Hal Croasmun of ScreenwritingU interviewed best selling author and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith about his movies DARK SHADOWS, and ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, and his path to A-List in the movie business.
In this interview, Seth talked about:
- How he went from an unknown writer to a major player!
- His secret to finding the deeper story inside the story.
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By Jenna Milly
Writer/director Ariel Vromen wanted to find a story he could “commit suicide on,” he said. When he found the biography of Richard Kuklinski, the most notorious hitman of all time, things got serious for the writer/director of dark dramas. He got a little more than he bargained for in discovering the life of the man who claimed to have murdered Jimmy Hoffa.
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By Jenna Milly
Adapting a film from a book is one thing, but what do you do when you’re asked to adapt a foreign film into a Hollywood production? Screenwriter Justin Zackham, best known for writing the heartfelt dramedy The Bucket List, decided taking on this kind of adaptation for his first foray into the world of...
By Jenna Milly
Would you like to make a movie about a group of body builders who become extortionists and killers…? It’s not the kind of question a studio exec would likely say yes to… unless it’s based on a true story.
Pain & Gain, the new black comedy-slash-crime movie, is about just this topic. Based on...
By Jenna Milly
First time screenwriter F. Scott Frazier wanted to write a contained thriller he could go out and make on his own. He never dreamt his script would become a big Hollywood movie staring John Cusack and Malin Akerman. But the story was so compelling that when his spec script went out to the market, it created a buzz around town that was undeniable.
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by Chris Soth
As the screenwriters in my mentorship program are finishing up their terrific screenplays, and deep in their third acts, this question often comes up:
What end should our villain/antagonist/bad guy come to?
Here's a prime example, from A TON of cop movies we've seen, even if no specific title comes to mind:
Act Three: Our Hero Cop has finally gotten murderous killer dead...
By Jenna Milly
Hanging out with Tom Cruise at his house seems like it would be the highlight of anyone’s screenwriting career. Writer Karl Gajdusek had the chance to do just that when he worked on a rewrite of Oblivion, the new sci-fi action movie coming out April 19.
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By Jenna Milly
Karen Croner spent years writing dramas about characters with terminally ill diseases. Although she loved her work, after a while she started to yearn for something different. In a moment of epiphany she said one day, “I want to write a comedy for Tina Fey.”
While it seemed like a long shot, with a few careful (and lucky, as she puts...
By Jenna MIlly
It took them ten years to get their script about a break-in at the White House on the market and only 12 months to see it come out in theaters. The remarkable story of screenwriting team, Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, reminds everyone in Hollywood that giving up is not an option.
Their script, ...
By Jenna Milly
The screenwriters who brought you the hilarious murder caper Horrible Bosses in the summer of 2011 are at it again with The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Jonathan Goldstein and...
