Write on

By Michael Guillen

For my money, what has distinguished the past cinematic year has been an increased focus on the screenwriter. That focus was kickstarted in my case, no doubt, by a GreenCine interview with Guillermo Arriaga wherein he introduced me to what has since become the well-publicized rancor between himself and director Alejandro González Iñárritu (also noted by SF360.org in an interview with Michael Fox). If you’ve been stranded on an island somewhere for the last year you might not know that the Mexican duo responsible for the “human tsunami” trilogy of consequences — “Amores Perros,” “21 Grams,” and “Babel” — have been feuding over who put the authority in author and if a single movie can accommodate two auteurs. Iñárritu says no, it’s a directorial privilege bolstered by tradition, and Arriaga says yes, let’s shift into the 21st century and give credit where credit is due. I’m convinced by the possibility of the latter.

The other screenwriting dark horse victory of the year was Michael Arndt’s indie script “Little Miss Sunshine,” which made enough critics cry to allow Arndt to cry himself, all the way to the bank. When last we spoke, Arndt reminded me that fun is better than winning. The fact that he won both the Indie Spirit Award and the Oscar for his “messed up family” is only so much gravy on the goose. If you ask me, fun is best when winning.

The Independent Spirit Awards deftly maneuvered the screenwriting competition this year, offering an award to Arndt for Best First Screenplay and Best Foreign Film to Florian von Donnersmarck for “The Lives of Others.” Von Donnersmarck was likewise excluded from the hopeful screenwriting quintet at the Academy Awards and had to make do with winning Best Foreign Language Film there as well. His script has come under scrutiny by a coterie of critics who claim it pays much too much allegiance to the Robert McKee school of filmwriting, whose three-day story seminar one noted Variety critic admitted he “endured.” That being what it may, there must be something more to the story as Donnersmarck will be rewriting the script for an American remake.

You didn’t have to blink twice to notice Peter Morgan‘s fingerprints on the two royal scripts at this year’s Oscars — The Queen, which won Helen Mirren Best Actress, and The Last King of Scotland, which won Forest Whittaker Best Actor. It’s especially timely that the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival will honor Morgan with this year’s Kanbar Award for Excellence in Screenwriting. The writer will appear for an extensive onstage interview on Saturday, May 5 at 1 p.m. at the Sundance Cinemas Kabuki, followed by a screening of his early film The Deal, directed by Stephen Frears.

For more on screenwriters, find your way to three of my favorite screenwriting magazines — Written By (the “official” magazine of the Writers Guild of America, West), Creative Screenwriting, and Script.

03.30.2007