Austin Film Festival's On Story

This episode of On Story, we feature Hustle & Flow filmmaker and Legend of Tarzan screenwriter Craig Brewer followed by Boyz n the Hood writer-director John Singleton.

Memphis filmmaker Craig Brewer is the writer-director behind the films The Poor & Hungry, Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan. His filmography includes the MTV series 5$ Cover, the 2011 reboot of Footloose, and several stints in the director's chair for TV on the series The Shield, Terriers and Empire. Craig Brewer is credited with t he screenplay to this summer's The Legend of Tarzan which opens July 1st. Austin Film Festival Senior Film Program Director Liz Mims spoke with Craig Brewer at a special screening of his first film, The Poor and the Hungry on April 26th 2016.

John Singleton made his film-making debut in 1991 as the writer-director of the groundbreaking urban drama Boys N The Hood, which he wrote and directed. The film earned him Academy Award® Nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director, the latter of which made him the youngest person as well as the first African-American to enjoy that distinction. Singleton’s other films include Poetic Justice starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, Four Brothers with Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson and Andre Benjamin and Rosewood starring John Voight, Ving Rhames and Don Cheadle. As we heard earlier in the program, Singleton also produced our other guest Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow. John Singleton’s latest project, Snowfall for FX Networks is currently filming in Los Angeles California. Screenwriter Fred Strype spoke with john Singleton at the 22nd Austin Film Festival in 2015.

 

Direct download: BREWER_AND_SINGLETON.mp3
Category:Film and Television -- posted at: 2:56pm CDT

This episode of On Story, we hear from Gary Ross on his new film Free State of Jones and his career as a storyteller. Later, Academy Award® winner Steve Zaillian discusses his work from The Falcon and the Snowman to Schindler’s List to American Gangster.

Free State of Jones is the new film from writer-director Gary Ross. The film is inspired by events surrounding an armed rebellion against the confederacy in Mississippi during the American Civil War. Free State of Jones stars Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali, Keri Russell and Brendan Gleeson. We recently spoke with Gary Ross over the phone about his new film. Ross is a four-time Academy Award® nominee and his other film credits include Big, Pleasantville, Seabiscuit and The Hunger Games, which he co-write and directed. Barbara Morgan spoke with Gary Ross at the 22nd Austin Film Festival in 2015.

Academy Award® winning filmmaker Steven Zaillian’s vast filmography includes the screenplays to The Falcon and the Snowman, Awakenings, Schindler’s List, and Moneyball. He wrote and directed Searching for Bobby Fischer, A Civil Action and All the King’s Men and he wrote and produced American Gangster, and the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Steven Zaillian received the Distinguished Screenwriter Award at the 16th Austin Film Festival in 2009 where filmmaker and journalist Sacha Gervasi moderated this conversation.

 

Direct download: Gary_Ross_and_Steve_Zaillian.mp3
Category:Film and Television -- posted at: 3:58pm CDT

Lonesome Dove

The 1989 western miniseries Lonesome Dove is adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning novel written by Larry McMurtry. During its original run, an estimated twenty six million homes tuned in to watch Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones and an all-star cast start out in a South Texas border town and make their way north on a cattle drive to Montana. On Story was part of a very special event this past March, and we’ve edited the discussions we recorded at the Lonesome Dove Reunion and Trail in Fort Worth Texas to bring you this episode. We’d like to extend very special thanks to Bill and Sally Wittliff, The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University, Texas State University, Texas Christian University, Performing Arts Fort Worth, Inc. for all of their efforts. 

Direct download: LONESOME_DOVE.mp3
Category:Film and Television -- posted at: 10:04am CDT

Now You See Me 2, Ed Solomon, Jon Chu, Scott Frank

This episode of On Story, we catch up with Now You See Me 2 screenwriter Ed Solomon and the film’s director Jon M Chu. Later we hear from Ed Solomon on his work Bill and Ted’s to Men In Black and screenwriter Scott Frank discusses his work adapting classic pulp novels for the screen.

The film Now You See Me 2 opens in theatres June 10th. This magic caper thriller sequel with an all-star cast features Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. We caught up with the film’s writer Ed Solomon over the phone and the film’s director Jon Chu in person last week.

At age 21, Ed Solomon was a staff writer on Laverne and Shirly and the youngest person to be accepted into the Writers Guild of America. He spent three years on the writing team for Showtime’s It’s Gary Shandling’s Show and his other credits include two films in the Bill and Ted franchise, Levity which he wrote and directed starring Billy Bob Thornton, Holly Hunter, Morgan Freeman and Kirsten Dunst, the Sci-Fi comedy, Men in Black, and Now You See Me 1 and 2, the second of which opens in theatres this weekend. We open with Ed Solomon describing his arrival to Men In Black.

Writer-director Scott Frank’s credits include Little Man Tate, Get Shorty, Minority Report, Marley and Me, Wolverine, Out Of Sight and A Walk Among the Tombstones, which he also directed.

Direct download: NYSM_2_Solomon_Chu_Frank.mp3
Category:Film and Television -- posted at: 7:37am CDT

A Conversation with Norman Lear

This episode of On Story, television legend Norman Lear discusses his experiences creating and running some of the greatest sitcoms of all time.

Norman Lear began his television career as a writer in the 1950’s and went on to create some of the most celebrated network television comedies in history, among them, All in the Family, Maude, Sanford and Son, Good Times, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time and Mary Hartman Mary Hartman. We were honored to present Norman Lear with the 2015 Outstanding Television Writer Award at the 22nd Austin Film Festival where we also hosted a live reading of his unproduced pilot Guess Who Died. Everybody Loves Raymond creator Phil Rosenthal spoke with Norman Lear at the historic Driskill Hotel in Austin Texas on November 1st of last year.

Direct download: CONV_W_NORMAN_LEAR.mp3
Category:Film and Television -- posted at: 9:49pm CDT

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