Poetic License
A Sit-Down with Austin Bunn and John Krokidas, the creative minds behind Kill Your Darlings
First discovering the Beat writers in college, screenwriter Austin Bunn was instantly smitten by the countercultural voices of generations past. But no one spoke to him louder than iconic poet Allen Ginsberg, and Bunn soon found himself scouring the campus bookstore to find anything he could get his hands on by the legendary writer. “I […]
Kill Your Darlings: Not Just Good Advice for Writers
Kill Your Darlings harks back to the origin of the counterculture movement, seen through the eyes of the biggest mover of them all
In 1944, when Columbia University student Lucien Carr fatally stabbed a gay man named David Kammerer before dumping his corpse into the Hudson River, he called upon a scholarly school mate to help him craft his defense. And by framing his crime as an “honor killing,” where murdering homosexuals and other so-called miscreants was deemed […]
Penning Prisoners
Screenwriter Aaron Guzikowsi discusses writing the thriller that could (and did!)
Screenwriter Aaron Guzikowsi was riding a hum-drum day job stuffing envelopes at a New York ad agency, when inspiration struck for a screenplay about a tale of children gone missing and the ripple effects this had on their families. After hammering away at the story for years—often in his former employer’s supply closet, Guzikowsi completed […]
An Unlikely Journey: How Lee Daniels’ The Butler Beat All Odds
Fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, the civil right struggle emerges front and center in Lee Daniels’ The Butler.
While some people attempt to affect civil rights change through radical activism, others take a quieter, more cerebral approach. And then there’s Cecil Gaines—the fictitious namesake behind Lee Daniels’ The Butler, who flies completely under the radar, with a somber demeanor that verges on reticent. Yet we hardly fault Cecil for the quiet obedience he […]
Lee Daniels, director of Lee Daniels’ The Butler
The filmmaker behind the indie period tale about American politics, that has dominated the box office for three weeks running, Lee Daniels makes history with a film about making history.
by Andrew Bloomenthal Whether producing movies or directing them, filmmaker Lee Daniels isn’t afraid to tackle controversial topics. In The Woodsman, Kevin Bacon plays a child molester freshly-released from prison. In Shadowboxer, Hellen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr. are simultaneously stepmom and stepson, contract killers and lovers. And Precious—an unflinching portrayal of an abused, obese […]
