[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: How did you get the pitch for S.W.A.T.?
Ron Mita, Professor of Advanced Screenwriting at College of the Canyons/Screenwriter: Our agent called us up, said,
“Hey, they’re doing S.W.A.T., the TV show from the 70s over at Sony.”
I’m like, “Oh, I actually like that show.”
We were very excited about it.
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We went in. We had to come up with a pitch.
You’re going into pitch now.
A pitch is difficult because it’s a casting call and they’re bringing a lot of writers in who are going to tell a story.
How do I make my story stand out?
I remember we were eating Chinese food for lunch and we got to talking about the movie The Warriors, John Carpenter film, one of my favorite films, low-budget film about street gangs in New York City meet in Central Park.
Somebody kills the leader of the street gang.
They blame The Warriors and the whole movie is The Warriors have to get from Central Park to Staten Island and it’s such a fun movie if you’ve never seen it.
I said that’s the beauty of it.
We understood a SWAT team doesn’t investigate anything.
They’re not detectives.
They’re protecting or they’re saving or they’re attacking.
What if we take The Warriors, and this goes back to my talking about finding movies that you like, and we use that theme?
We said Okay.
We came in and we came up with the idea that the world’s worst bad guy is caught by complete chance…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
About:
After beginning his career as a graphic artist, Ron quickly realized his true passion was storytelling. That realization led him to Loyola Marymount University, where he pursued a graduate degree in screenwriting and before graduating, sold his first screenplay to Columbia Pictures in 1993, launching a career that now spans more than three decades.
That early success opened the door to work with many of Hollywood’s major studios, including Universal Pictures, Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Warner Bros., DreamWorks, HBO, TNT, Screen Gems, and CBS.
Ron’s produced credits include the animated hit Robots for 20th Century Fox, S.W.A.T., starring Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell, Sniper II, starring Tom Berenger, and 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke.
Since 2002, Ron has helped shape the next generation of filmmakers as a screenwriting professor at College of the Canyons and as a filmmaking instructor at Antelope Valley College.
Early in his career, Ron developed the Magnificent 7–24 Method, a screenwriting architecture that helps writers move from idea to page with clarity and confidence. Built as a flexible framework rather than a rigid formula, it removes the fear that often keeps aspiring screenwriters from beginning. The method remains the foundation of both his professional work and his teaching.
A working screenwriter and dedicated educator, Ron continues to move between the classroom and the industry, where story always comes first.
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