Story Analysts

“My mother had a tough time at first. She said, ‘You’ve had 22 years to figure this out, and you’ve given me five minutes. So give me some time.’”

I fell in love with Last Tango in Paris in the summer of 1973 when I was 20 years old. But now, decades later, I’m sorry to say I’ve fallen …

“I read scripts submitted for consideration, providing a synopsis and my analysis of whether they are a good bet for the studio — the pros and cons of premise, character, …

While working at 20th Century Fox in the early 1990s, story analyst Christine Culler was assigned a steady diet of romantic comedies and children’s books. Then, in 1995, a different …

‘Meet the Parents’ began life as a low-budget 1992 film of the same title. Through the years, assorted A-list directors flirted with the project without proceeding.

I’ve been a bookworm since I was a child, and I distinctly remember telling my parents that there were two professions I wanted to pursue as an adult.

We all want to be the hero of our own story. Such a wish is at the center of director Stephen Frears’ 1992 film ‘Hero.’

Maybe two-thirds of my job involves reading screenplays, novels, non-fiction books, plays, teleplays and treatments. I evaluate their potential as movie or television projects.

I discovered the animal called “story analyst.” These people were allowed to sit on their tuchuses all day to read. And some fool paid them to do this!

Analysts — always the first to see material submitted to a studio or network — spend their working lives trolling for their company’s next big hit.