The chaotic nature of any artistic medium should make it clear that people succeed because of countless factors other than merit.) But it is always worth asking yourself whether a fairytale story is shared widely because it is exactly that - a fairytale. (And it is luck, no matter how talented you are. The story of JK Rowling, for instance, really does involve a debut author with precious little money being rejected by a dozen publishers before striking lucky. Some stories of failure or rejection are relatively straightforward, hiding neither privilege nor previous career success. How much easier did he have it, already having a famous wrestler as a parent? The Rock secured his big break when a WWE announcer went to meet him at a young age how likely would this meeting had been if his father had been anyone else? A narrative that downplays that detail, as though success happens in a vacuum, is disingenuous - and unfair to the people who enter the playing field to discover that it is not level. But Johnson’s goal was to become a professional wrestler. Yes, Dwayne Johnson once famously only had seven bucks to his name and thought he was never going to make it. But, as the details in Hwang’s story prove, it is the small print that makes all the difference. Many people do follow Hwang’s trajectory and do tell exactly that story from the stage as they clutch their first Oscar. They struggled we’re struggling! We’re the same! We too will go on to turn our overlooked ideas into global bestsellers! It’s only a matter of time! We love to hear that the rich and famous struggled in their early days because it means that they are no different to us. It’s about how we - especially screenwriters, if you check the reactions to the tweet - interpret success stories. This isn’t to downplay Hwang’s craft or the quality of Squid Game. When he approached Netflix, therefore, he wasn’t a writer with one extremely unpopular idea he was a writer with one extremely unpopular idea and a string of massive box office hits. More importantly, however, the director then went on to make three films - The Crucible (Silenced), Miss Granny and The Fortress - that were critically and commercially successful, becoming some of the most popular films in the history of South Korea. Hwang may have written the show in 2009, but even before that he had won international awards for his student film work. The impression the reader is left with is a linear one in which Hwang, hunched over keyboard (a keyboard he later sells so that he can afford to eat), works continually on the Squid Game script for a decade, to the exclusion of all else, until he places it under the nose of a Netflix genius who sees its extraordinary potential and makes him a millionaire. It’s a heartening story, but, as various people pointed out, also a misleading one. Today it’s #1 in 90 countries + set to become the most-watched show in Netflix history.” He once had to stop writing the script + sell his $675 laptop due to money struggles. We’ve all seen the tweet: “ Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk wrote the show in 2009 but was rejected by studios for 10 years.
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