Turnaround (film industry term)
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Turnaround in filmmaking is the use of outside assistance to resolve problems preventing a film project completing its development phase and entering the
preproduction Pre-production is the process of planning some of the elements involved in a film, television show, play, or other performance, as distinct from production and post-production. Pre-production ends when the planning ends and the content starts ...
phase. A project stuck in development phase is said to be in
development hell Development hell, development purgatory, and development limbo are media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in development for an especially long time, often moving between different crews, scripts, game engi ...
.


Background

The outside help needed in order to get a film project into turnaround may appear in the form of new money being invested into a project in development hell, or it might come along as another outside studio taking interest in a project which the original studio may find difficult to move forward into the pre-production phase. When an outside source takes over a film project from development hell in one studio and transfers the film project to another studio which is willing to invest further resources to move the project into pre-production, then the project is said to have gone through a 'turnaround'. The film project is now to able to move forward out of development hell in one studio into the pre-production phase of filmmaking at another studio. The term 'turnaround' is borrowed from business operations and management consulting where it is used to describe business ventures which are in some form of insolvency and require a 'business turnaround' or ' management turnaround' in order to become profitable and make a 'turnaround' in business performance. In the case of the filmmaking process, the transfer of the film project from development hell, at one studio, leading to the project receiving a green light to begin pre-production, at another studio, is referred to as a 'turnaround' for that film.


Informal descriptions

A 'turnaround' or 'turnaround deal' is occasionally used to describe an arrangement in the film industry whereby the production costs of a project that one
studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...
has developed are declared a loss on the company's tax return, thereby preventing the studio from exploiting the property any further. The rights can then be sold to another studio in exchange for the cost of development plus interest.


Examples

Michael Cieply defined the term in ''The New York Times'' as "arrangements under which producers can move a project from one studio to another under certain conditions". Some examples include: * Columbia Pictures stopped production of
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...
's ''
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (or simply ''E.T.'') is a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, d ...
''. However, Universal Pictures picked up the film and made it a success. *The turnaround of '' The Boondock Saints'' is documented in ''
Overnight Overnight may refer to: Film and broadcast media * ''Overnight'' (1985 film), a Canadian comedy film * ''Overnight'' (2003 film), 2003 documentary film * ''NBC News Overnight'', an American late night newscast from the early 1980s * ''The Overn ...
'', a 2003 documentary that mainly focuses on the perspective of how director
Troy Duffy Troy Duffy is an American filmmaker and musician. He has directed two films, ''The Boondock Saints'' and its sequel ''The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day''. Duffy was the subject of the 2003 documentary film ''Overnight (2003 film), Overnight' ...
"fell" in Hollywood. *The 1993 film ''My Life's in Turnaround'', starring Donal Lardner Ward, Eric Schaeffer,
Martha Plimpton Martha Plimpton (born November 16, 1970) is an American actress. Her feature-film debut was in '' Rollover'' (1981); she subsequently rose to prominence in the Richard Donner film ''The Goonies'' (1985). She has also appeared in '' The Mosquito ...
and Phoebe Cates, tells the story of two friends who attempt to sell the story of their lives to a variety of studios. *After the rights to adapt Stephenie Meyer's novel Twilight were purchased by
MTV Films MTV Entertainment Studios is the film and television production arm of MTV Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Founded in 1991 as MTV Productions, it is a consolidation of the former MTV ...
in 2004, they were optioned by
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
where it remained in turnaround before they let the rights lapse in 2007. Summit Entertainment picked them up and released Twilight in 2008. *The 2012 film ''
Argo In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of sour ...
'' makes several references to the film that was faked for the 1980 CIA Iranian hostage extraction operation as being "in turnaround".David Edelstein interviewed by Terri Gross on review of Argo: (2012-10-12) https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=162785168


References and notes

Film production Intellectual property law {{filmmaking-stub