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“Once People Decide Who They Are, They’re Impossible To Change” Thomas Schnauz Talks ‘Better Call Saul’
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Known for writing AMC’s TV hit Breaking Bad, WGA award-winning TV writer Thomas Schnauz was poised to write on the spinoff series Better Call Saul. The show focuses on the eponymous Saul Goodman and his rise from a bumbling student trying to get into law school. Thomas spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine about the process of transitioning from a flagship TV show to Better Call Saul.
There wasn’t a grand plan to generate a spinoff show after the grand finale of Breaking Bad’s fifth and final season. There was no template. All the creators knew was that the transformation of Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman was a story worthy of being told. Schnauz admits they exactly didn’t know what the show was going to be in its early stages. “We didn’t know if it was going to be an hour-long drama or a half-hour comedy.” If you watch the first four or five episodes of the first season of Better Call Saul, the TV writer stated, “we were searching for what the show was as we were breaking it.” The mission was to start with...
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Martin Scorsese Meditates on Age and Regret in “The Irishman”
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Much has been made about the technology director Martin Scorsese used in The Irishman to de-age stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino. Indeed, it is a marvel, if not a distraction at first, to see the decades digitally erased off of the stars, but it actually helps the idea of the film as a memory play. Based upon Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran’s hitman confessions in the book I Heard You Paint Houses written by Charles Brandt, it’s the story is an old man’s remembrances of his career as a mob enforcer. His was a life filled with excitement, power, and brotherhood. If anything, Sheeran’s memories seem more glamorized by the heightened sheen of the film’s digital effects. It’s a stark contrast to the lonely and feeble old man now telling his tale from a wheelchair in a nursing home.
Mob dramas are old hat for Scorsese, but this film feels very different from his past classics.
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+ “Generate Character, Not Plot” Showrunner Aron Eli Coleite On ‘Daybreak’ - Aron Eli Coleite describes himself as a “classic nerd.” Since the age of 11, he’s been going to the comic book store each week when new issues come out, and he grew up digesting comics, film, and television.
“I knew it was what I wanted to do. My parents did a good job raising me but the TV also did a good job corrupting my mind with all manner of delightful genre storytelling that I fell in love with. I just knew I wanted to be a part of it,” he said.
Stepping into the fandom he so adored, the screenwriter started with Crossing Jordan, but then moved into writing the series Heroes which was one of the first hero-centric genre series. In 2017, he got the chance to work on Star Trek: Discovery, and now he’s the creator and writer on Netflix’s new multi-genre series, Daybreak.
+ “Everything Is Unfinished” Logan Marshall-Green Talks ‘Adopt A Highway - Logan Marshall-Green is a well-known face on both the big and small screen. He boasts an impressive acting resume including Spiderman: Homecoming, Snowden, The Invitation, 24, and Law And Order to name a few. Last year he worked on Upgrade for Blumhouse. This year, the actor-writer-director turned hand behind the camera in his film Adopt A Highway starring Academy Award-winning actor Ethan Hawke. He spoke with Creative Screenwriting Magazine to discuss bringing his story to the screen.
+ “Parasite” Mines the Power of Symbolism In One of 2019’s Best Films - With Parasite, filmmaker Bong Joon Ho has not only delivered one of 2019’s very best movies, but the symbolism he’s woven throughout the picture is some of the finest placed on film in years. Bong’s visual metaphors are so striking that the movie requires multiple viewings to appreciate all of the subtext going on in it. Bong has infused the story with many cheeky metaphors, starting with the very title itself. (The film is not about a virus, but rather humans leeching off of others.) Some of what Bong and fellow screenwriter Han Jin Won have written is even hilariously self-aware, like when two different characters exclaim, “It’s a metaphor!” Such moments infuse this black comedy with a knowingness that makes the film all the more riveting.
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Insightful Notes From Experienced Readers
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