Academy Award Nominee BENH ZEITLIN on Directing Beasts of the Southern Wild & Wendy

Academy Award Nominee BENH ZEITLIN on Directing Beasts of the Southern Wild & Wendy

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Writer, Director & Composer

I think it goes to this feeling of freedom, looking how freedom changes as you grow, being a very particular type of freedom that children have just by the nature of not having learned what the rules are. As we grow, we start to limit what we believe is possible. When you’re a kid, there isn’t a delineation between this is real, and this is my imagination. It’s all real. That’s your life experience.

From Edward Scissorhands to The Addams Family - CAROLINE THOMPSON - Screenwriter & Novelist - Highlights

From Edward Scissorhands to The Addams Family - CAROLINE THOMPSON - Screenwriter & Novelist - Highlights

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Award-Winning Screenwriter & Novelist

Tim Burton had just Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. He was at some point in the making of Beetlejuice. Our agency didn’t know what to do with either of us with our off-kilter sensibility, so they introduced us, and we immediately felt a kinship and became friends. It was pretty clear from pretty early on that we wanted to work together. We threw out ideas. Among the ideas we talked about Tim mentioned to me a drawing he had made in high school of a character who had scissors instead of hands. And I said, ‘Stop right there!; First of all, this may surprise you, it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard in my life, so I knew it was brilliant. It was so simple and so stupid and such an obvious metaphor, I knew that it had power beyond belief. I said, ‘Stop, I know exactly what to do with that!’

Horror, Fantasy & the Art of Screenwriting with CAROLINE THOMPSON

Horror, Fantasy & the Art of Screenwriting with CAROLINE THOMPSON

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Award-Winning Screenwriter & Novelist

Tim Burton had just Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. He was at some point in the making of Beetlejuice. Our agency didn’t know what to do with either of us with our off-kilter sensibility, so they introduced us, and we immediately felt a kinship and became friends. It was pretty clear from pretty early on that we wanted to work together. We threw out ideas. Among the ideas we talked about Tim mentioned to me a drawing he had made in high school of a character who had scissors instead of hands. And I said, ‘Stop right there!; First of all, this may surprise you, it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard in my life, so I knew it was brilliant. It was so simple and so stupid and such an obvious metaphor, I knew that it had power beyond belief. I said, ‘Stop, I know exactly what to do with that!’

From Siracusa to You've Got Mail with Author, Screenwriter, Producer DELIA EPHRON

From Siracusa to You've Got Mail with Author, Screenwriter, Producer DELIA EPHRON

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Author, Screenwriter and Producer

So the great thing about being a writer is you can take the pain of your life and make something out of it. And you can mix it up with the happier parts and make something even better out of it. I mean, it's kind of all these things end up being gifts when you're older.

JACK THORNE - BAFTA Award-winning Playwright & Screenwriter - Highlights

JACK THORNE - BAFTA Award-winning Playwright & Screenwriter - Highlights

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Jack Thorne is an internationally acclaimed playwright and BAFTA award-winning screenwriter. His adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials is currently airing on HBO and the BBC, and his new series The Eddy was recently released for Netflix. Thorne’s screenwriting career began on the Channel 4 series Shameless and BBC series Skins. Later this year, his feature adaptation of The Secret Garden will be released and feature films Enola Holmes and Swimmers are on the way. Thorne’s films include The Aeronauts, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, Wonder, starring Julia Roberts and A Long Way Down starring Toni Collette. As a playwright, Jack’s credits include the Tony and Olivier award-winning West End and Broadway hit Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

JACK THORNE - BAFTA Award-winning Playwright & Screenwriter - Highlights
The Creative Process Podcast

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Screenwriter JACK THORNE, Wonder, Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, The Aeronauts

Screenwriter JACK THORNE, Wonder, Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, The Aeronauts

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Jack Thorne is an internationally acclaimed playwright and BAFTA award-winning screenwriter. His adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials is currently airing on HBO and the BBC, and his new series The Eddy was recently released for Netflix. Thorne’s screenwriting career began on the Channel 4 series Shameless and BBC series Skins. Later this year, his feature adaptation of The Secret Garden will be released and feature films Enola Holmes and Swimmers are on the way. Thorne’s films include The Aeronauts, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, Wonder, starring Julia Roberts and A Long Way Down starring Toni Collette. As a playwright, Jack’s credits include the Tony and Olivier award-winning West End and Broadway hit Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Screenwriter JACK THORNE, Wonder, Harry Potter & the Cursed Child, The Aeronauts
The Creative Process Podcast