[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: I believe you said you’ve written over 40 screenplays?
Zimran Jacob, Screenwriter: That’s correct.
Film Courage: How long does it take to write one?
Zimran: It just depends on what it’s about, how long it is, what the format is. If I’m trying to write a good drama, I’ve definitely written some really good dramas in about 3 months but that’s not the end of the story. I’m still rewriting it and asking people for notes and trying to make sure that it can be the best script it can be.
I wrote a script in about 3 months that people got really excited about and then I spent two…I believe a year in development with a production company with that particular script and that was two years after the fact.
If you look at a lot of these scripts that get made, they’re usually around for a long time or a lot of them are around for a long time. It really just depends.
I wrote a feature in 17 days once. Every script is going to be different and the quality of the script is going to potentially be higher if you take a longer time to write it as what the principles are and you’re getting good feedback on it.
I’d been developing a pilot script for about one year. That’s one of the pilots that I’m the most proud of. It just varies script-to-script.
Film Courage: How do you know an idea is one you want to turn into a story, that you will commit several years to your life to?
Zimran: I think you should turn your idea into a script if you can’t put it down or if you feel like that idea has to be in the marketplace, that it’s so unique that you would have to do it and you have to share it with people. Because you’re going to write it better and you’re going to treat it with the amount of respect that it deserves but also you’re going to be better at selling that script to everybody else as well.
Film Courage: After you have an idea…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
About:
Zimran Jacob is an Indian American drama television writer originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. After graduating Cum Laude from Chapman University with a B.A. in Screenwriting and studying at NYU, USC, and UCLA, he moved out to Los Angeles where he began to work in the finance department at Gaumont Television, which released Narcos, Hannibal, Hemlock Grove, and F is for Family during his tenure at the company. Zimran’s job at Gaumont led him to Marvel in the writer’s room on the Netflix show, The Punisher where he was able to contribute to the story in his role on the support staff as the Showrunner’s Assistant. During his time at Marvel, he pitched two stories which became produced episodes. Zimran sold his feature SWAG to 19f Productions where Kevin Pollak is attached to direct. He was a PGA Diversity Workshop Fellow in 2019 and was a Semi-Finalist in both the 2018 and 2019 Austin Film Festival. Most recently, he brought enthusiasm to his job as Showrunner’s Assistant for October Faction on Netflix. He writes dark Shakespearean dramas featuring Machiavellian characters, tribal power struggles, and is addicted to crime stories.
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