Twenty-five Words or Less: How Hollywood’s Pitch Process Has Changed the Law of Idea Protection

In the first thirty minutes of The Big Picture, an unknown film-school graduate wins the attention of a studio executive at his graduation showcase.3 The smooth-talking executive invites the wide-eyed graduate to come to the studio’s office and pitch an idea for a script. The graduate excitedly attends a series of pitch meetings, hoping that this will be his big break. He buys a Porsche and dumps his girlfriend for a nubile young actress. Yet, at each pitch meeting, the graduate is interrupted by the studio executive or a member of his staff with a “suggestion” for the graduate to incorporate into his idea. By the end of the movie, his black-and-white country film becomes an eighties beach-house comedy. The graduate never objects meaningfully to any suggestion, hoping for a shot to make “his” idea and hit the big time. In the end, the studio drops his movie and he is left looking for any work to make ends meet.