Screenwriter sells scripts to Kindle, Netflix

Screenwriter David Brautigam’s new book, Revenge is a Must, is now available on Amazon. Plans are also in work to turn it into a Netflix series. Photo submitted.

It took one bad movie to convince David Brautigam that he could write a better one.

“My dad and I used to watch movies as a hobby. And the way I got involved with screenwriting is that we watched ‘The Happening,’ by far one of the worst movies we had ever seen. We walked out of it,” Brautigam said of the viewing 13 years ago. “And I remember my dad driving me home the day after the movie. I remember just being all, you know, frustrated, passionate, about it. I remember telling him I can write a screenplay off the top of my head better than what we just saw.”

That was the night Brautigam turned his words into action. His first step was to research how to write and format a screenplay. Then, he began pounding keys.

“It took me about a year and a half to write ‘Revenge is a Must,” which was actually my first project,” he said.

Brautigam was comfortable enough with the screenplay to send it to a high school friend, Bret Harrison, an actor with more than 30 screen credits to his name.

“Bret looked at it, sent me an email back, and I’ll never forget what his email said. At the end of the email, it said for your first screenplay this is really, really good. You just have to do this, this and this,” Brautigam said. “That really was all the encouragement I needed.”

Later, “Revenge is a Must” impressed others. Amazon Kindle was so impressed it converted the screenplay into a book, available online. Netflix is turning it into a series.

Brautigam has three other screenplays - “Lost Meaning of Loyalty,” “Incarcerated” and “City of Grave” - being turned into books by Amazon Kindle as well. Six other projects he has outlined are in various stages of development.

“Let’s just say I haven’t wasted too much time in the years I’ve been doing this,” Brautigam said.

When Brautigam wasn’t writing, he was making himself known.

“During a five- or six-year span I ended up writing four screenplays,” he said. “But I also started networking with a bunch of people in the industry. I developed relationships to the point where I started to fly down to (Los Angeles) to meet with people.”

At one time, he said, it appeared his second screenplay, “Lost Me a Loyalty,” would be the first of his projects to get the Hollywood treatment.

“We ended up getting a $24 million budget. Got the money into an escrow account from investors. We were about to go cast. We were going to get a director. And about a couple of days before we started that process - I was two, three weeks away from signing paperwork - the writers’ strike happened,” Brautigam said as to why the project was shelved. “Didn’t go into a big-time depression. But I was depressed and frustrated and didn’t really know if I wanted to keep doing it.” 

His depression didn't linger, however.

“About two or three days after (the project was shelved), I got a phone call from Amazon Kindle offering to make ‘Revenge is a Must’ into a book. Then they requested my other three screenplays. They read those, and within 24 hours they called back and asked if they could make those into books as well. So that’s how it all happened,” Brautigam said.

Though the author was far from excited about taking the call, at first.

“The funny part about getting the call from Amazon is that I thought they had messed up on delivering a package to my house. So I answered the phone very salty,” he said. “And then it was, like, hi, my name is Ray, and I’m from Amazon Kindle. It took me a while to sort of figure out why they were calling.”

The fact Brautigam was ready and waiting with four screenplays when Kindle called was good planning on his part. From his research, he knew the importance of creating a profile.

“What they meant by (profile) was to have more than one project available. So if they do like a project, they’re going to ask what else you have,” he said. “I think that was probably the smartest thing I did.”

Brautigam is known locally as a former coach of the Dallas High School varsity girls basketball team. He coached here from 2006 to 2017. He played college ball at Western Oregon University and Lane Community College.

“I took the (coaching) job because I loved basketball. Found out later (Dallas) had only won about three games in the previous two years, and that the program was in disarray,” he said. “We built that program up to win a couple of conference championships. We were a top 10 team in the state every year.”

The Dragons reached the state semifinals his final year.

“I knew then that my time was over for coaching, and that I was sort of going onto the next chapter of my life. And part of the decision of not coaching was to take on this screenwriting, book author career," he said. "I have a lot of great friendships and memories of being out there and coaching out there. Just wish we could have kept it going.”

Brautigam was writing screenplays while coaching and raising a family. To say he was busy is an understatement.

“You’re just finding any time that you can to write. Whether it’s waking up early in the morning or staying up late at night. The process for me was waking up early, 5 o’clock, getting stuff done for about two hours. Going to work for eight hours. Coming home. Either coaching my kids or coaching the high school team. You get done around 6 or 7. You’ve got to eat. You want to spend time with the family, soon 9 o’clock rolls around. So from 9 o’clock to 2 o’clock in the morning, almost every day for the last eight years, you write," he said. "It’s been a grind.”

What there isn’t time for is self-doubt.

“I have to believe in myself … to justify all the time I’ve put into this work. It’s been a lot,” he said.

Brautigam is not surprised with his success.

“If someone were to tell me that (I would be successful) five years ago, my reaction would be that I can definitely see that I’m capable of doing that,” he said. “But I could also go the other way and say, no, I can see it not happening. Just because of how crazy the industry is. It’s a cutthroat industry and there’s a lot of competition.”

Talent aside, the secret to Brautigam’s success is almost a cliche.

“You hear all the catchy phrases. Don’t give up on your dreams. All that kind of stuff. There’s truth to that. I have been really relentless. As far as the networking, as far as the writing, I have really, honestly, in the last eight or nine years, haven’t taken any time off,” he said. “It’s just been go, go, go.”

It’s the stuff that dreams (and hard work) are made of.