Read Max Landis' 436 Page SUPER MARIO BROS. Movie Script, Plus Concept Art

"This. Script. Sucks." warns writer Max Landis, the script is for a Super Mario Bros. movie and it's 436 pages long. A properly written script is about a page a minute, so by that measurement the movie is over 7 hours long. This first and only draft of the script was created by a then 19-year-old Landis, making the script 10 years old.

There is a four page intro to the script that Landis wrote yesterday that all aspiring writers should read. He dissects and destroys the script and talks a bit about his journey as a writer.

I've selected a couple excerpts from the intro, but I highly recommend that you read the entire intro:

Writing, I’ve come to learn, is a patience game. Because you do not start out as a good writer. Or rather, I did not start out as a good writer, and have never met anyone who did. In fact, most people never even become good writers, by my standards, because they don’t do it enough, hone it again and again, they don’t have that enthusiasm that makes them want to not just “sound smart” or “sound cool” but to engage the reader and tell the fuck out of a story. 

I’d write a movie a month. Sometimes a movie a week. I refused to leave things unfinished; I'd finish ideas I didn't even like. I’d write shorts. I’d write TV episodes. I had a disease. I couldn’t stop. It was the most exciting thing I’d ever done.  

I really appreciate Landis for releasing this gigantic script. I'm sure it will inspire people to keep practicing their writing.

Somehow Landis got artist Darren Calvert to create some concept art for the movie. The visuals should give you an idea of what it would look like. 

H/T: /Film