Screenwriter's Series: Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith
The Screenwriters Series will examine the filmography of a screenwriter with the hope of finding out what helped them break into the industry or continue to find success. "Story By" credits will not be used: only films with official WGA Screenplay credit per IMDb will be used. This includes screenplays with multiple writers that may or may not have collaborated.
THIS MONTH'S SCREENWRITERS: Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith

MOVIE: She's The Man (2006)

Starring:
Amanda Bynes as Viola
Channing Tatum as Duke
Laura Ramsey as Olivia Lennox
Vinnie Jones as Dinklage
David Cross as Gold
James Kirk as Sebastian
James Snyder as Malcolm
Robert Hoffman as Justin
Director: Andy Fickman
Budget: $20 Million
Box Office:
Opened: $10.7M
Final: $33.7M
Plot:
After learning that her high school cut the girl's soccer team, Viola unsuccessfully tries to join the men's team and breaks up with her boyfriend in the process because he is against her joining. She finds an opportunity to get back at her boyfriend and the men's team after learning that her brother Sebastian is going to London to pursue music instead of starting at his new boarding school. She poses as Sebastian, joins the soccer team, and hopes to start by the time they play her old school. It proves to be more complicated than she expected to keep her identity a secret, especially when she not only starts to fall for her roommate/soccer team captain Duke but also when she must fight off the advances of classmate Olivia.
The Script:
One important thing to remember is a script is never fully done until the film hits movie screens. The writing of the script comes first, which is consistently rewritten and then there is the filming where locations, casting, and improvisation occur. The final phase of writing comes in the edit. This is especially true for comedies as a lot of physical humor is found and staged on set.
If there is one thing this script is a good reminder of is that improvisation is not a bad thing and you shouldn't hold dialogue sacred. David Cross improvised pretty much every line of dialogue and came up with all of the quirky on campus activities that Gold does, which turned a cartoonishly villainous principal presented in the script into a funny and more memorable character in the film. This changed the villain at Illyria to Malcolm, who was only the principal's lackey in the script.
Casting is also critical to a film. Coach Dinklage is described in the script as an "overzealous 'little person". While the character description is ultimately offensive, it turns out they had written the part for Peter Dinklage and instead Vinnie Jones was cast. It would have been interesting to see Dinklage in the role to be honest. But much like the casting of David Cross, casting Jones (a former footballer himself) in the role changed the overall dynamic of the film.
While the film does have a few questionable moments of gender politics (especially today), the script is much more offensive and transphobic. The draft I read is undated so I am not sure how close to filming it fell but I am glad that these changes to the dialogue occurred because I was enjoying the read until then and ended up leaving with a sour taste.
My Review:
The movie works so well because of Bynes and her hilarious portrayal of hyper masculinity. I found myself chuckling a lot at her reactions and she has good chemistry with Channing Tatum, who makes his debut here. As I said above, there are a couple of messy spots in terms of gender politics but overall this is a clever adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
Critical reception:
43% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Up Next: The House Bunny (2008)