SCAD Savannah Film Fest: Jitters Writer, Director & Star Otoja Abit
Actor Otoja Abit had an idea for a short. It was a simple idea that concealed a depth of feeling; what if we got to see a young man, moments before his wedding ceremony, question whether or not he was making the right choice. Abit, who has acted on TV (The Defenders, The Night Of), film (Stonewall), and in theater in New York, wanted to take what he’d learned and make something himself.
Writer/Director Peter Hedges on Re-Finding his Voice With Ben is Back
Writer/director Peter Hedges was in attendance at the Middleburg Film Festival to promote and talk about his new film Ben is Back, which stars Julia Roberts and Hedges’ son Lucas, as a mother and her drug-addicted son, who returns from rehab for a 24-hour visit on Christmas Eve. Holly Burns (Roberts) loves her son, even as it is clear he’s having difficulty getting his life back together. Ben seems genuinely committed to sobriety,
Rupert Everett on Writing, Directing & Starring in his Oscar Wilde Biopic The Happy Prince
Fans of both Rupert Everett and literary great Oscar Wilde have been patiently waiting for the release of the new film The Happy Prince, which has been 10 years in the making. The film Everett wrote, directed, and stars in is an unvarnished look at Wilde’s last few years, following his decline after release from a two-year imprisonment for homosexuality. We spoke to Everett about what inspired him as a first-time director,
Writer/Director Felix van Groeningen on Music, Catharsis, and Crafting Beautiful Boy
Known for his critically-acclaimed film Broken Circle Breakdown, which was the Belgian entry for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, writer/director Felix van Groeningen has been courted for years by Hollywood producers to helm his first English language film. He found the perfect project in Beautiful Boy, based on two bestselling memoirs by writers David and Nic Sheff. David’s book, from which the film gets its title, is about his journey dealing with his crystal meth and drug-addicted son Nic.
Elizabeth Chomko on her Bittersweet & Beautiful Directorial Debut What They Had
Writer and first-time director Elizabeth Chomko’s What They Had is a searingly personal film that still manages to make you laugh (a lot, actually) through your tears. The story centers on the irrevocable slide into dementia of Ruth (Blythe Danner) and her family’s attempts—conflicted, confused, and often at odds with one another—to figure out the best way to handle it.
The film opens with Ruth wandering, as if in a daydream,
Ike Barinholtz on his Funny/Terrifying Directorial Debut The Oath
In a future that seems as if it could arrive tomorrow, American citizens are instructed to pledge their loyalty not to their country, but to the president. That’s the premise of The Oath, the first feature directed by Ike Barinholtz. The comic actor, known from such series as madTV and The Mindy Project, also wrote the satire, which begins as a family gathers for Thanksgiving dinner.
Barinholtz plays the host,
First Man Writer Josh Singer on how Great Moments Require Sacrifice
Screenwriter Josh Singer didn’t realize it at the time, but great things were just around the corner in 2014 when he and director Damien Chazelle first brainstormed their First Man movie about Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic 1969 mission to the moon. “It was actually a pretty low point for me,” Singer recalls. “The Fifth Estate, which I wrote, had come out and not done well at all.
Nicole Holofcener on Adapting & Helming The Land of Steady Habits
She doesn’t really rehearse, shoots a limited number of takes and prefers not to watch dailies. While such an approach to filmmaking may seem a bit impractical to some, for writer/director Nicole Holofcener, it defines a decisiveness that has enabled her to produce a body of highly realistic and instantly relatable work.
In her past films — Walking and Talking, Lovely and Amazing, Friends With Money,
Three of Night School’s Writers on Developing the Hilarious Script
Is Night School the next Girls Trip? Like its predecessor, it’s simultaneously goofy and excellent, as well as helmed by Malcolm D. Lee, in which he directed Tiffany Haddish in her breakout role. Here, Haddish co-stars with Kevin Hart, who plays Teddy, a terrible high school student who grows up to be an ace barbecue salesman. All looks reasonably bright for Teddy until he accidentally burns down the store that employs him,
TIFF 2018: The Sister Brothers Director & Co-Writer on Their Funny, Soulful Western
When Patrick DeWitt’s novel “The Sisters Brothers” was published in 2011, something new was afoot in its pages. A bloody western set during the gold rush, it had everything you’d expect; gunfights, whiskey, brothels, and ne’er-do-wells of all stripes lusting after the riches buried in the rivers and mountains of California. These genre tropes, expertly handled by DeWitt, were the grimy, gritty package in which he delivered the story’s real gold— the titular Sister brothers and their endless,
Writer/Director Boots Riley on his Staggeringly Original Sorry to Bother You
Sorry To Bother You is coming to a theater near you, courtesy of Annapurna Pictures, after being one of the most buzzed about films shown at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The directorial debut from Boots Riley, articulate troublemaker and frontman for the band The Coup, has had a bumpy but fascinating road making it to the screen. This satiric, decidedly trippy film is about a young, seemingly malleable telemarketer named Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) and his girlfriend,
Screenwriter Olivia Milch on Penning the Perfect Crime in Ocean’s 8
Ocean’s 8, Warner Bros.’ all-female crime caper headlined by Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Helena Bonham Carter, Rihanna and Awkwafina, has arguably been one of the most anticipated films of summer 2018. What’s undeniable is the soaring success of the film’s co-writer Olivia Milch, touted by Variety as one of “10 Screenwriters to Watch” in 2016.
Milch collaborated with Ocean’s 8 director Gary Ross on the script,
Legendary Cartoonist & Screenwriter Jules Feiffer on the Mystifying Rituals of Male Friendship in Bernard and Huey
Bernard and Huey is a new film based on an old script. Jules Feiffer wrote the screenplay decades ago, but very little updating was needed for a beautifully performed (and partially Kickstarter-funded) movie that is almost a companion piece to Feiffer’s screenplay for Carnal Knowledge. Both films center on a long friendship between two men, one who has many short-term affairs with women and the other who, at least initially,
Writer/Director Ari Aster on his Terrifying Debut Hereditary
When critics bend over backwards to keep a movie’s secrets under wraps, presume that the title in question is a step beyond the norm and well worth seeing. That is the case with Hereditary. Writer-director Ari Aster’s feature debut caused festival goers at Sundance and South by Southwest to squirm, shudder and gasp out loud at what transpires onscreen. Starting on June 8, the public will get to witness this grandly operatic yet exceedingly unsettling horror thriller about a grieving family seemingly beset by sinister forces – if they dare.
Writer/Director Veena Sud on her Timely Netflix Drama Seven Seconds
A young detective, frantic because he cannot reach his pregnant wife, is driving through the snow, trying to reach her on his cell. He hears a sickening thud, but does not realize what he has hit – who he has hit – until he gets out of the car and sees the mangled bike under his wheel. A black teenage boy named Brent Butler was riding that bik,e and the cop is white.
When his colleagues arrive,
Writer/Director Bart Layton on his True Life Crime Caper American Animals
Writer/director Bart Layton has a long history of bringing true stories to the small screen. He created and produced the documentary series Locked Up Abroad and directed the television documentaries 16 for a Day and Becoming Alexander.
In 2012, he brought his unique skills to the big screen with the documentary The Imposter. The film earned critical acclaim and Layton won the BAFTA Film Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer,
Deadpool 2‘s Screenwriters on Living With Wade Wilson’s Voice in Their Heads
Armed with witty zingers from writing team Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Ryan Reynold’s deformed, foul-mouthed, self-healing superhero Wade Wilson powered through the profanity-laced Deadpool to such crowd-pleasing effect that Marvel Studios’ 2016 action comedy became the top-grossing R-rated movie of all time. Working on Deadpool 2, which topped the box office last weekend with a $301 million worldwide opening, Reese and Wernick tuned out the pressure and delivered another blockbuster.
Writer/Director Paul Schrader on Seeing The Light in First Reformed
Perhaps best known for writing such Martin Scorsese films as Taxi Driver and The Last Temptation of Christ, Paul Schrader has also directed more than 20 movies. These include 1980’s American Gigolo, a commercial hit, although Schrader’s style and subject matters rarely attract a mainstream audience. His latest film, First Reformed, is a stark tale of personal despair and environmental crisis. Ethan Hawke plays Toller,
Writer/Director Ramin Bahrani on the Spooky Timeliness of his Fahrenheit 451 Adaptation for HBO
We’re living in times that are increasingly concerning. Okay, that’s a massive understatement. After the election of Donald Trump, dystopian novels became increasingly popular again with reissues of novels like George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The latter novel, which is now a bleak and hugely popular Hulu series, is a good example of the types of stories audiences have been looking to turn to in confusing and trying times.
Book Club‘s Creators on How Fifty Shades of Grey Inspired Their Dream Project
Whatever you did to celebrate Mother’s Day probably wasn’t as great as Bill Holderman’s gift to his mom in 2012. The final book in the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy had just been published, and the Book Club director, co-producer, and co-screenwriter sent the entire set to his mother.
“As sons do, right?” Holderman joked.
Book Club co-producer and co-screenwriter Erin Simms worked with Holderman at a production company at the time and heard about the plan.
