screenwriters Tagged Articles at Cinematical

At last, there is some light at the end of the WGA strike tunnel. Meetings are scheduled in New York and Los Angeles this Saturday, and the purpose is to convince Guild members that the contract WGA leaders have been hammering out with the AMPTP is worthy of bringing the now three month-old strike to a close. The WGA's 10,500 members will vote on the issue, and if they approve, WGA leadership could send its members back to work as soon as Monday. The strike won't officially be over until the decision has been ratified -- likely two weeks, but the Oscars would go on as planned, new television episodes could be scripted, and the TV pilot season might be salvaged.

Living in Los Angeles, all I hear is strike talk. I was told this weekend that the strike would absolutely end yesterday. Didn't happen. I was told several times that it will definitely be over by Friday. That's not going to happen. Now I'm hearing next week for sure, and this official Saturday meeting would seem to support that. But it's not a done deal by any means. Late Monday, WGA negotiating committee chief John Bowman sent an e-mail to Writers Guild members that read: "While we have made important progress since the companies re-engaged us in serious talks, negotiations continue. Regardless of what you hear or read, there are many significant points that have yet to be worked out."

In other words -- the finish line is in sight. But there's no guarantee they're gonna run through it.

Here's a different kind of success story. Screenwriter Allison Burnett, whose new movie Untraceable opens today, studied playwriting at Julliard, became a screenwriter to pay the bills and used his newfound financial stability to become a novelist. His first novel, Christopher: A Tale of Seduction (2003), was a finalist for the prestigious PEN award. His first movie, however, was supposed to be a realistic depiction of life in prison, until Roger Corman bought it and turned it into Part 3 in Don 'The Dragon' Wilson's Bloodfist series.

Nevertheless, movies are apparently in Burnett's blood and he persisted. His screenplay for Autumn in New York became Joan Chen's much-despised 2000 weepie with Richard Gere and Winona Ryder. And his two most recent works, Resurrecting the Champ and Feast of Love (both 2007), opened to tepid reviews and cool box office receptions. (Although both were decent films and both probably suffered mainly from marketing problems.) But Burnett directed his own low-budget film, Red Meat (1997), that remains a high point for him. When Cinematical spoke to him via phone the morning after the Untraceable premiere, he was very excited and hopeful.

CINEMATICAL: You're credited on Untraceable with two other writers, Robert Fyvolent and Mark Brinker. How did this partnership come about?

ALLISON BURNETT: They had written a script that was around for a long time, called Streaming Evil. It had many big names attached, but it never took off. And then Lakeshore came to me. At first I was supposed to work on Marsh's character [Jennifer Marsh, played by Diane Lane], do some character work and some dialogue work. Then I pitched them some ideas, and they began writing and I pitched them some more stuff. In their version, the killer really had no reason to kill people on the internet, and there was a randomness to it. It was a hideous carnival atmosphere. What I brought to it was, the more who watched, the faster the person dies. There was an MO to the killer: why he does it. We were going to go into arbitration over screen credits, but in the end we decided to be friends. I felt very good about that.

For years, critics have defined films in terms of their directors, but every so often someone comes out with a book or an article in defense of screenwriters. And a recent book argues for a brand new auteur theory putting screenwriters in the spotlight. Considered one of the world's greatest screenwriters, Jean-Claude Carrière's name appears on one current film, Goya's Ghosts (13 screens). It's one of over 100 produced screenplays he has written, and what's more, he has never had to turn director to protect the integrity of his work (he has one directorial credit, shared, for a 1986 film L'Unique that didn't exactly make or break his career). This is a guy who will never have to worry about his name in the history books. But let's take a closer look.

For one thing, Goya's Ghosts is messy and uneven. Then there's the fact that most of Carrière's films never find United States distribution. On top of that, the vast majority of his work is adaptations of novels. Finally, I think it's safe to say that his reputation rests on the fact that he generally works with acclaimed directors. To go one more, it's probably fair to say that the majority of his entire reputation rests on the six films he wrote with Luis Buñuel from 1967 to 1977. This is not to say that Carrière is a bad writer: on the contrary. Some of his films since Buñuel have been very good, notably Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988) and Jonathan Glazer's misunderstood Birth (2004). I'm using this case to point out the trickiness of ranking and cataloging screenwriters and their films. Certainly they deserve much more credit and respect than they get. But where do we start?

If you read only one interview with Superman Returns screenwriters Dan Harris & Michael Dougherty this year, it simply must be this one from Mike Russell over at In Focus. The very lengthy and exceedingly thorough article has done more to get me psyched for Clark Kent's return than all the trailers and TV spots combined. Despite the fact that these talented little bastards are younger than me, they've already written flicks like Imaginary Heroes, Urban Legends: Bloody Mary, and X2: X-Men United. Plus they also have brand-new adaptations of Ender's Game and Logan's Run in the pipeline, which makes me hate/admire them that much more.

Regarding Superman Returns, the fellas dole out a whole lot of backstage info, while also taking care to avoid spoilers (which is an approach I always appreciate). Topics of conversation include the return of Marlon Brando, their baby's "place" in the Superman movie canon, and former SuperContributors like Max Fleischer, Richard Donner, John Williams, Gene Hackman, Kevin Spacey, and a whole lot more.

Plus the guys have some really ... diplomatic things to say about Superman 3 and Superman 4, whereas I'd just call 'em plain old crap.

[Thanks, Mike]