Screenwriters
Interviews - Screenwriters
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Screwball Comedy, Marriage and Filmmaking: Lawrence Levine and Sophia Takal on Wild Canaries
A loose-limbed caper comedy that lovingly mashes Hollywood screwball conventions with Brooklyn relationship drama, Lawrence Michael Levine’s sophomore picture, Wild Canaries, tries two things most independent films don’t, and largely succeeds. It’s narratively complex — maybe not Inherent Vice-level, but this mystery thriller about an engaged pair of armchair detectives investigating a possible murder in a rent-controlled apartment is strewn with crosses, double-crosses, disguises and clues. Even more impressively, Wild Canaries shoots for a quality that is often a byproduct of independent cinema but not a goal: entertainment. Inspired, says actor/writer/director Levine, by the “Nick and Nora” Thin Man movies […]
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“Always Have a Low-Budget Back-Up Plan”: Whit Stillman in Wroclaw
Long regarded as one of the more singular, idiosyncratic voices in American independent cinema, Whit Stillman made his debut in 1990 with Metropolitan, the Oscar-nominated comedy of manners. Further dialogue-heavy comedies set among the urban haute bourgeoisie followed (1994’s Barcelona, 1998’s The Last Days of Disco), but it took another 13 years for Stillman to release a fourth film: 2011’s peppy Damsels In Distress. Yet with the pilot of a new Amazon series — Paris-set The Cosmopolitans —recently released to strong reviews, and an adaptation of Jane Austen’s short novel Lady Susan in the cards, it seems like Stillman is truly back in business. At the recent 5th annual American Film Festival […]
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The Independent Screenwriter: Jon Raymond
Portland-based Jon Raymond has four screenplay credits, all in the last decade, to his name, but his iMDB page only tells half the story. Raymond began his career and is still well known as a writer of novels and literary short fiction, and his film career has come not from the usual Black-Listed spec script but from adaptations of his work co-authored by a director/collaborator/friend, Kelly Reichardt. Two stories from his short story collection Livability, “Old Joy” and “Train Choir,” became Reichardt films (Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy, respectively), with the two co-authoring their scripts. That work, and the […]
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Life of the Mind: An Interview with Screenwriter Cliff Dorfman
A bit player since 1993, Cliff Dorfman was instantly drawn to the movie business. “I started out scamming my way into whatever premieres were happening in NYC however I could,” he said. “I just wanted to be around it and absorb it. That attitude blossomed into connections that valued my work, which ultimately led to Entourage.” As we sat down for coffee, Cliff talked candidly about his journey and the writing process. After transitioning from acting to writing on HBO’s hit show, Cliff picked up a nomination from the Writers Guild of America and finally found his calling. “Thought I […]
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The Women of SXSW: Wedlock Creator and Actress Jennifer Lafleur
Following “The Women of Sundance” article in our print and online additions, Danielle Lurie continues her coverage of female filmmakers with a series of pieces highlighting women directors at SXSW. In this email interview, she talks with Jennifer LaFleur, director of the web series, Wedlock, in the Digital Domain section. Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? LaFleur: I found myself as an actor spending far too much time waiting for someone else to give me an opportunity to perform. While at lunch with my manager from Principato Young Entertainment, we were trying to think of […]
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Michelangelo Antonioni on the Utility of Mystery
Michelangelo Antonioni’s work is known for, in addition to many other things, a certain open-endedness in its exploration of theme and narrative. But, you may be surprised to learn that the writer/director could be a bit more on-the-nose in his scripts. At Dangerous Minds, Paul Gallagher references a 2005 interview in The Guardian with Peter Bowles, who plays a drunk partygoer in Antonioni’s Blow-Up. In the original script, he had a monologue that nailed the themes of the movie. However, before shooting, Antonioni decided to cut it. The actor, feeling the speech was “essential to the film,” confronted Antonioni, pleading […]
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“It’s Better to Be Somebody Negative than Nobody”: Breaking Bad‘s Vince Gilligan on Walter White
The following interview of Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is an excerpt from Chapter 5 of The TV Showrunner’s Roadmap: 21 Navigational Tips for Screenwriters to Create and Sustain a Hit TV Series by Neil Landau. It is exclusively excerpted here thanks to Focal Press. Neil Landau: The toughest thing for most screenwriters is creating original characters. People come up with ideas for what might be an interesting show, but creating complex characters is extremely difficult to do. What’s your process when you’re starting with the pilot? Walt [Bryan Cranston] is all about the choices that he makes in life. How do […]
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Dead Dad: Keeping Ultra-Low-Budget Productions Alive
Dead Dad, out now on VOD through FilmBuff, is quite a debut, a mature and entertaining first feature from writer/director Ken J. Adachi. Financed mainly via Kickstarter and from the director’s own pocket, it was shot in 15 days on a Canon 5D Mark II and with a crew of eight or nine people, all volunteers. The film tells the story of three estranged siblings who meet at their father’s funeral and are forced to spend time together while working out what to do with his remains. Filmmaker spoke with Adachi and his co-writer Kyle Arrington (who also plays Russell […]
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The Shape of Something Squashed Director Tom Noonan on How Jennifer Lawrence Inspired His New Play
Playwright, actor, director and screenwriter Tom Noonan is currently debuting his latest play, The Shape of Something Squashed, at New York’s Paradise Factory, but it might never have been written if it weren’t for an invitation to meet with Jennifer Lawrence one day. I’ll let Noonan tell the story below, but suffice to say that the bent emotions and darkly comic introspection that near-encounter produced are the stuff Noonan has memorably mined in his writing and directing work for years. Noonan’s film roles include singular turns in Heat, Mystery Train, Manhunter, Synecdoche, New York, and House of the Devil, to […]
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Interview with Laggies Writer Andrea Seigel
Filmmaker: Why this movie? Why did you decide to do it? Seigel: I guess I first started thinking about writing this movie after a year of attending a bunch of wedding and baby showers and just feeling really confused by them, like, “Are people actually enjoying this?” Filmmaker: Do you think a male director might have handled the making of this film differently? How did being a female filmmaker effect how this film got made do you think? Seigel: I think it would depend on the person. But I do know it was a little tougher on Lynn, being a female filmmaker directing […]
