This week on On Story we’re joined by Jurassic Park and Spider-Man writer David Koepp for a conversation on adaptations, collaborating with Steven Spielberg, and creating blockbusters.

David Koepp is a screenwriter and director. His screenplays for Jurassic Park, a science fiction film about a wildlife park inhabited by dinosaurs, and Spider-Man, a superhero film adapted from the Spider-Man Marvel Comics series, helped the films set numerous box office records, becoming some of the highest grossing films of their time. In 2013, Koepp received the Ian McClellan Hunter Award for career achievement from the Writers Guild of America, East for his contributions to cinema.

Moderator Harison Glaser sat down with David Koepp for a panel about his work at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of Jurassic Park courtesy of Universal City Studios.

Clips of Bad Influence courtesy of Epic Productions.

Clips of Ghost Town courtesy of DreamWorks Films.

Clips of Spider-Man courtesy of Columbia Pictures.

This week on On Story we’re joined by Westworld co-creator, writer & director Lisa Joy for a conversation on writing science fiction.

Lisa Joy is a screenwriter, director, and producer. Her recent work includes Westworld, a dystopian science fiction thriller, and HBO mega-hit. Westworld has received an outstanding 54 Emmy Award nominations, including 9 wins, and Joy’s writing and producing have earned her 3 Emmy nominations. Joy attended the 2021 Austin Film Festival’s Writers Conference.

Westworld is set in a futuristic amusement park where wealthy visitors are given the opportunity to experience their wildest fantasies through a mode of artificial consciousness and centers on a group of robot “hosts” who begin to diverge from their programmed scripts and exhibit abnormal behavior.

Moderator Casey Baron sat down with Lisa Joy for a panel about her work at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of Westworld courtesy of Home Box Office Television

Clips of Reminiscence courtesy of Warner Brothers Pictures

Clips of Burn Notice courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Hey podcast listeners, I’m Barbara Morgan and you’re listening to Austin Film Festival’s On Story Podcast. This week on On Story we’re joined by The Man in the High Castle and Underground Railroad writer Jihan Crowther and King Richard writer Zach Baylin for a conversation on fact vs. fiction.

Jihan Crowther is a TV writer and playwright. Her work as a writer on The Underground Railroad, a powerful historical drama following runaway slaves in the old South, earned her a Writers Guild of America Awards nomination. She also helped write The Man in the High Castle, a dystopian take on what humanity would look like if the Axis powers had won World War II. 

Zach Baylin is a screenwriter. He received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay King Richard, a biographical drama about how Serena and Venus Williams’ father Richard pushed them to achieve their full potential on the tennis courts. 

Moderator Casey Baron sat down with Jihan Crowther and Zach Baylin for a panel about their work at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of The Underground Railroad and The Man in the High Castle courtesy of Amazon Studios

Clips of King Richard courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Hey podcast listeners, I’m Barbara Morgan and you’re listening to Austin Film Festival’s On Story Podcast. This week on On Story we’re joined by Shang-Chi and Wonder Woman 1984 writer Dave Callaham for a conversation on writing blockbusters intertwined with personal experiences.

Dave Callaham is a screenwriter and producer. He co-wrote the screenplay for the highly praised Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a superhero film adapted from the Marvel comic series, and Wonder Woman 1984, a superhero film based on the DC Comics character. Callaham attended the Austin Film Festival in 2021.

Shang-Chi tells the story of a martial arts master who is forced to revisit his past when he is confronted by members of a secret organization called the Ten Rings. A mix of action, adventure, and fantasy, Shang-Chi was not only an outstanding commercial success, but also a huge breakthrough in cinema as it marked Marvel’s first film with an Asian lead, director, and predominantly Asian cast.

Moderator Casey Baron sat down with Dave Callaham for a panel about his work at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings courtesy of Marvel Film Studios.

Clips of Doom courtesy of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

This week on On Story we’re we’re taking a look at the work of screenwriter Chase Palmer who co-wrote It: Chapter One. 

Chase Palmer is a screenwriter and director known for co-authoring the screenplay for IT: Chapter One with Cary Fukinaga, as well as 2021’s Naked Singularity starring John Boyega. His two award-winning short films, Neo-Noir and Shock and Awe, have played at film festivals worldwide with his feature film debut being the adaptation of the PEN-prize winning book A Naked Singularity by by Sergio De La Pava, with Ridley Scott as a producer.

I sat down with Chase Palmer for a panel about his work at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of It: Chapter One courtesy of Warner Brothers Entertainment

Clips of Naked Singularity courtesy of 150 Degrees Pictures

This week on On Story we’re joined by the showrunner behind The Good Place and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Michael Schur.

Michael Schur is a screenwriter, producer and character actor. He got his start writing for Saturday Night Live before becoming a producer and writer for the comedy series The Office. Schur then went on to co-create Parks and Recreation with Office producer Greg Daniels for seven seasons, ending in 2015. Later, he created The Good Place, and co-created the comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Schur was also a producer on the Netflix series Master of None, starring Aziz Anzari.

I spoke with Michael Schur about his work at a panel at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of The Office, The Good Place, and Parks & Recreation courtesy of National Broadcast Company

This week we’ll hear from David Kessler, writer & producer of the docu-drama Minamata starring Johnny Depp.

David Kessler began his career as a stand-up comedian in the early 2000s before quickly deciding to focus on writing. After penning a spec script for Will & Grace, he switched over to drama, and optioned the life rights and book titled Minamata, written by Aileen Mioko Smith and W. Eugene Smith. 

The film stars Johnny Depp as W. Eugene Smith, an American photographer who documented the effects of mercury poisoning on the citizens of Minamata, Kumamoto, Japan in the early 1970s.

The film went through various stages of development over many years before finally getting picked up by Johnny Depp’s production company.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with David about the film’s journey to the big screen following it’s US release. 

Clips of Minamata courtesy of Minamata Film, LLC

This week on On Story we’re joined by The Humans writer & director Stephen Karam for a conversation on adapting a play for the big screen.

Stephen Karam is a playwright, screenwriter, and director. His plays Sons of the Prophet, a comedy-drama about a Lebanese-American family, and the subject of today’s episode, The Humans were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2012 and 2016, respectively. The Humans won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, leading to Karam adapting the play for the big screen in 2021. The film was shown at the 2021 Austin Film Festival.

Set inside a pre-war duplex in downtown Manhattan, The Humans follows the course of an evening in which the Blake family gathers to celebrate Thanksgiving. As darkness falls outside the crumbling building, mysterious things start to go bump in the night and family tensions reach a boiling point.

Moderator Casey Baron sat down with Stephen Karam for a panel about his work at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of The Humans courtesy of A24.

This week on On Story we’re taking a retrospective look at Donnie Darko with screenwriter Richard Kelly. 

Richard Kelly is a screenwriter and director best known for writing the 2001 cult film, Donnie Darko. Known for its mind-bending themes and enigmatic ending, along with a stellar ‘80s soundtrack, Donnie Darko remains a cult phenomenon. Featuring a young, up-and-coming Jake Gyllenhall and exploring elements of time travel, mental health, and even a scary bunny-man, Richard Kelly’s 2001 film was not an immediate success but slowly wormed its way into the minds of teenagers all across the nation.

Moderator Christopher Boone spoke with Richard Kelly about the film at a panel at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of Donnie Darko courtesy of Flower Films

This week on On Story we’re joined by The Sopranos creator David Chase for a conversation on writing a hit television show.

David Chase is a screenwriter, showrunner, director, and producer, best known for writing and producing the HBO drama The Sopranos. Chase has also produced and written for such shows as The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure. He created the original series Almost Grown and has won seven Emmy Awards. Chase's film debut came in 2012 with Not Fade Away, followed by 2021’s The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel film to The Sopranos.

The Sopranos ran for six seasons from 1999 and 2007, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time. It is the first cable show to ever be nominated for, and win, the best drama series Emmy, and it helped to put HBO on the map and ushered in what some regard as the platinum age of television, which featured a slew of new shows and showrunners that could hold their own against the big screen.

Moderator Barry Josephson spoke with Chase about his work on the show at the Austin Film Festival.

Clips of The Sopranos courtesy of Home Box Office Television.