entries, I got lucky and concocted what became pages 4-6. I'm wearing my prize t-shirt as we speak. My pre-teen son and I have followed the story zealously ever since, formulating our own plots, just for our own amusement. During his school's spring break he took a shot at writing an installment (with a little assist from the old man) and now he has his own matching t-shirt (pages 15-17). Eric appreciated that my son added the requisite femme fatale -- "a hot tamale like Angelina Jolie."

Anyway, now is the best time to enter, when the script has got lots of meat on the bone to inspire you, but is still early enough in its development to give you plenty of creative freedom in shaping the destiny of its colorful characters. And even if you're not interested in writing, you'll appreciate a good read. You can start enjoying "Right of Way" right here.