writer/director 38 results

5 Things to Know When Writing a Star Wars Spin-Off

As a young writer, it is important to understand how franchise writing works.  But where do you start?  How do you know what kind of movies Lucasfilm will want to make in the years to come?  That’s where my investigative work comes into play.

Making a Passive Protagonist Work in A Ghost Story

A Ghost Story, written and directed by David Lowery, (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Pete’s Dragon) is one of the most bizarre yet beautiful films I’ve seen in a long time. It’s both clever and frustrating, both emotionally consuming and numbing, both sentimental and existential. That’s a lot of contradictions for one movie. Spoilers ...

How grieving a father’s death became a horror script

Shults says that when he was writing the film, he had no idea where all the dark thoughts were coming from. “But now, after talking about it so much and psychoanalyzing it, I think I understand where it all came from. It’s weird.”

War Machine’s writer/director David Michôd on “schizophrenic” film

For several years, Australian writer/director David Michôd has been eager to make a film about the current war in Afghanistan. After reading the late journalist Michael Hastings’s book, The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan, Michôd knew he had a launching pad for the exact type of war movie ...

Writer/director Catalina Aguilar Mastretta shares the secret to writing a great romantic comedy

Writer/director Catalina Aguilar Mastretta’s new film, Everybody Loves Somebody, tackles the rom-com genre in a sweet yet cerebral way. It’s the story of Clara (Karla Souza from How to Get Away with Murder), a beautiful doctor who’s got everything together except her love life. Clara also straddles two cultures, taking frequent trips to ...

Sing’s writer/director Garth Jennings takes on a new genre: the animated musical

ScreenwritingU sits down with writer/director Garth Jennings on the new genre: the animated musical.

Into the Forest’s Patricia Rozema on creating character-driven drama

The Ellen Page thriller Into the Forest is like most indie films in that character - not plot or action sequences – fuels the movie’s central story arc. Here are 5 tips according to writer/director Patricia Rozema to distinguish your character- driven indie film from the rest.

Maureen Bharoocha flips the traditional ‘male gaze’ in her fresh, sexy new movie, ‘I Am Watching You’

In her second feature film for the Lifetime Movie Network, writer/director Maureen Bharoocha brings a truthful female perspective to the film I Am Watching You, co-written by Ellen Huggins. The thriller is about a young novelist, Nora (Madeline Zima), who begins harmlessly spying on her sexy neighbor, Lucas (Brian Ames). At first, Nora enjoys ...

ONE MORE TIME from writer/director Robert Edwards

What’s a guy who has a military background as a captain in Iraq, who also went to the same high school at Barack Obama doing writing a screenplay about a failed musician planning his big comeback? He’s living the American dream. The one that says you can do anything if you put your mind to it. Screenwriter Robert Edwards came from a ...

TUMBLEDOWN, from screenwriter Desi van Til and director Sean Mewshaw

She was from a small town. He was from every big city in the U.S. and Europe. They were opposites in every way, except when it came to love. And no, we’re not talking about the characters in the new romantic dramedy, Tumbledown, starring Jason Sudeikis and Rebecca Hall. We’re talking about the filmmakers. Screenwriter Desi van Til and ...

BLEEDING HEART, an emotional thriller from writer/director Diane Bell

“She’s incredibly brave and open. She had no ego and no vanity at all,” says writer/director Diane Bell of working with actress Jessica Biel on her thriller Bleeding Heart. The film is set in the serene world of the Southern California yoga community. Biel plays May, a peaceful yoga instructor who discovers she has a half sister. ...

IRAQI ODYSSEY, a family film about living outside your homeland from writer/director Samir

“What’s the meaning of identity? How do you create your identity?” asks writer/director Samir when talking about the inspiration for his documentary Iraqi Odyssey, the story of how one family came to live outside its home country. After Samir finished his 2002 documentary Forgotten Bagdad: Jews and Arabs – The Iraqi Connection, a ...
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