JANICE KENNEDYSearch WILDsound  11 Questions with 2010 Screenplay Finalist JANICE KENNEDY 1. What is your screenplay about? On a full moon night, House diagnoses a brain tumor in a man who has become a “vampire” and then -- over the objections of his team and hospital administration – uses the moon’s gravitational pull to assist in the removal the malignancy. 2. Why did you decide to write this screenplay? HOUSE has a great premise: A brilliant but flawed physician solves a new medical mystery every week while barely tolerating (but secretly having great affection for) the members of his team as they try to keep up with him. Add to that a dose of comedy and highly skilled actors, particularly Hugh Laurie, and you’ve got the perfect formula for great television. So even though I’ve got experience as a freelance medical writer, writing a HOUSE spec script was daunting. I felt I had to write something that was intellectually challenging -- with a serious medical puzzle that House and his team have to solve -- but also had comic relief. I wanted it to include a birth and a death. So I set the stakes high and it was incredibly fun to write once I had laid the foundation for the story.
3. How long have you been writing screenplays? Seriously, for about five years. 4. What is your favorite TV show of all-time? Right now, it’s HOUSE. It works both as a procedural and a comedy. For all-time favorite, that’s probably I LOVE LUCY. She was brilliant. 5. What artist in the film industry would you love to work with? I just pitched a project at Steve Carell’s television production company and they were great so I’m betting he would be a lot of fun to do a project with. On the more serious side, it would be Debra Granik, the director of WINTER’S BONE. I have a feature script about the Hatfield-McCoy Feud that I think she would do a brilliant job with. So I would love to connect with her. 6. Who was your hero growing up? My English teacher, Nathalia Britt, who first noticed that I had some writing talent. She set me on a different course and changed my life by insisting that I take my S.A.T.s and apply for college. I had no plans to go beyond high school since no one in my family ever had. I landed my first writing job at the university’s pubic relations office while still a student and I’ve been working as a writer ever since. 7. Ideally, where would you like to be in 5 years? I’d like to be showrunner on a show I’ve created. A few years back, I was lucky enough to get a Writers Guild of America residency at “CSI: Miami.” For three months, the showrunner, Ann Donohue, and the writers opened up that show’s creative process to me – from idea to fully realized episode. So I know what it takes to both create a show and run it day to day – the incredible pressure of meeting deadlines and the fun of “building” something new every week. 8. Describe your process; do you have a set routine, method for writing? I don’t have a set time I write. When I’m mulling over an idea for something, I tend to write a lot of random notes and put them in a file. I also start clipping things from newspapers and magazines that relate to the idea I have. I don’t usually work from an outline, but I know the story’s overall arc before I start writing. Once I’ve fleshed out a character, that character becomes very real to me and I let that character tell me what should happen in specific scenes. 9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about? Supporting other women writers in getting their work out there. Since I moved from Seattle to LA, I’ve been active in Women in Film and was one of the people who helped Susan diRende found the Broad Humor Film Festival, now in its fifth year of showcasing comedies written and directed by women. Recently, I’ve helped put together the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative (LAFPI) to support women who write for theatre. 10. What influenced you to enter the WILDsound Script Contest? I’ve had a couple of scripts place as finalists and liked the feedback I received. 11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers? Persevere and know that what you are doing is of value, even if the world doesn’t immediately recognize it.
JANICE KENNEDY
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