This episode of On Story, actress and producer America Ferrera and theatre film and television actress June Squibb discuss their work in film and on television.

America Ferrera is best known for her work on the ABC comedy-drama, Ugly Betty. The role garnered her a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding lead Actress in a Comedy Series. America Ferrera’s numerous film credits include Real Women Have Curves, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, End of Watch and How to Train Your Dragon. America Ferrera returned to television in 2015 as a regular and co-producer on the NBC comedy, Superstore.

Actress June Squibb got her start in musical theatre in the 1950’s. She made her Broadway debut as Electra in the original 1960 production of Gypsy starring Ethel Merman. June Squibb made her transition to film in the late 1980’s with Woody Allen’s Alice and went on to roles in Scent of a Woman, The Age of Innocence, Meet Joe Black, and Far From Heaven. She’s since worked twice with director Alexander Payne, first on the film About Schmidt, and later, co-starring with Bruce Dern in Nebraska, which earned her the Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her recent credits include the critically acclaimed film I’ll See You in my Dreams with Rhea Pearlman, Mary Kay Place and Sam Elliot as well as television appearances in Getting On, Girls, Glee, The Big bang Theory and Modern Family.

On today’s episode, filmmaker and playwright, John Patrick Shanley on writing memorable characters. Shanley won the Oscar with his screenplay for Moonstruck, as well as a Pulitzer and a Tony for his play, Doubt, which he later adapted for the screen.

Filmmaker and playwright John Patrick Shanley’s credits include the stage plays Prodigal Son, Outside Mullingar (Tony nomination), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Savage in Limbo, Dirty Story, Defiance, and Beggars in the House of Plenty. His theatrical work is performed extensively across the United States and around the world. His play, Doubt, received both the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He later adapted and directed Doubt for the screen. The film, starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay. Shanley’s other films include Five Corners, Alive, Joe Versus the Volcano, and of course, Moonstruck, for which he received both the Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for best original screenplay.

This week’s On Story, two modern family adventure films. First we hear from The Jungle Book screenwriter Justin Marks, and later, Hook screenwriter Jim Hart and the actor who played one of the film’s beloved Lost Boys, Rufio, Dante Basco.

The 2016 Disney film The Jungle Book is based on the Rudyard Kipling classic, and inspired by the 1967 animated film of the same name. The Jungle Book features an all-star cast including Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley and Idris Elba as well as newcomer Neel Sethi and was directed by Jon Favreu.

The 1991 fantasy adventure, Hook, depicts an adult Peter Pan who forgot Neverland and grew up. The film stars the late Robin Williams as Peter, Dustin Hoffman as the title character and co-stars the late Bob Hoskins, Julia Roberts, Maggie Smith and Dante Basco as Lost Boy, Rufio.

On today’s episode, writer-director Ben Younger on his new boxing Biopic, Bleed for This, followed by Creed screenwriter Aaron Covington on the legacy of the original Rocky and his latest entry in the franchise.

Younger made his first film, Boiler Room in 2000 and his last film, Prime, in 2005. Bleed for this, produced by Martin Scorsese, and written and directed by Younger, represents his comeback to filmmaking.

The 2015 film Creed is a spinoff of the Rocky film series directed by Ryan Coogler and co-written by our next guest Aaron Covington. The film depicts the journey of Adonis Johnson into the boxing world. Johnson is the son of former heavyweight champion and Rocky Balboa opponent-turned-trainer Apollo Creed. In the film, the younger Creed, whose father died in the ring, seeks the help and guidance of aging former champion Rocky Balboa.

This episode of On Story, actor and filmmaker James Franco describes his experiences working with Judd Apatow and Danny Boyle and Academy Award® winner Chris Cooper discusses his work in film and on television.

Actor and filmmaker James Franco first rose to prominence on the cult sensation Freaks and Geeks and has since followed with unforgettable roles in films both large and small. He won a Golden Globe early in his career for his portrayal of film icon James Dean and was nominated for an Academy award in the best actor category for his role in 127 hours. James Franco is currently starring in the Hulu original mini-series 11.22.63 along with today’s other guest, Chris Cooper. The series is adapted from a Stephen King novel of the same name and centers around a time traveler who attempts to prevent the assassination of John F Kennedy.

Chris Cooper is known for his broad range of work in supporting roles from July Johnson in TV’s Lonesome Dove to Robert Hanson in Breach, Colonel Fitts in American Beauty to Al Templeton in this year’s Hulu original miniseries 11.22.63. Chris Cooper won both an Academy Award® and a Golden Globe in 2003 for his portrayal of John Laroche in the film Adaptation and his other film credits include August Osage County, Syriana, Jarhead and Capote.

This week’s On Story, we feature three documentary storytellers and their new films. Keith Maitland discusses Tower, about the 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas. Later, Steve Mims on Starving the Beast, which examines the philosophical shift in public higher education and Andrew Shea talks Wrestling Alligators, his film on James Billie and Seminole Indian life before and after the rise of casino gambling.

The new documentary, Tower, examines the mass shooting at the University of Texas on August 1st 1966 from the perspective of the victims, survivors and first responders. The film combines archival footage with rotoscopic animation, interviews, and scripted performances and is based on a Texas Monthly article by Pamela Colloff titled 96 minutes

Starving the Beast is the new documentary from director Steve Mims and producer Bill Banowsky. The film examines the philosophical shift in public higher education through market-based reform, and whether such measures are a solution to the problem of skyrocketing tuition costs, or the systematic elimination of federally mandated public research universities, which have provided affordable education for decades.

Wrestling Alligators, examines the rise of Native American held casinos through the lens of controversial Seminole Indian leader James Billie, who is often called the father of Indian Gaming. James Billie is a one-time alligator wrestler and Grammy-nominated recording artist who opened a first-of-its-kind high-stakes bingo hall in Hollywood Florida in 1972. The success of the gambling operation has spread the practice beyond the Seminole Tribe, forever changing the lives of Native Americans throughout North America.

This week’s On Story, we’ll hear from the writer-director behind the new film, Loving, Jeff Nichols followed by Kelly Fremon Craig and James L. Brooks on their new film, The Edge of Seventeen.

Loving depicts the real-life story of interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving who married in 1958 and were then sentenced to one year in prison for violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924. Their civil rights case, Loving vs. Virginia, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which in 1967 determined that all race-based restrictions on marriage were unconstitutional. Loving is written and directed by Jeff Nichols, and stars Joel Edgerton, Ruth Negga and Michael Shannon. Jeff Nichols is the writer-director behind the films Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, last year’s Midnight Special and the critically acclaimed 2012 film, Mud starring Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon and Michael Shannon.

The Edge of Seventeen is written and directed by Kelly Fremon Craig and produced by veteran TV and film icon James L. Brooks. This coming of age comedy drama stars Hailee Steinfeld as the film’s acerbic yet endearing protagonist and co-stars Haley Lu Richardson, Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick.

The Edge of Seventeen hits theatres November 18th and has already received praise from critics both for the contribution of the film’s writer-director, and for the performances by the cast of relative newcomers and familiar faces.

Kelly Fremon Craig wrote the screenplay for the 2009 film Post Grad. James L Brooks career spans over fifty years and his credits include The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Lou Grant, Taxi, Terms of Endearment, Say Anything, and of course, The Simpsons.

On today’s episode, the character actor turned show-runner behind the Sundance TV legal drama, Rectify, Ray McKinnon followed by the writing team behind FX’s Justified and the actor who portrays the show’s enigmatic antagonist, Walton Goggins.

Ray McKinnon's filmography as a character actor reads like an encyclopedia of great film and TV over the past thirty years from appearances on In the Heat of the Night, Driving Miss Daisy and Designing Women to Apollo 13, NYPD Blue and O’ Brother, Where Art Thou? to Justified, Sons of Anarchy and Mud and of course Deadwood. He won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short for his 2001 film The Accountant, and created the soon-to-be-concluded legal drama, Rectify.

Walton Goggins's acting credits include appearances on The Shield, Lincoln, Django Unchained, Sons of Anarchy and of course Justified. He co-produced the Academy Award-winning short, The Accountant, with today’s other guest, Ray McKinnon and appeared most recently in The Hateful Eight and the HBO series Vice Principals.

On today’s episode, On Story delves deep into the horror genre with the filmmakers behind Blair Witch, I Am Legend, The Walking Dead and The Conjuring.

We begin this special Halloween edition of On Story with the filmmakers behind Blair Witch. This reboot of the found footage horror classic opened in theatres in September of this year and picks up the story twenty years after the events depicted in the original film when a group of college students and their local guides venture into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of Heather Donahue, the sister of one of the characters. We recently caught up with the film’s director Adam Winguard and screenwriter Simon Barrett who begin by discussing memorable scenes from the original that inspired their reboot. 

Film and television writers Carey and Chad Hayes are the duo behind the screenplays for two films in The Conjuring universe. The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2 are directed by James Wan and are based on the real-life experiences of paranormal investigators Edward and Lorraine Warren. The first film, The Conjuring grossed 318 million dollars worldwide, making it one of the most profitable in the horror genre. The Conjuring stars Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor. The Conjuring 2 was released in summer of 2016. The Hayes brothers, Carey and Chad, got their start in screenwriting in the 1990’s writing several made for TV and direct to video movies before teaming up with legendary producer Joel Silver and writing the screenplay for the reboot of the 50’s horror classic, House of Wax.

This week, On Story brings you a look inside the 23rd Austin Film Festival and Conference, which happened from October 13th through 20th 2016.

Marta Kauffman is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning television writer, producer and show-runner. She got her big break in the 1990’s with the HBO series Dream On, and the enormously popular smash success, Friends. Her new Netflix series Grace and Frankie features an all-star cast including Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, and is currently streaming its second season.

With six novels that produced over sixty adaptations for the screen, the talents of Jane Austen have lived on long past her time on earth. At a panel titled Deconstructing Jane Austen, the filmmakers behind Sense and Sensibility, The Jane Austen Book Club, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and What Jane Saw discussed how they adapted these beloved novels for various storytelling mediums, and why they think Austen’s themes and stories remain so powerful today. We begin with University of Texas Academic Jane Barchas discussing  “that shirt” worn by Collin Firth in the 1995 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and which is now on display in the Folger Shakespeare Library. In this segment, we’ll also hear from Memoirs of a Geisha screenwriter Robin Swicord, Former President and COO of United Artists Pictures Lindsay Doran and our own Barbara Morgan.

Creed co-writer Aaron Covington compare the two films Rocky and Creed, and discuss what it was like to work alongside writer/actor Sylvester Stallone, actor Michael B Jordan and director Ryan Coogler.

Jeff Nichols is the writer-director behind the films Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter and the critically acclaimed 2012 film, Mud starring Matthew McConaughey, Ray McKinnon and Michael Shannon. Jeff Nichols’s latest film, Loving, depicts the real-life story of interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving who married in 1958 and were then sentenced to one year in prison for violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statute, the Racial Integrity Act of 1924.

Filmmaker Jason Segel got his start on the beloved series Freaks and Geeks. His other credits include Undeclared, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, How I Met Your Mother and his portrayal of David Foster Wallace in The End of the Tour. Next up, AFF Film Competition Director Harrison Glaser speaks with Jason Segel at a special screening of Segel’s beloved 2011 musical comedy, The Muppets.

The Edge of Seventeen is written and directed by Kelly Freemon Craig and produced by film and television legend James L Brooks. The film stars Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick. The Edge of Seventen hits theatres in November of this year. In this final segment, Barbara Morgan speaks with Kelly Freemon Craig and James L Brooks at a special screening of their film.