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Because Rian Johnson also directs his films, it’s easy to forget he writes them. Johnson has established himself as not just a top director, but a master screenwriter as well. With early raves coming in for his next film, KNIVES OUT (currently at 98% on RottenTomatoes), let’s take a look at Johnson’s remarkable output.  In the book, The Film That Changed My Life, Rian identifies ANNIE HALL as a major inspiration because it broke so many rules of narrative. This statement is telling when considering all his work.  Rian shot out of the gate with his debut feature, BRICK. This...

In this series of articles, we’re going to do a deep-dive on one knockout scene from a great movie. Today’s movie is LOGAN. The scene is when Wolverine pays a visit to Professor Xavier, who is suffering from dementia (here’s a link to the scene as a refresher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv3cU4-iwv4). The scene starts with Logan going into a massive tank where Professor Xavier has been locked away. It’s immediately both grounded in reality and mythic in stature. Professor Xavier, an old man with dementia, is so powerful as a mutant, still, that his version of a nursing home is a giant...

The lowly script reader, tucked in a windowless back room at a production company or agency, holds massive power when it comes to newer writers breaking in. A poor reader’s report will sink a script from a newer writer. That lowly script reader is often the one who decides what his or her boss is going to read (or in plenty of cases, is not going to read, but will simply trust the reader’s report about). For this reason, it is in a writer’s best interest to write a script that a reader will like. This seems obvious, but there...

In this series of articles, we’re going to do a deep-dive on one knockout scene from a great movie. Today’s movie is SPOTLIGHT. The scene is when Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams speak to representatives of a school Keaton’s character went to, which may have had abusive priests and abuse victims. Here’s a link to the scene as a refresher (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogW6YDmEb1M). The scene is really about the essential theme of the movie, which is that everyone knew this was going on, and willfully chose to ignore it, because it was easier. Rachel McAdams’ character opens the scene asking if it’s...

William Monahan bust onto the scene as a screenwriter in the mid 2000s, writing KINGDOM OF HEAVEN for Ridley Scott and then winning the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Martin Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED. He has since written the Mel Gibson film EDGE OF DARKNESS, The Leonardo DiCaprio film BODY OF LIES, LONDON BOULEVARD with Colin Farrell, and THE GAMBLER with Mark Wahlberg. How did he get there? As with other screenwriters in this series of articles, Monahan would probably contest the notion that he suddenly appeared on the scene in the mid 2000s. In fact, his experience as a...