ERIC WEISSMAN

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1. What is your screenplay about?

“Young Men with Guts” is set in early 1960 and is about a brilliant but troubled auto mechanic’s ability to fix anything but his dying sweetheart and how he must overcome his internal rage by risking his own life on the demolition derby track, if he is to fulfill his destiny.

THE HORSEMAN IS A BLACK COMEDY ABOUT A DYING , HOMELESS EX-JOCKEY’S LAST WISH TO FULFILL HIS DREAM- TO RIDE HIS FAVORITE HORSE ONE LAST TIME; A DREAM WHICH MUST BE CARRIED OUT FOR HIM POSTHUMOUSLY BY HIS QUIRKY STREET FAMILY AND A CONCERNED SOCIAL WORKER.

2. Why did you decide to write this screenplay?

I was travelling in the Catskills. I was fly fishing. I met the husband of a woman who had died of breast cancer despite all of modern science’s attempts to save her. She had been his only love, and they had enjoyed some months together after she received treatment. We were talking about how difficult it must have been years ago when the disease was so unknown and treatment was completely devastating. I can’t tell you why, but from this discussion I began thinking about what it must have been like to be a woman stricken with this disease in say 1960? I wondered about true love and how deep it must be to withstand the trials and anguish of watching helplessly as a loved one dies a horrible death. I asked myself, “how does one in this context, find grace when one is raging internally?” Over the next week or so, alone in upstate New York immersed in a rural, rustic countryside, inspired by wrecking yards and a local fair where they had demolition derby every other Saturday, I wrote an original version of “Young Men...” as a short, titled the “Marriage of Miss Jane Parkinson” which was an exploration of a young woman’s premature death and her regret of having never been wed. The character’s issue was, who would marry her now that she was sick and “scarred”? And the answer was someone who had always loved her, and always would. And I came up with Frank Danner, the gifted, loved-by-the-community, but troubled mechanic, troubled because of his unrequited love for Jane, a love that could never die. The film is set in a composite of all the upstate places I have been, and is inspired by the sentiments and images I experienced and the knowledge I gained when researching 1960’s rural New York. The title comes from a headline I found in a 1958 long Island Newspaper where a fair owner was looking for brave young men to smash cars on the tack.... The headline read “ Wanted, Young Men With Guts”.

The Horseman - I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN FASCINATED BY THE STORIES BEHIND THE CHARACTERS WE OFTEN TAKE FOR GRANTED IN EVERYDAY LIFE. ONCE I HAD LUNCH WITH A HOMELESS MAN IN A COFFEE SHOP EN ROUTE TO OTTAWA. THERE WERE HORSES GRAZING IN A FIELD NEARBY... HE TOLD ME HE HAD ALWAYS WANTED TO RIDE ONE, BUT WOULD NEVER HAVE THE CHANCE. I NEVER SAW HIM AGAIN. BUT I THOUGHT ABOUT HIM AND THIS STORY EMERGED.

3. How long have you been writing screenplays?

About 10 years.

4. What is you all-time favorite film? (name only one)

Apocalypse Now (also Bladerunner--- sorry had to sneak it in)

5. What artist in the film industry would you love to work with?

Ron Howard

6. How many screenplays have you written?

8 (2 partial) and not including a full television series treatment, several outlines, short stories and treatments, and my non-scripted ethno-documentary which is currently featured at the ROM.

7. Ideally, where would you like to be in 5 years?

Writing, making films,, maybe directing, teaching and otherwise collaborating with passionate members of the film/documentary community.

8. Describe your process; do you have a set routine, method for writing?

You know I don’t lament about story writing in the initial stages. Ideas come to me very rapidly and with little debate about where to go. A story to me, unless based on an existing story or news item, develops an inertia of its own — so generally I write from experience; a question is asked of me— “what would you do if?” or “ did you hear about?” or “what was that like?”...or I observe someone or some thing of note and investigate it, and for me that is generally inspiration enough. The real work comes after I have written a quick outline, confronted and resolved historical, contextual or technical issues in the story and produced a first draft. I have to put the thing away for some time before the really hard part— editing and chopping and resolving issues I may not have seen before. And this is always helped by getting someone else to read it...

9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

I am an avid fly fisherman and outdoorsman — I write articles and shoot basic videos on salt water fly fishing and wildlife. I am passionate about the arts in general, but visual arts and film in particular and more recently about the application of digital visual media to ethnographic research and visual education. I work out aggressively and I love to watch great hockey... almost as much as I love to watch the sunrise over the little beach from where I fish on the Pacific coast of Mexico.

10. What influenced you to enter the WILDsound Script Contest?

I recently resolved one of those issues I mentioned in a couple of scripts and felt it was time to have them tested in a credible and challenging forum like yours.

11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

A very influential writer once told me, “Write about what you know”.

I write because I love to write with no expectations. Write because you love to write. Just write.

Eric Weissman

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