The 1992 Robert Altman movie “The Player” has a scene in which movie studio executives are sitting around complaining about the cost of acquiring scripts from outside screenwriters and one of them proposes having the studio generate its own stories instead. In an effort to demonstrate that this is plausible, he goes around the table having each executive choose a story from that day’s newspaper, and he verbally creates on the spot a brief screenplay précis out of it.
The protagonist, a rival studio executive, muses mockingly in response, “Yeah. I was thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we can get rid of the actors and directors, maybe we've got something.”
I’ve been thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the witness from the trial process—and the evidence, for that matter. If we can get rid of the lawyers and judges and jurors, maybe we’ve got something.
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