Some Popcorn with Your Fascism

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It's possible that the people who write the movies you love will stop working on May 2nd. Screenwriter John Gary joins us to explain how we got here, and what may happen next.

This week on the show, a special interview with Splice writer Noah Berlatsky about movies made by and about fascism where we consider The Eternal Jew, Casablanca, Dirty Harry and more. 

This week on the show we answer your screenwriting questions about how to make the Second Act easier to slog through [1:50 - 13:10] and what to do if your friends (and husband) make fun of you for taking time to write [13:10 - 23:30]. Then we mine Chef David Chang's article in Wired about "unleashing the world's most amazing flavors" for nuggets of wisdom for screenwriters [23:30 - 38:00].

The 2017 Oscars are this Sunday, and instead of complaining about the wrong movie winning, we're challenging ourselves to pick Best Actors, Actresses, Screenplays, Directors and Movies that didn't make the Academy Award cut. What didn't get nominated, but deserves to win? Let's find out.

Special guest Christopher Lockhart, story editor at WME, joins us to answer your screenwriting questions about your entitlement to have your script read [0:00 - 15:00], whether studio passion for IP extends to short stories [15:00 - 19:55], times Chris has passed on projects and regretted it [19:55 - 26:00], whether writing diversity into your script is a risk (hint: it isn’t) [26:00 - 31:50], and if it’s a good idea to write an adaptation for a book you don’t own the adaptation rights to [31:50 - 40:00].

We have some demands.

This week, award-winning filmmaker BenDavid Grabinski joins us to answer your screenwriting questions about writing for an international audience [0:00 - 8:25], what the heavy amount of biopics on the 2016 Black List means [8:25 - 18:00], and how to dance around the specter of Donald Trump at your pitch meetings [18:00 - 25:00].

This week on the show, we answer your screenwriting questions about Johnny Depp being overpaid [0:00 - 5:00], how much of a lunch meeting is spent on small talk vs the project [5:00 - 10:00], preparing for a pitch meeting [10:00 - 16:00], what a "set piece" is [16:00 - 23:00], and the best movie made from a bad script [23:00 - 33:00].

This week we welcome IndieWire’s senior film critic David Ehrlich to the show to discuss the best movies of 2016, the state of cinema, and his supercut celebrating both. Plus, we officially close the door on 2016 (2017 now starts on December 10th).