Do great paychecks equal great movies? These screenplays sold for record amounts, but not all of them paid off...
Hollywood works like a fortified compound. A cabal of writers, producers, directors and actors have all the power, and like to keep things "in the family" so to speak. They don't like to invite newcomers or outsiders to their decadent parties, which makes it all the more amazing when some newby scales the wall and ends up a megastar.
For those reasons, when a writer actually does break into the biz, it's a rare event indeed. Even more miraculous, some writers manage to sell spec scripts (that is, original scripts they wrote without any pay or encouragement) for huge amounts of money, the sale becomes front page news. The scripts and writers listed here (in no particular order) got a taste of that glory. Some managed to parlay the moment into a thriving and lucrative career, while others drifted into obscurity as a flavor of the moment.
