On the Basis of Sex is a biopic about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg written by first-time screenwriter Daniel Stiepleman. It’s pretty rare that the subject of a biopic will give notes to the screenwriter, but this case was special. Stiepleman is actually Ginsburg’s nephew. His mother is Ginsburg’s husband Marty’s sister, so I asked him what it like having a groundbreaking Justice in the family.
I sat down with comic book writer Geoff Johns, who developed the story of Aquaman, along with screenwriters David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall to talk about bringing this story to life. The movie is visually lush, entertaining and full of surprises. It is a thrill-ride of an underwater fantasy lead by Jason Momoa as Arthur, who’s half land-dwelling human and half sea-loving Atlantean.
We all love watching movies. A good film takes you on a journey of adventure and self-discovery. Watching and re-watching classic films like Taxi Driver, Casablanca, or Titanic is what inspired us to become screenwriters in the first place. If you write in a particular genre, it’s important to watch all the current and past films in your genre. It’s also good to read books about screenwriting or take classes. But the one thing many screenwriters tend to overlook is the importance of reading screenplays.
The new historical epic Mary Queen of Scots is written by Beau Willimon (creator of the American version of House of Cards) and is based on the 2004 biography Mary Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart by John Guy. Well, it’s mostly based on the biography by Guy. Willimon took a liberty with one simple scene and British historians are calling it “problematic.” I call it genius.
