Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast

• Write On: 'The Long Walk' Screenwriter JT Mollner

  "I didn't think I'd be a good fit as a writer if they were going to do a PG version of the story. That's not where my strength lies, so the great thing is that the version Francis [Lawrence, the director] wanted to make was the version I wanted to write. A week later, we had a meeting with Lionsgate, we pitched the project, and they said, let's do it. So, it all happened very fast. It's really not common how smooth that process went," says screenwriter JT Mollner about sharing a clear vision with the film's director for making The Long Walk.  On today's episode, we chat with JT Mollner best known for his movie Strange Darling (2023), told in six non-linear chapters, and now The Long Walk. We talk about the challenge and thrill of adapting Stephen King considering Mollner grew up mesmerized by Stephen King's books. He even read Carrie in second grade  – a transgression that landed him in the principal's office for possessing obscene material. Mollner also shares a birthday with King so it seems like it was all meant to be.  Mollner also shares that he made a decision early in the writing of the screenplay not to stray too far from Stephen King's beloved novel. "I wanted the focus of the movie to be the emotions, and the relationships. And so Francis and I talked about it, and instead of updating it completely, we decided to keep it aesthetically, sort of in the same place where the book was written. We wanted to be very, very faithful to the DNA, however, maybe in a deviated version of reality, where our country had gone in a very different direction at some point," he says. Mollner also talks about growing up in the family business of haunted houses and why he hasn't been interested in making a horror film – yet.  To hear more, listen to the podcast.

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• Write On: 'Hedda' Writer/Director Nia DaCosta

  "I love adaptations. The beauty of adaptation, especially a classic, like Shakespeare and Chekhov or Ibsen, they're such a gift because they give you this beautiful framework, and it's almost like they're begging you to take it and make it your own," says writer/director Nia DaCosta about adapting Henrik Ibsen's 1891 play Hedda Gabler into her new film Hedda.   Set in the 1950s, the movie stars Tessa Thompson in the lead role, Imogen Poots as Thea, and reimagines the character Eilert Lovborg as a queer woman (now Eileen), played by Nina Hoss.  We chat with Nia DaCosta about her journey to becoming a filmmaker, genre hopping into horror with Candyman and the upcoming 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. She even made the superhero movie The Marvels. We also talk about the challenges of tackling the complicated, often cruel character of Hedda in the new film.  "When I read the play [Hedda Gabler]," says DaCosta, "I'm like, this woman is hilarious! She's absolutely absurd. In the play, she's so verbose roaming around this sitting room, yelling at everyone who comes in. I wanted to replicate that, but more through action. And then there's the empathy part of it. To me, her tragedy is that she will never know herself. It's a life's work to understand and know ourselves, our emotional world. I think because she is so cruel, because she is so unhappy, because she has made these decisions that have trapped herself in this life – that to me is really sad. But I don't want people to forgive her for what she's done, or to excuse it."  DaCosta also shares her advice on adapting someone else's story. "I think you have to know why you want to do it, and what it is you want to use the work to say. To let that 'why' sort of guide your pen. That's my convoluted way of saying trust your gut."  If you've been thinking about adapting a classic play into a modern movie, you don't want to miss this podcast.   

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• Write On: 'Splinter Cell: Deathwatch' Creator/Writer Derek Kolstad

  "As you do draft after draft, it becomes shorter and rendered down. And [Keanu Reeves and I] would go through scenes going, 'Can people say less? Can the action be tighter? Can the action sequence be shorter?' The action is an extension of the hero's journey and if you don't give a sh*t about the character, it doesn't matter how great your action is," says Derek Kolstad about his writing process with actor Keanu Reeves when they worked on the script that would become John Wick and spark an entire franchise.  On today's episode, we speak with screenwriter Kolstad about his masterful John Wick action movies and his new animated TV show, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Deathwatch based on the popular video game.   Kolstad also shares his surprising advice for coming up with action scenes that feel fresh and inventive by going back to the silent era. "Look at Buster Keaton. Harold Lloyd, and Fatty Arbuckle, the Keystone Cops. Look at how those sequences were done, and then there's Asian cinema, you know? What I love about the things that I've been a part of is there's always this sense of humor at play. Nothing's so dark and so bleak that you're not enjoying it." To hear more, listen to the podcast. 

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• Write On: 'After the Hunt' Writer Nora Garrett

  "People never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war or before an election." –Otto Von Bismarck  "It's funny, because when I was writing After the Hunt, I definitely wasn't like, 'Oh, I want to write about this current socio-political moment.' I was really just invested in the characters and the story," says screenwriter Nora Garrett about writing a screenplay that probes the dynamics of power, privilege and social accountability. She adds, "What I didn't even realize was something that was drilled into me because of my acting training – that the work, the scripts, the text, should not be divorceable from the socio-political moment. One comes from the other and I think that was just in the back of my brain while I was writing."   On today's episode, we chat with screenwriter Nora Garrett about her new film After the Hunt, directed by Luca Guadagnino (Challengers), and starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri. Set in the philosophy department at Yale University, a devastating accusation by a female student (Edebiri) against a male teacher (Garfield) unleashes public and personal chaos that blurs the truth of the situation and will have you questioning the motives of every single character. Garrett talks about working as an assistant in Hollywood, spending time on many film sets, and watching the good, bad and ugly parts of the existing power dynamics. These experiences helped her form the complex, morally gray characters that inhabit her script.  "We have a really hard time holding duality in our head. We have a really hard time being like, 'This is a good person who has done a bad thing' or, 'This is a bad person who occasionally does good things.' And it's not even really about bad and good, right and wrong. I think it's about this feeling of why these characters present themselves a certain way, and is that different from how they feel about themselves on the inside?" says Garrett. She also shares what she learned about writing from working with Julia Roberts: "Economy. Julia is such a good actor, and I am the type of writer who will take two paragraphs to say what she can say in a look. I think that what I really learned from her was that sometimes you just don't need to say this monologue, you need these two lines, economy of word, and then asurplus of really good character thought brought by an actor can sometimes make a scene sing more than a lot of dialogue." To learn more, listen to the podcast. 

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• Write On: 'Anemone' Co-Writer/Director Ronan Day-Lewis

  "[My dad] really started to inhabit the characters, especially Ray, speaking as him during the writing process. That was when I realized this was going to be its own kind of special beast. Working with him taught me so much as a writer and storyteller; by the time we got to set, we had a shorthand for everything," says director and co-writer Ronan Day-Lewis about writing the script Anemone with his father, Daniel Day-Lewis.   The film Anemone, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Bean and Samantha Morton, paints a portrait of a family torn apart as they struggle to come to terms with their past and present after their harrowing experiences with the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. Isolation, shame, regret and the true meaning of brotherhood are themes explored in this hyper-focused family drama.   On today's episode we sit down with Ronan Day-Lewis to find out more about his edgy first feature film, what it's like writing a screenplay with Daniel Day-Lewis, and Ronan's personal connection between his visual art and the imagery in the film.  Ronan also shares this advice to screenwriters tackling family and generational stories: "Whatever you can fall in love with, latch onto that: an image, a feeling, a character. Don't put pressure on approaching a script a certain way. Stay open, be patient, and keep sight of what originally gave you the impulse to enter that world. Over time, the story will reveal itself to you." To learn more about this surprising and deeply emotional film, listen to the podcast. 

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