Today on Austin Film Festival’s On Story Podcast Writer Producer Michael Green, Thor and X-Men First Class screenwriter Ashley Miller, The Avengers and The Incredible Hulk screenwriter Zak Penn and writer Producer John Turman.

In the second half of our show, Rodrigo Garcia who has directed several award winning independent films as well as episodes of many major television series including Six Feet Under, Carnivale and Big Love and In Treatment. Rodrigo Garcia’s next film Last Days In The Desert is now in post-production and is slated for release later in 2014. Rodrigo Garcia answers the question, “How does a writer make it work?”

Actor, Producer, Director Sydney Pollack has over one hundred film credits spanning six decades. He directed a number of highly memorable films including Tootsie, Michael Clayton, The Firm and Out Of Africa, which won him the Academy Award for Best Director. Austin Film Festival honored Sydney Pollock with the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award in 2006.

In addition to working on sixty-nine episodes of Hill Street Blues, Writer/Producer David Milch also created the shows, Deadwood, NYPD Blue, Luck, The Big Apple and John from Cincinnati. He got the Outstanding Television Writer Award at the Austin Film Festival in 2006.

Writer director Shane Black redefined the buddy movie genre in the late 1980’s with the screenplay for Lethal Weapon. He later became known for creating memorable and complex characters not usually associated with the action genre and in his own distinct cinematic voice, gave us the screenplays to The Last Boyscout, and The Long Kiss Goodnight, as well as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang  and Iron Man 3, both of which he also directed. Shane Black earned Austin Film Festival’s Distinguished Screenwriter Award in 2006.

Recommended Viewing: Lethal Weapon, Out Of Africa and Deadwood.

Literary works have always been fodder for the screen and with the summer film and television season in full swing, we dug around in the vault for some of the writers who've adapted two of the most exciting releases out now. We even found Tom Perrotta who, with screenwriter Damon Lindelof, has adapted his own novel The Leftovers for HBO. 

We also feature Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver who breathed new life into the Planet of the Apes franchise which was originally adapted from the novel La Planète des singes by novelistPierre Boulle.

Today on Austin Film Festival’s On Story Podcast, The Writer Director, with Steve Zallian, and the late, great Paul Mazursky.

Steve Zaillian is responsible for the screenplays to a large number of great films including Awakenings, Schindler’s List, The Gangs of New York and Moneyball. As a Writer/Director, he’s given us the films, Searching For Bobby Fischer, A Civil Action and All the King’s Men.

Actor, Writer, Director Paul Mazursky passed away in June. His career spanned more than fifty years with over two hundred film credits. He was nominated for an Academy Award® five times including once for Best Picture in 1978 for his film, An Unmarried Woman, which he wrote and directed. We were fortunate to have him on hand way back in 2000 where we honored him with the Distinguished Screenwriter award at the Seventh Austin Film Festival, and where he sat down with Steve Zaillian for this panel.

George Pelecanos is the author of  more than 20 crime novels and is also known for his work on HBO’s The Wire, Treme and The Pacific. Peter Craig's filmography includes 2010's The Town starring Ben Affleck and two forthcoming installments of The Hunger Games. Writer Director Rian Johnson's films include Brick, The Brothers Bloom and Looper. He's slated to write and direct Star Wars Episode VIII.

Today's podcast was recorded at the Taking the Write out of Crime panel at the 20^th Austin Film Festival in 2014.

Academy Award winning screenwriter Eric Roth is responsible for such films as Forrest Gump, The Insider, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Munich, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Ali, The Good Shepherd and many others.  Eric Roth received the 2012 distinguished screenwriter award at the 19^th annual Austin film festival.  

Jeff Nichols is the writer director behind the films Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter and last year's critically acclaimed Mud Starring Mathew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon Sam Shepard and Michael Shannon. His next film, “Midnight Special” is now in post-production and is slated to open in 2015. Jeff Nichols talks about his process when creating what he calls "experimental" films.

Two of the most talented showrunners in the business talk about what it is to make a great show.

Today's Podcast was recorded at KLRU studio 6A during our On Story Season 4 release party and live taping on April 16^th 2013.

Writing competitions can be a lucrative venue to break into the industry and have yielded countless success stories. Special thanks to the Writer's Guild for their collaboration on this episode.