I know a lot of writers. I talk to a lot of writers. We all have agents, many have managers.
With very, very rare exception, none of us give two squirrel balls what our agents or managers think about our screenplays.
What we WANT is for these people to:
1. Sell our work
2. Get us in rooms with buyers, directors and actors
3. Package our work with filmmakers and performers
4. Negotiate the best deals possible for us
So Garfield, rather than stare at the tea leaves of the conversation you had with your representatives, ask yourself this question: "What do I think about the screenplay I just wrote?"
If you feel it's a great foot forward and you're ready for them to go out and kill for you, tell them that.
If you feel there are important improvements you must make-- not want to make, but MUST make... you feel them in your bones-- then make those improvements.
Agents and managers motivate their clients to create work they can then sell.
Agents and managers are not known for their taste in screenplays, their insightful notes, their grasp of character or dramatic structure.
They are known for their ability to know what sold yesterday. Not today, not tomorrow. Yesterday.
They are known for their ability to connect a seller with a buyer.
They are known for their ability to group like-minded artists together in a team that becomes more than the sum of its parts.
That's it.
Stop caring what they have to say about your script. It doesn't matter.
Make a choice about what you want to do, and then tell them what your choice is and why, and then when you're ready, tell them to promote you and your script. Tell them who you think should be reading it and why.
None of this will matter a damn if the script is less than very, very good.
But if it's very, very good, then hopefully your representatives will get a chance to do the jobs they're actually qualified to do, as enumerated above.
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