We sat down with Goddard to find out what inspired him to make Bad Times at the El Royale and get tips on writing a screenplay with multiple protagonists.
One of the biggest mistakes screenwriters can make is overwriting their screenplay. Unless you’re Aaron Sorkin, whose screenplay for The Social Network was a whopping 164 pages with scenes lasting eight pages, you need to keep the dialogue, scene descriptions and page count as short and tight as possible. It’s worth repeating that film is a visual form of storytelling and we want to support the images with our screenplay, not the other way around. Here are a few guidelines to keep you from writing too much.
When a producer called up screenwriter Drew Goddard (World War Z, Cloverfield, The Cabin in the Woods) and told him he should adapt an e-book called The Martian, Goddard told him that sounded like a terrible idea. But it wasn't long before Goddard along with many other fans realized this e-book about an American astronaut stranded on Mars ...
