Here's something different you guys might dig: The Dialogue Series, a collection of DVD interviews with some of the current leading screenwriters. Each disc contains a 90-minute interview with one writer (or one writing duo). Paul Haggis is in there, Jim Uhls (Fight Club), Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Scott Rosenberg (Beautiful Girls, High Fidelity), David Goyer and others. Alas, Charlie K. isn't in the collection yet. Mike De Luca is the interviewer -- he was President of New Line and these days produces stuff for Columbia. The discs aren't for the casual film-goer -- they're an in-depth discussion about the subject's writing process, his habits and methods, his experiences and thoughts on the film industry in general and screenwriting in particular. If you can't fork out the dough for a writing class (or if, like a certain curly-haired scribe, you think seminars are bullshit), or if you just have a strong interest in screenwriting, these are definitely worth a look. If you want juicy gossip about on-set shenanigans, or if it bores you to tears when you hear writers talk about writing, you can put these on your Do Not Want list.
The Dialogue folks were cool enough to send me a disc for review; the one I have is an interview with Sheldon Turner. At the time of the interview, he was best known for writing The Longest Yard (the Adam Sandler remake) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. You're possibly about to roll your eyes, but he also has a co-writing credit with Jason Reitman on Up In The Air. (The story behind that is kind of interesting, if you want to go Googling.) DeLuca and Turner sit in a cosy-looking den (I'm assuming it's a den... it looks den-like) and chew the fat over all things film-making. It's a laid-back conversation and DeLuca's a good interviewer, no doubt aided by the fact that he's an insider -- he asks the questions most viewers would want to know the answers to, and there's little to no useless filler. Turner's an engaging subject. At 90 minutes, an engaging interviewee helps; I can't vouch for how engaging any of the other interviewees might be. If they're duds, 90 minutes might be a bit of a slog. At the 45-minute mark, where my attention started to wane, DeLuca throws in a creative exercise: a "butler" brings out a dinner tray containing a hidden object. In this case, it's a pair of reading glasses. Turner has to come up with a small story based on the glasses, and then explain to DeLuca how he arrived at the story. This is apparently a feature of every interview in the series, and takes the conversation in a different direction for a while.
Another nice thing to seee: Turner isn't edited to toe the company line. He takes a few brief digs at various executives (mostly nameless), a small dig at Ivan Reitman, the first winning script from Project Greenlight, In Translation, the write-what-you-know advice everybody hears... It's not a how-to DVD, and it's not bland if you're into interviews with screenwriters, but there's a lot of genuinely helpful insight. Plus it's always good, if you're a writer, to hear how other writers work -- there are always similarities and differences, proving that writing is like skinning a cat: there's lots of screaming and fur and complaints from the neighbours, but at the end of it you might have a good meal. That didn't go where I expected. But surely you get the gist.
If you've been a fan of the interviews Charlie has given on TV or in print, you might want to investigate The Dialogue DVDs. (And if you work for Ferrari or Apple or a tropical resort, you might want to send me review copies of anything you have lying around.)
I was going to include scans of the cover art, but I bought a new PC last week and it turns out my old scanner has no Windows 7-compatible drivers. AWESOME. But do visit http://thedialogueseries.com/ for info on who's in the Series and such.
