Backstory 5

Patrick McGilligan continues his celebrated interviews with exceptional screenwriters withBackstory 5, focusing on the 1990s. The thirteen featured writers are not confined to the 1990s, but their engrossing, detailed, and richly personal stories create, in McGilligan's words, "a snapshot of a profession in motion." Emphasizing the craft of writing and the process of collaboration, this new volume looks at how Hollywood is changing to meet new economic and creative challenges.Backstory 5probes the working methods of a diverse range of screenwriters to explore how they come up with their ideas, how they go about adapting a stage play or work of fiction, whether their variegated life experiences contribute to the success of their writing, how they organize and structure their work, the extent of their collaboration with the director, the up- and downside of writing on spec, and whether theater, journalism, or film school is more helpful to a screenwriting career. The spectrum of experiences and practices presented inBackstory 5makes this volume, like the previous four, an indispensable resource for film students, aspiring screenwriters, and scholars.Backstory 5features interviews with Albert Brooks, Jean-Claude Carrieacute;re, Nora Ephron, Ronald Harwood, John Hughes, David Koepp, Richard LaGravenese, Barry Levinson, Eric Roth, John Sayles, Tom Stoppard, Barbara Turner, and Rudy Wurlitzer.

Patric Mcgilligan, who teaches film at Marquette University, edited the previous four volumes of Backstory, all published by UC Press. He is the author of many books about film, including Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light and the New York Times Notable Book, George Cukor: A Double Life