I was having a pretty uneventful day at the office until I saw this post about a memo written by writer/director David Mamet crop up on my Twitter feed. It’s a note that Mamet addressed to the writing staff of the now-canceled CBS show The Unit, in which he lays out some guiding principles for compelling television. According to Movieline, the memo first surfaced recently at Ink Canada.
David Mamet on what makes for good drama
You may not know that legendary screenwriter David Mamet was the creator (and executive producer) of the failed CBS drama The Unit, which premiered as a mid-season replacement in March 2006 and ran four seasons before it was canceled last May. Yesterday a memo Mamet sent out to his writing staff surfaced online, and it basically reads like a So You Want to Write For Hollywood guidebook.