Visiting Film Professor Bill Phillips's script for a takeover of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center lies on the desk of an executive at NBC. Phillips said that if NBC brings back their Monday Night Movie, the film will probably be produced.
Television movies differ from feature movies in that they are lower budget productions and are advertised only on television and in TV Guide. Whereas a feature film has to do well on opening night before distributors will commit to it and promote it, a television movie has to attract the most viewers on a given night, Phillips said.
Phillips described the log line of his script as "'Diehard' in a hospital with a female version of Bruce Willis." Of course, the title cannot refer to "Diehard," and it cannot be called "terrorist take-over."
The NBC-chosen title for Phillips's script is "State of Emergency." The script is part of a new genre of television movies and series set in hospitals that has developed due to the popularity of "ER."
Phillips explained the relationship between screenwriter and television network. "You go to the meeting with ideas, and then the executives say, 'We have ideas, too, and we also have money to make movies.'" The network usually tells the screenwriter what to write about and chooses appropriate titles.
Past genres Phillips has written scripts for have included women in jeopardy, true crime, comedy, romance, drama, and adventure. He wrote a miniseries called "In a Child's Name" about a dentist on Long Island who murders his wife and tires to maintain custody of his child. Philips wrote and directed a comedy called "There Goes the Neighborhood." He also wrote the horror film "Christine" for Columbia and "The Beans of Egypt Maine" for American Playhouse.
Recently, Phillips has been working for NBC on television movies about Detective Jack Reed, a character based on a real detective in Chicago. The star of the series, Brian Dennehy, co-writes the scripts. He would like to receive credit for his efforts, but only a "writer of record" receives screen credit at the end of the movie.
Professor Phillips' career as a scriptwriter began when he won a contest. His script was chosen from a pool of 650 and produced as a feature film starring Henry Fonda and Myrna Loy. Henry Fonda acted in the film, "Summer Solstice," because he started his acting career on Cape Cod and wanted to end it that way, Phillips said.
Phillips has written 45 scripts, 60 percent of which have been produced. His scripts have been bought by ABC, CBS, Showtime, Columbia, Fox, Paramount, HBO, Universal, NBC and various independents.
When asked to set a script in a hospital, Phillips chose DHMC because it is nearby and because it is a "hospital of the future."
"An NBC exec said he was tired of seeing movies always shot in the same hospital," Phillips said.
Although Phillips designed his script to take place at DHMC, he said that it will probably be shot on a set constructed in Canada. Shooting movies in Canada costs 35% of what it costs in America because of union regulations, Phillips said.
The production company will not have to pay residuals to all the actors every time the movie is shown. The actors are paid a flat fee for acting regardless of how many times the movie is shown in the future.
Phillips said that he wanted to stress the importance of e-mail in conducting research for his script. He created a network of sources including hospital security officers, communications people, the ER head, nurses, professors, and even an expert on hospital architecture.
"All had some interesting things to add," said Phillips.
From an anesthesiologist, Phillips learned of a machine that administers anesthesia. "If it runs out, it beeps, and that is very cinematic," Phillips said.
He also learned of code 1000, the action plan for disasters. "A voice comes over the loudspeaker and announces a disaster. Triage rooms are set up. Phone trees are activated and extra people are called in on duty. They have a 25-page manual."
Phillips graduated from Dartmouth in 1971 and worked at Mary Hitchcock Hospital from 1973 to 1978. He produced educational films for the hospital staff and films documenting the interesting cases of the week.
Phillips taught at Dartmouth one term in 1978, one in 1987, and has taught five years in a row, from 1992 to the present. Phillips came back to Dartmouth because in L.A. he "really missed the tranquility of New Hampshire."
"It's nice dealing with people who aren't ruined by Hollywood yet. Who aren't trying to latch onto what is the hot topic of the week. Maybe they're not as sophisticated or developed, but it is better, truer, not formula stuff that you'll get later."
Conflicts with the network
"It's always a negotiation. How many Hells and damns you can say."
That's not the only problem Phillips came across in dealing with the network. In his first draft, 28 people died, but NBC execs said he had to cut it down to five.
Right now Phillips has eight in caskets. He has to bargain with NBC for those three extra deaths.
An executive told Phillips to add a train explosion because he hadn't seen any of those on TV in awhile.
Although a train did not come into his plot in any way, Phillips wrote in what he considered a very "colorful" train crash in White River Junction. When he returned his script, three other movie scripts were written the same week with train explosions, so Phillips had to write his out.
"The executive had probably told everyone he met with that week to include a train crash," Phillips said.
