I write mostly as a director. That's why my screenplays are very detailed. So I get into the images I see. I like that.
There are a lot of bad screenplays so if you write a good screenplay people are going to respond to it.
I actually think I'm probably more interested in structure than most people who write screenplays, because I think about it.
Most directors, I discovered, need to be convinced that the screenplay they're going to direct has something to do with them. And this is a tricky thing if you write screenplays where women have parts that are equal to or greater than the male part. And I thought, 'Why am I out there looking for directors?' - because you look at a list of directors, it's all boys. It certainly was when I started as a screenwriter. So I thought, 'I'm just gonna become a director and that'll make it easier. '
I write screenplays that don't get made and pilots that don't get picked up, and I re-write other people's movies, and those are all different kinds of fees.
I don't card out my screenplays ever. I just have an idea I just sit down and write I don't edit. Sometimes the first draft will come out at 200 pages. I think and think and I go, "um this story is about the brother that appears on page 178. " I go back and I rewrite.
Well, you just know, as a writer, I didn't really write one of the five best screenplays of the year. There were lots of brilliant screenplays; I was just one of the lucky ones who got nominated.
I didn't know anything about writing a screenplay, but somehow I ended up rewriting a screenplay.
I always thought it would never happen. And then, it became possible. In between commissions, I wrote it as an original screenplay [Allied].
I was never conscious of my screenplays having any acts. It's all bullshit.
The first thing to look out for after your first big success are drugs and screenplays.
Douglas Adams did not enjoy writing, and he enjoyed it less as time went on. He was a bestselling, acclaimed, and much-loved novelist who had not set out to be a novelist, and who took little joy in the process of crafting novels. He loved talking to audiences. He liked writing screenplays. He liked being at the cutting edge of technology and inventing
Most screenplays depend primarily on the vision of a director.
It's intuitive in terms of when I read a piece of material or I hear about a project. I'm a writer, so I've written movies. I've read at this point thousands and thousands and thousands of screenplays. So if something gets me, then I don't ignore that.
I already feel a bit annoyed at myself for writing screenplays. It's a bit, I don't know, model-singer-dancer-actress that went to a posh school. There's something too weirdly predictable about it.
In my screenplays - from the very beginning I've always used tape. I talk my screenplays. And then have somebody transcribe them.
Screenplays are not works of art. They are invitations to others to collaborate on a work of art.
I try to only work on the screenplays for a few hours a day when I'm in my most voluble mood, just sort of writing whatever comes into my head. It's a very freeing thing.
I never could have written the screenplay because I would have been forced to learn new software and I can't learn one more thing.
I've come to find more satisfaction and enjoyment in writing screenplays over the years because that's what I do primarily now.
