Script Apart with Al Horner

Today on Script Apart, we’re off to see the wizards – the wonderful storytelling wizards, that is, behind the first ever musical we’ve covered on the show. In the early ‘00s, New York-born-and-raised playwright Winnie Holzman was, like the rest of the city, still reeling from the September 11 attacks that claimed 2977 lives. It wasn’t just the attacks themselves that haunted her – it was the division they wrought too. Racial minorities – America’s Muslim population, specifically – were scapegoated and othered. All of a sudden, a war stood on the horizon. And so, Winnie got to work with composer Stephen Schwartz on a musical that would subtly grapple with the skyrocketing racism of that moment. Soon, something Wicked was to come our way.Inspired by a book of the same name by author Gregory Maguire, Winnie and Stephen's Broadway extravaganza took one of the defining stories in cinematic history – the Wizard Of Oz – and invited audiences to look at it a little differently. What if the so-called Wicked Witch Of The West in that film – all green skin and shrill cackle – wasn’t actually the terroristic threat that Dorothy and viewers thought her to be? What if there was a more tender truth to this woman, who lest we forget, in that 1939 movie, was just trying to retrieve the ruby slippers worn by her dead sister, crushed by Dorothy’s house when it’s transported via tornado to Oz? Chances are you know what happened next. Forbes Magazine estimates that 65m people have seen Wicked since it hit Broadway in 2003, quickly expanding around the globe. It’s the fourth longest-running play in Broadway history. And now, it’s a blockbuster smash too. Last year, Winnie’s screen adaptation of the musical, written with my other guest today, Dana Fox, of Cruella fame, began its emerald takeover of movie theatres. That first film, simply titled Wicked and covering the first half of the stage play, was a smash. Now, Wicked For Good is here, bringing this tale to the end of its yellow brick road, and Winnie and Dana are full of emotion and reflection. In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, they tell me about the strangeness of this movie arriving in this particular political moment. I don’t know about you guys at home, but the sight in Wicked and Wicked For Good of marginalised groups – munchkins and animals – rounded up and forced from their homes in a year of ICE raids and anti-immigrant anger, struck a really heartbreaking chord for me. It’s not all politics, though, I promise! We also get into the prisons of perception that Elphaba and Glinda, played by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande respectively, both exist in and have to break free of in this story. And you’ll also hear the pair’s reflections on the huge differences between this story about the Gregory Maguire original, which saw Elphaba join an underground terror cell. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com.To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.Get coverage on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Vanderbilt, the screenwriter behind Nuremberg and known for Zodiac, explores the monumental trials that followed World War II. He delves into his fascination with 'evil' characters, examining Göring's charisma while ensuring his atrocities are condemned. Vanderbilt shares personal connections through family history, highlights warnings against authoritarianism from the past, and discusses the innovative use of film evidence in court. This conversation reveals the importance of remembering history through the humanity of its characters.

Ryan Coogler, the talented writer-director behind hits like Black Panther, opens up about his new film Sinners. He reflects on feeling unseen despite his success, driven to create a deeply personal piece inspired by his uncle's love for blues music. Coogler discusses the film's exploration of the exploitation of Black music and how cyclical harm affects communities. He emphasizes the themes of joy, grief, and honoring ancestors, revealing how loss shaped the film's emotional depth. A fascinating dive into the intersection of art and personal history!

Rowan Joffe, a screenwriter and director known for 'Tin Star' and '28 Weeks Later,' discusses his adaptation of 'Ballad of a Small Player,' exploring themes of addiction and the duality of human nature. Edward Berger, acclaimed for 'All Quiet on the Western Front,' shares insights on creative curiosity and how Macau’s sensory overload shaped his film. They dive into the moral complexities of addiction, the significance of casinos as modern cathedrals, and the personal emptiness both artists confront, making for a profound conversation on art and human experience.

Shane Black, acclaimed screenwriter and director known for iconic films like Lethal Weapon, shares insights on his new heist film, Play Dirty, which adapts Donald E. Westlake’s Parker novels. He reveals how childhood influences shaped his storytelling and discusses the complexity of flawed characters. Black explains the appeal of heist narratives and his approach to balancing action with character depth. He shares thoughts on navigating CGI in action writing and the moral ambiguity of Parker, ultimately inviting reflection on what makes a compelling anti-hero.

Aziz Ansari is a comedian who seems to always have been intrigued by the idea of status, and the stranglehold it can put people in. You might not immediately think of it when you think of his work, but the 42-year-old seems drawn to dreamers and strivers and people who yearn to transcend their station in life, finding comedy and drama in the gap between what they have and what they covet.In Parks & Recreation, the hit sitcom that made him a household name, Aziz played Tom Haverford, a small-town entrepreneur obsessed with expensive colognes, designer clothes and living a luxury existence; this despite working in the not exactly glamorous world of local government. His acclaimed stand-up work has also touched on materialism. And who can forget Master Of None, the Netflix series he wrote and directed, from 2015 to 2021. That Emmy Award-winning show frequently discussed social mobility. As a child of Indian immigrants, Aziz’s character Dev found himself on more than one occasion reflecting on the life that he gets to live compared to the one his parents sacrificed to give him.Which brings us to Good Fortune – the comedian’s hilarious feature directorial debut. It’s a movie that could only exist in our depressing era of gig work and Amazon so-called fulfilment centres. Aziz plays Arj – a Task Rabbit employee trying and failing to make ends meet. At his wits end after a series of setbacks, he’s visited by an angel named Gabriel, played by Keanu Reeves, who swaps him into the shoes of his ultra-rich boss, Jeff, played by Seth Rogen. He’s meant to learn that actually, money isn’t the solution to all your problems. True happiness comes from within. Just one problem – in our cost-of-living crisis era, money does at the very least make people’s lives much easier. Arj doesn’t want to swap back. Cue a ridiculous and ridiculously funny romp through LA’s glitziest parties and seediest shadow spaces. In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Aziz tells me about actually becoming a Door Dash worker in real life, delivering food to people’s doors, as a window into the impossible economics of jobs like that.  We break down the funniest moments and the most powerful truths in this tale. And you’ll also hear Aziz reflect on his own relationship with luck and so-called good fortune.Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com.To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.Get coverage on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Put down your briefcase and put on your dancing shoes, everybody, because today on Script Apart – a podcast about the first-draft secrets of great movies and TV shows – Mike Flanagan is back, tap-dancing through the end times with me in celebration of The Life Of Chuck. As I put it in my feature for Empire Magazine earlier this year, when I covered the movie’s theatrical release, the phrase “feel-good” isn’t often associated with the apocalypse. Nor, to be honest, with Mike’s work in general, as one of the streaming era’s premier fright-masters – a writer-director whose output so far have included vampire priests (Midnight Mass), acid showers (Fall Of The House Of Usher) and some of the most harrowing small-screen deaths in recent memory (The Haunting Of Hill House, I am still not over you)."Feel-good" is not how you’d typically describe the icon of literary terror he’s becoming closely associated with, either. The Life Of Chuck is the third time Mike has adapted the great Stephen King, after Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep (he also has new adaptations of Carrie and The Dark Tower on the way). But The Life Of Chuck is, nonetheless, as “feel-good” as apocalypse stories come. It stars Tom Hiddleston as an ordinary-looking man who mysteriously begins appearing on billboards as a divorced couple’s leafy suburban existence is interrupted by a series of globe-threatening disasters. The mystery of “Who is Chuck?” propels a story more still and sentimental than many viewers might expect from Flanagan, from King, from the end of the world.In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Mike calls in from the set of Carrie, which he’s in production on at the moment, to break down the film in extensive detail. We get into the meaning of the Carl Sagan-inspired monologue that Mike added to King’s source text. We talk about the one detail in the film’s transcendent dance sequence that breaks my heart just to think about. And of course, we touch on that moving, ambiguous ending and how it fits into a body of work that often involves locked rooms. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com.To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.Get coverage on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If a technology existed that matched you with your soul mate – the one true person you’re destined to be with – would you take it? Would it lead you to your happily-ever-after? Or is love too vast and complicated a thing to be pared down to a science like that? These are the questions posed by All Of You, a new romantic drama by our guests today, William Bridges and Brett Goldstein. William is a writer-director you may well know from his contributions to the shows like Black Mirror and Stranger Things. Brett, meanwhile, is the writer-performer known for Ted Lasso, in which he plays hardman Roy Kent. He’s also the co-creator of Apple TV’s Shrinking and hosts a very entertaining podcast named Films To Be Buried With. In All Of You, Brett plays Simon – a journalist whose best friend is a woman named Laura. The pair have undeniable chemistry but their timelines have never quite aligned, romantically. Instead, when the film begins, their relationship is strictly platonic. Laura has found her supposed 'one true love,' according to science. But something remains unresolved – Simon and Laura’s attraction to each other unable to be fully dimmed. The film began life in 2013 as a short that later was developed into an AMC anthology series named Soulmates, which lasted one season. In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Brett and Will reflect on that journey to this feature version of the script – what it was they just couldn’t quit about this concept and these characters, whether they’d take the test themselves, how their attitudes towards the idea of soul mates have shifted over time. Plus, of course, what it is that’s happening in the heads and hearts of our two protagonists during the film’s heartbreaking final scene. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com.To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.Get coverage on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Noah Hawley, acclaimed writer and director known for his work on Fargo, dives into the thrilling world of his new show, Alien: Earth. He discusses the show's philosophical layers and its gritty take on capitalism through a corporate-controlled future. Hawley explores the chilling bond between Wendy, a child in a synthetic body, and a xenomorph, teasing the complexities of heroism and human failings. He reflects on childhood innocence as a lens to critique adult complacency, while also hinting at future story expansions and the balance of horror and humanity.

Sorry Baby is a movie that makes no apologies. No apologies for how moved you’ll be by its depiction of a character (and her cat) working through their trauma in a wintry Massachusetts town. No apologies how for much you’ll laugh in a film that for all extents and purposes is a tale of sexual assault. And no apologies for how ambitious it is – playing with time and playing with chronology. Which is why we’re excited to welcome onto the show this week, the one and only Eva Victor, the film’s writer, director and star.Until this impressive debut feature, Eva was best known for a series of online videos – videos that eventually caught the attention of one Barry Jenkins, director of Moonlight and one of the first ever guests on Script Apart. Spotting a flair for comedy and observations about the human condition in those viral shorts, the story goes that Barry reached out to Eva inviting them to send him a screenplay that his production company might be able to produce. What Eva came back with was a tale of a college student whose life is upended by a bruising betrayal of trust by their academic mentor. When we meet them years later, the film’s protagonist, Agnes – played by Eva – seems to be trapped in carbonite by those events, while all manner of change and chrysalis cruelly occurs around her. Their best friend, Lydie, played by Naomi Ackie, is gliding through milestones in her life. The world is moving on. Agnes, meanwhile, still has a way to go in putting the past behind them. In the spoiler-filled conversation you’re about to hear, Eva and Al get under the skin of that captivating character. They tell us about how the initial idea for Sorry Baby involved a character who habitually attended court hearings. We get into the film’s non-linear structure and its mirroring of how recovery from assault is a journey full of movement back and forwards in time. We also discuss the scenes cut from their shooting script that would have made for a quite different movie – including a non-sequitor sequence involving two random guys talking about sandwiches for two minutes in the middle of one of the movie’s most important scenes, and an earlier encounter with Pete, the sandwich shop owner with whom Agnes shares a pivotal moment of quiet human co-existence, in the film’s beautiful third act.Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com.To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.Get coverage on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.