“Well, the best I can say is create inventory. Don’t think that the first thing that you do is precious….don’t harbor the illusion that that is going to be the thing… to send you into the stratosphere. Don’t try to second guess...
“We want our lives to be boring. We want the art to be exciting. And you get that by finding the beginning and the middle of the end is just sight and sound. How about make every single sight and every single sound palpably, measurably move the story...
“And I said, I don’t know any editor. The only editor I’ve ever heard of is Jacqueline Onassis, and he said, she might be interested in this. And so he submitted the proposal to her…and that was it. The first time I went to her...
“I’m looking at this script, LBJ, as my whole career rests on the outcome of this, whether or not it becomes a movie. And Bryan Cranston is lurking in the shadows making what becomes a Tony-winning play. And we’re just thinking, he’s killing...
Michael Colleary has been a screenwriter, producer, educator and screenwriting consultant for more than 3 decades. He earned an MFA from the UCLA film school where he won the Jack Nicholson Award and the William Morris Award for screenwriting excellence. Michael has...