100 Free-Lance Writers Brainstorm at 48-Hour Script-a-Thon at Mall

A group of 100 Southern California free-lance writers began a race against the clock Friday to bang out a full-length blockbuster movie script within 48 hours while on display at a chic shopping mall.

“It’s a pretty off-beat way to put together a script, but we’re having a load of fun doing it so far,” said Elizabeth Burke, a spokeswoman for the Century City Shopping Center, located within hailing distance of a variety of major film studios, production offices and talent agencies.

The writers hope to produce a complete script out of the nonstop brainstorming session, then spend the next seven weeks fine-tuning their product in time for an invitation-only auction for studio executives and agents Sept. 15.

The event, something like a literary relay race, was organized by the 450-member nonprofit Independent Writers of Southern California. It started at 6 a.m., with each of the writers scheduled to take a 30-minute turn at a word processor set up on a stage in the middle of the open-air mall.

The script is based on a previously prepared 30-page treatment for a romantic comedy called “The Hot Property,” a story that involves an elderly man who wants to bestow his home--the last affordable house in Los Angeles--on a deserving young couple.

Passers-by can try out their scripting skills by making a $10 donation, which will go toward writing scholarships for needy students at Venice High School.

Once every hour, actors and directors, including Paul Miller of “Saturday Night Live” and Brad Gross of “The Wonder Years,” will create performances from the finished parts of the script.

The script-a-thon, which concludes at 6 a.m. Sunday, was organized partly to show off the skills--and the faces--of its members.

“This is a way to get free-lance writers out of their little cubbyholes and into the public eye,” Burke said.

The Writer’s Digest, a monthly magazine that is considered a periodical bible for free-lance writers, is also a sponsor of the event.