If you ever wanted to find an irritable bunch of people working in Hollywood, you wouldn’t have to go much further than the names in the screenwriter’s directory. First Run Features have picked up the rights to Peter Hanson’s talking heads docu about the horror stories of those of who lived to tell the tale: contemporary screenwriters who got stung in their careers as scribes and consider themselves lucky, managed to see one of their works turn into a final product and retain some shards of its former self. I say: God bless everyone of these unsung heroes.
Sticking with masochist mantra, the amusingly titled Tales From the Script will receive a small release in the Spring, opening March 12th, which is about 6 weeks after the release of the book “Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories.”
I wasn’t even aware of this project until today’s announcement, but we’ll be keeping tabs on the release of the doc since we have a penchant for the behind the scenes/war stories in film history and since it includes interviews with the likes of: Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging), John August (Go), Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), John Carpenter (see pic), Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), Antwone Fisher (Antwone Fisher), William Goldman (The Princess Bride), David Hayter (Watchmen), Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost), Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver), Guinevere Turner (American Psycho), and Oscar winner David S. Ward (The Sting).
The doc premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2009 and played the festival circuit through November, concluding with screenings at the Austin Film Festival and the Starz Denver Film Festival.