Mania for Youth Leads Hollywood Astray

Congratulations to 17-year-old high school student Jessica Kaplan on selling her first screenplay (“Fast Times for Santa Monica Student,” Calendar, Aug. 23). The story about white suburban kids becoming infatuated with gangsta culture with tragic results certainly sounds topical and high-concept.

At the risk of offending New Line Single Cell producer Michael Stipe, I found his comment, “I know all too well that you can’t get a 40-year-old screenwriter to write something like this,” a bit bewildering. Didn’t Amy Heckerling, a writer-director who is almost 40, just write and direct a movie about high school students called “Clueless”? This low-budget movie has gone on to become the sleeper of the summer and has already grossed $50 million. This has led to a $10-million deal for 18-year-old star Alicia Silverstone to appear in two pictures. In the publicity blitzkrieg for the movie, Silverstone has appeared on numerous magazine covers. Little mention is made of Heckerling, who also directed “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and “Look Who’s Talking.” While I certainly think Silverstone is a beautiful and talented actress, if you read the publicity it sounds like she made up the dialogue all by herself. As if!

Using Stipe’s thesis, “Pocahontas” could have only been written by someone who lived in Colonial America, “Batman Forever” by someone who lived in Gotham City, and “Babe” by a pig. There is something called imagination and research that writers use regardless of what subjects they choose to write about. This mania for youth in our industry is perhaps the reason most films today are so juvenile.

MICHAEL Q. MARTIN

Sherman Oaks