SoulHonky

I thought I'd start spreading the Hollywood "wisdom" I've learned over the years to the six or so people who actually look at this site. The first saying isn't just based on the entertainment business, I've actually heard it from an auto mechanic as well. It's something that holds true for pretty much everyone.

"There's three things: fast, cheap, and good. You can only have two."

While it seems like a simply saying, it almost always holds true. If something is going to be good, it's either going to cost money or take time. Currently, it seems like Hollywood has been going for fast and cheap. While Hollywood films aren't exactly "cheap", the studios are scrimping at the core of these films, the script.
In "Adventures in the Screen Trade", William Goldman talks about many of the writing gigs he had in Hollywood, many of them lasting over a year. He worked on the script for "All The Predident's Men" for something like 16 months. The only time that happens today is when a film is put into turnaround. With a hot property like "President's Men", the studio would likely rush into production and (as is growing more and more commonplace) even start shooting before the script is finished. Sometimes it can work out but usually "working out" means that a film looks marketable enough to have a solid opening weekend, not that it is actually a good film.