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Writers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz drop hints about the secrets behind I Want to Believe, the new movie spun from the series, and their own creative process.
Channeling the Past:
As the TV series approaches its 15th anniversary, Carter and Spotnitz join Creative Screenwriting in looking back through the episode files.
STORIES BY JASON DAVIS
Love Among the Ruins
In WALL-E, Andrew Stanton's new Pixar movie, a robot abandoned on a trash-strewn planet finds his soul mate.
BY DANNY MUNSO
Pilot Lessons
'Tis the season for selling original series. Despite a downturn in
production, an original pilot is now an essential part of a TV writer's
portfolio. Our roundtable weighs in on what to write and where things
are headed.
BY SHELLEY GABERT
Riveting Recount
How first-time writer Danny Strong mined suspense from a story whose ending we know too well.
BY ERIC ELFMAN
School Craze: Our Annual Education Focus Acting the application: Tips and a Timeline
A successful recent applicant helps you navigate the grad-school gauntlet.
BY LEAH CAMERON
UCLA vs. USC: The Cross-town Smackdown
Who's the best? Our handy chart compares screenwriting options at two of the best-known schools in the filmmaking capital.
BY NANCY HENDRICKSON
Leave the Light On Short-stay MFAs, also known as brief residency programs, let students return home to write.
BY JACK EGAN
$20,000 Cash First Prize Plus Access to Hollywood
Prizes Awarded At the Expo
Next Contest Deadline Is Midnight 9/15/08.
For information or to enter, click here.
Free Podcasts — Jeff
Goldsmith's Interviews With
Writers And Directors At the Creative Screenwriting
Film Screening Series — Click
here
Excerpts
From Our Current Issue!
Hancock
BY PETER CLINES
A large element
of the comedy co-writer Vince Gilligan added was taking Hancock’s
rude and boorish behavior to a higher level, which makes his eventual
transformation all the more dramatic. “Again, I was building on a
very solid foundation that Vincent Ngo had left me,” he says.
“In the original draft he’s kind of an unpleasant guy. And
it’s not that he intends to be unpleasant, it’s just that
his unhappiness wells out of him in various ways that make him come
across as antisocial and alienated and unpleasant. I just loved the
idea of a superhero who was just repellant. And the question arises,
how thankful do you have to be when you get saved by a guy like
this?” Gilligan also credits some of his inspiration to the
sequence in Superman III where Christopher Reeve’s sullen and drunk Man of Steel is shooting peanuts across the bar like bullets.
Portraying
an unlikable person isn’t always desirable, Gilligan says, and he
gives Will Smith praise for taking on such a role. “The thing you
worry about is that movie stars come in and shave off the rough
edges,” Gilligan explains. “They sand the sharp, pointy
edges off the character and make him or her more likeable because
they’re worried about their public not liking them. Will Smith is
fearless.” No matter how abrasive or outrageous Gilligan was
willing to push the superhero character, the leading man was always
willing to back him up and be even more offensive.
Like
what you just read? Read Peter Clines'
entire interview with Vince Gilligan in the latest
issue
of Creative Screenwriting!
The Wackness BY JEFF GOLDSMITH
In 2005 Jonathan Levine made a film called Love Bites about his Internet dating experiences, which in turn influenced the bourgeoning Wackness
concept. “Inevitably there's a lesson to be learned about how the
pursuit of what you're missing in your own life has nothing to do with
something external fulfilling that,” Levine says. He was also
spurred on by the thought of having an adult character (Squires) take a
similar growth arc that mirrors the teenager he’s supposed to be
guiding. “Everyone I know grows up, matures, regresses and then
matures again,” Levine says. “I thought it would be
interesting to have two characters of different ages learning a
coming-of-age lesson at the same time.”
Levine
chose not to outline before writing his first draft. “I wanted to
just keep writing and then retroactively discover my through
line,” Levine says. “I'm not sure I would do that again
because it's very inefficient but, for me, it raised the ceiling much
higher. After I got to certain point, I noticed through lines ranging
from what it's like to grow up, or the fact that sometimes adults can
be more immature than children along with notions of sexuality and
love. So once I got to the end I went back and brought all those things
out even more."
Check
out the rest of Jeff Goldsmith's interview with Jonathan Levine in the latest
issue!
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