What happens when the words come out, and you can’t put them back? Our past can come back to haunt us—though it doesn’t have to.
2. Why did you decide to write this screenplay?
Appalled at how tough, once shot, a flabby script is to edit, I wrote several scripts, little ideas, and whittled them down from two to six pages, to one or two, to see how tight and essential I could get them.
3. How long have you been writing screenplays?
Long enough to know better. Ten years, or so.
4. What film have you seen the most in your lifetime?
Chris McQuarrie’s The Usual Suspects, directed by Bryan Singer. It embraces my favorite theme, the Plasticity of Reality
5. What artist in the industry would you love to work with?
Clint Eastwood. As director. Clean, clear, decisive. Balanced ego. When asked if he wanted a re-write of Million Dollar Baby when he bought it from Paul Haggis, he said, “Why? This is the script I bought; this is the movie I’m making.” And he did. I’d like to work with Bobby Moresco, too.
6. Who was your hero growing up?
Benjamin Franklin. Leonardo da Vinci. And Beowulf; anyone who swims underwater for most of a day in a suit of chain mail and still has energy to take on Grendel’s mother, is worthy of emulation.
7. Ideally, where would you like to be in 5 years?
Directing my second feature, with awesome talent and a budget twenty times my first. I’d better get moving on that first one.
8. Describe your process; do you have a set routine, method for writing?
Computers are a miracle; until my senior year in college, every paper I handed in was a cleanly typed rough draft, composed and edited in my head as I sat, catatonic, at the typewriter. Cutting, pasting, and photocopying was a helpful interim step. A routine would certainly help.
9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Storytelling in all its manifestations and media.
10. What influenced you to enter the WILDsound Script Contest?
Short of shooting several one-page scripts, myself, WILDsound Script Contest seemed like a great place for them.
11. Influence people to vote for your one page script?
It’s a hoot! We’ve all stuck our feet in our mouths, sometime, and survived. Fathers Day Surprise will be easy to watch, again and again, even after you know the surprise!
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