Screenplays & Screenwriting

At this year's Toronto International Film Festival, the director of Apocalypse Now and the iconic Godfather films shared memories and anecdotes with a sold-out crowd.

Director Alexander Payne finds comedy in the crises of his flawed protagonists: a struggling writer in Sideways, a retired widower in About Schmidt and now a family man who must reassess his life in The Descendants.

Super 8 director J.J. Abrams says the inspiration for his latest science-fiction thriller came from his own childhood obsession with filmmaking. He shares his thoughts on the film industry and on trying to make movies more enjoyable for audiences.

Director and screenwriter Tom McCarthy's film Win-Win stars Paul Giamatti as a high school wrestling coach struggling with a moral dilemma. McCarthy, a former wrestler himself, explains why he left the mats in high school and turned to improv comedy.

Joel and Ethan Coen's latest film is an adaptation of the Charles Portis western novel True Grit. The filmmakers and writers discuss the making of the film and the difficulties of working with both child actors and horses.

The third and final installment of the Toy Story trilogy turned out to have some deep themes: death, abandonment, loss. One inspiration: an incident in which director Lee Unkrich accidentally threw out his wife's toys. Both Unkrich and screenwriter Michael Arndt join Terry Gross to talk about the trilogy, due on DVD Nov. 2.

Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal join Fresh Air to talk about their film The Hurt Locker. Set in Baghdad, the movie follows the story of three men who are part of the Army's bomb unit, charged with the task of disarming IEDs and other roadside bombs.

In remembrance of M*A*S*H creator Larry Gelbart, we listen back to a 1996 interview with the comedy writer. Gelbart died Sept. 11, 2009 at the age of 81.

Screenwriter and playwright Horton Foote's career in theater, film and television spanned more than 60 years and included two Academy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. Foote died on March 4, 2009 after a brief illness. He was 92.

Sean Penn stars in Gus Van Sant's biopic about an out gay politician who inspired a community; screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who grew up Mormon, says he was among those for whom Harvey Milk made a real difference.

The team behind the car-racing comedy Talladega Nights is taking another lap. Director Adam McKay and actors Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly talk about their new film, Step Brothers, and the laughs they had making it.

Writer and director Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) and actor Jason Schwartzman (I Heart Huckabees) discuss their latest film, The Darjeeling Limited. The adventure comedy, also starring Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody, follows three estranged brothers on a spiritual quest to India.

Judd Apatow has been a writer for Larry Sanders and Ben Stiller, and he worked on the cult-favorite TV comedy Freaks and Geeks. But you'll know him as the writer-director of the hit film The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

Now he's back with Knocked Up; guest host David Bianculli talks to Apatow and to Knocked Up star Seth Rogen, who plays an oafish slacker confronted with the prospect of fatherhood after a one-night stand.

Canadian actress Sarah Polley, who's perhaps best known in the United States as the injured Nicole in Atom Egoyan's wrenching The Sweet Hereafter and the drug-dealing Ronna in Doug Liman's Go, makes her directorial debut with the intimate indie drama Away from Her.

The new movie is based on a short story by Alice Munro; it stars Julie Christie as a woman with Alzheimer's, and features Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy and Gordon Pinsent. The movie has generated buzz on the film-festival circuit, and opens in the U.S. on May 4.

Mike White is the Hollywood screenwriter behind hit films including The School of Rock, The Good Girl and Chuck & Buck. Now he has directed Year of the Dog, a "not very funny" comedy about a woman grieving for her lost pet; it stars Peter Sarsgaard and Saturday Night Live veteran Molly Shannon.

Directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, and writer Michael Arndt. Little Miss Sunshine, their bittersweet film about a dysfunctional family, has been nominated for four Academy Awards. This was Faris and Dayton's feature film debut after directing hundreds of music videos, and also the first screenplay of Arndt's to be produced.

Former FBI Agent Eric O'Neill and Director/Screenwriter Billy Ray have collaborated on the new film Breach. It is based on the true story about FBI operative Robert Hanssen who was found guilty of treason and the FBI agent (O'Neill) who was assigned to Hanssen to draw him out of deep cover.

Albert Brooks has a new movie: Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. In it, he plays himself — and the comedian is sent to India and Pakistan by the State Department to find out what makes Muslims laugh.

Actor, producer, writer, director George Clooney directed and co-wrote the new film Good Night, and Good Luck, about the showdown between legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy that took place in 1954. Clooney also has a role in the film, portraying Murrow's producer Fred Friendly. The film is receiving much critical acclaim.

Several years ago, Haggis optioned the F.X. Toole book that was to become the Academy Award winning film Million Dollar Baby, for which he wrote the screenplay and produced. His film Crash, about racial tension in Los Angeles, is set for release in 2005.