Interviews

In the screenwriting world, writing a movie with Pixar is like taking a trip to the moon. Deep in the recesses of the “brain trust” – as Monsters University writers Robert Baird and Dan Gerson call the folks who sit in on story development at the exclusive animation studio – is where all the magic

  How could the man who wrote Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures, like totally, and also write a crime thriller with elaborate plot twists such as Now You See Me? Meditation is his answer. With every project screenwriter Ed Solomon takes on, he rediscovers the craft of writing and what drew him to it in

By Jenna Milly How do you wake up with a hangover and decide this will be your last one? That’s the question screenwriter Craig Mazin faced when sitting down with director Todd Phillips to write the last and final edition of drunken comedy series, The Hangover Part III. “We wanted to end it, and we

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

  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

  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

  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 John Francis Daley co-wrote the new comedy about a tired magician who has to find his mojo again when everyone he works with

  Writing the origin story to The Wizard of Oz was a longtime passion for screenwriter Mitch Kapner. Too bad everyone in Hollywood told him he was crazy as soon as he mentioned the idea. “It’s an idea I had and would talk about years and years and years ago,” said Kapner. Studio executives would

The former storyboard artist for movies like Despicable Me and Ice Age: Continental Drift, Cal Brunker, wrote and directed his first feature animation, Escape from Planet Earth with his writing partner Bob Barlen. This is the first full-length animation that the Weinstein Company has done from start to finish, and it has an A-list cast.

How do you manage the comedy, tone and dialog when you’re writing a script for comedians Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy? Very carefully says screenwriter Craig Mazin who penned the R-rated comedy Identity Thief staring these two actors. “There is no one joke or one piece of dialog worth bringing the movie down around it.