Opening Act

Born: 1957, Passaic, New Jersey
 

Writer of Hollywoodland (2006). Selected to premiere at the 2006 Venice Film Festival, also won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, Ben Affleck and nominated director Allen Coulter for the Golden Lion Award. Ben Affleck, nominated for the Golden Globes Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role and also for the 2007 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, Best Supporting Actor.

Log Line:

Detective Luis Simo (Adrien Brody) tracks one of Hollywood’s infamous mysteries in June of 1959 when actor George Reeves (Ben Affleck) a.k.a. TV’s Superman takes his own life—or does he? Million of fans are stunned, his mother’s not convinced it’s a suicide, his fiancé/aspiring actress (Robin Tunney) and former mistress (Diane Lane) are shocked and distraught respectively. While the LAPD considers the case closed, Detective Simo is hired by Reeves’ mom to examines the questionable circumstances about the complex man involved in the glamour and shady dealings of Tinseltown.

Character’s Education: Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York.

Inciting Incident: From TV Writer and Producer to Screenwriter
“It’s difficult to be involved in television when you live another state away, but after Hollywoodland got picked up, my life changed and it has been unbelievable. I can’t keep up with the offers.”

The Hero’s Journey

“When I moved from Los Angeles to Paradise Valley, Arizona, I had a TV show and was the producer, but with each passing year, plus with a baby on the way, my career kept getting colder. I wrote Hollywoodland in piecemeal in between doing the writings I was paid to do for TV.”

Character’s Background Story

“I spent my childhood in Wayne, New Jersey and I think it affects what I write. I have an incredible strong connection to my childhood.”

Act I

JML:  Where were you when the big idea hit you for Hollywoodland?
PB:  “I have been percolating the idea for this movie for a long time. At the time I worked on a TV show, purely for the money, and kept thinking about what would be the best way to attack this movie. I wanted to get into its depth instead of just doing a bio pic. When I came up with the idea of using the detective as the “go through” guy to tell the story about George Reeves, I knew I had the breakthrough idea to begin writing.”

JML:  How long did it take to go from concept to finished screenplay?
PB:  “About four months, yet little did I know it would take years to get it produced.”

JML:  Please talk about the editing process once everyone was assembled: director, producers, actors, etc. How hard did you fight for your words? When did you know to let go?
PB:  “I hate to bore you with a long and boring story, but…I sold my screenplay with a “No Rewrite Clause” in my deal to USA films (now Focus Pictures), but the picture stalled. Miramax stepped up and bought the movie, but then Focus wanted it back. In the end, I had given up the rewrite clause; they brought in another writer on the set, and hired Allen Coulter (of The Sopranos, Sex in the City) for his directorial debut. They had a different vision than I; it was more about the detective than George Reeves.”

JML:  Who did you want to star in your picture? Was it actualized?
PB:  “I knew Diane Lane would be perfect for the role of Toni Mannix. I could see the detective Louis Simo being played by Steve Buscemi—he’s unstoppable, but Adrien Brody, did a spectacular job. I really didn’t have anyone in mind for George Reeves because I was writing with the real person in mind. George Clooney’s name came up, but I believe Ben Affleck was the right one for the job.”

JML:  Describe the feeling of seeing your idea and words on the big screen for the first time. What was the highlight of this project for you?
PB:  “When I first saw the screening of Hollywoodland, it was with tremendous trepidation. The experience was so surreal, yet thrilling to see. They had made changes that I didn’t agree with—and it hurt, however, there were scenes where it was word for word, and I was so excited to see that. It was also amazing to attend the premiere of Hollywoodland at the Academy in this giant theater where every seat was filled, finally here I could almost watch my movie as a “movie goer” and not the writer of it.”

JML:  What didn’t happen that you anticipated would?
PB:  “I thought we would make more money, but the trailer sold the movie as the detective looking into the murder rather than the suicide of George Reeves, thus the balance shifted from Reeves to the detective.”

Act II

JML:  Tell us about your writing day, your stylized ritual—or lack of. Where do you write? (Preferred style: pen and paper, Dictaphone, laptop, typewriter, cocktail napkins?)
PB:  “I’m pretty disciplined and write out of my house. Every morning, I first read the trades on line and then begin whatever project needs me. What I really want is someone to invent a pad and paper for the shower (laughs) of course, this is where I solve all the character’s problems and hear great dialogue. The challenge for me is if I can remember the idea long enough until I get to paper and pen. My wife actually carries a pad of paper around with her. Besides the shower, I always come up with ideas when I am driving and then yell to my wife: “Write this down!” I have also been known to leave a message for myself on our answering machine.” 

JML:  How do you motivate yourself?
PB:  “I just don’t take any jobs that I’m not really excited about. I only take the script jobs that I really, really want and then motivation is not a problem.”

JML:  Do you systemically go through the “screenwriter’s suggested steps” of developing character profiles, creating the world via Joseph Campbell’s recommended format, writing and shuffling scene cards, checking plot points, evidence, payoffs, etc. or do you write until it all falls together?
PB: “I really don’t do any of that. When I wrote for hire, for studios, I would come up with a pitch, put ideas and scenes together in an outline, so that we would all be on board together with the movie. There are always massive changes during the writing process, but at least I would have the underpinnings to get the first draft done. Next, I kept writing to get to the end of the script, print it, and see it as a whole, then I go to town.”

JML:  How many times do you edit your screenplay?
PB:  “Something like 80 drafts…I just keep honing it and honing it until it’s done.”

JML:  Please talk about dialogue. How do you get it to work? What advice can you offer?
PB:  “I think you really do have to have an ear for it and I’m not sure if it’s something you can learn. You have to really listen to conversations; it usually isn’t a ‘straight-forward question followed by an answer’ process. People talk in sentence fragments. They use contractions. There’s a natural rhythm to their words and that’s what I try to listen to and write down. Once my character’s dialogue sounds right, I move on.”

JML:  Where do your characters come from? Do you keep a notebook on human traits, quirks, and characteristics or do you store it all away in memory?
PB:  “The characters used in my films depend on the story. They have to service the story, but they’re just random people. I try to find the right character to give the most conflict. I ask myself, “What kind of person do I need?” I do change the characters as I write because they evolve as I go forward. In fact, I might make a switch on page 50 and it bears no resemble to who I started with at the beginning, so I have to go back and make the necessary changes. It’s a job of finding or creating the best people to help your story.”

JML:  What inspires you?
PB:  “The people who inspire me are those who are in situations where they must go up and beyond, put themselves to the test. I oftentimes ask myself, “Do I have the balls to do that?” The original title for Hollywoodland was Truth, Justice and the American Way, so I was jazzed about the story, the idea of both the heroism and the ironic twist that George Reeves played out in his character and his private life. As the hero, Reeves hated his part as Superman, but when meeting the kids, he became the guy they expected to see. He stepped up to it no matter how bad he was feeling about it, maybe he got drunk afterwards, but he was the guy they expected and it came through.  Reeves stood up and played the game because he knew what it meant to the kids and his audience and what it meant to his career.”

JML:  Who do you watch (admire) in the industry?

PB:  “I love Larry David. His HBO series, Curb your Enthusiasm, is brilliant.  Albert Brooks, Martin Scorsese are also great, so real in what they do.”

Act III

JML:  What’s next?
PB:  “Actually, the movie starring Nicolas Cage, Next, is next, coming out in April 2007. I was hired eight weeks before they started shooting to rewrite. It was crazy but I loved it. Cage is the coolest guy that I have ever met, so different, so smart—he challenged me creatively speaking.

JML:  Where is your writing taking you now?
PB:  “I’m working with the producer, Albert Berger, of Little Miss Sunshine, writing the HBO’s script, The Warden, about Lewis E. Lawes, the legendary prison reformer who made tremendous changes during his tenure from 1920 to 1941 at New York State Sing Sing Prison. I’m enthralled with his story because he’s the antithesis of what prisons were and should be at that time. He wrote Broadway plays, books, and stood against capital punishment.

I’m writing producer’s Kevin Misher’s film Wild Ride, and following this amazing story about one of most prolific racing and stud horses from the 70s, Alydar. The horse is destroyed because of a badly broken leg, but investigative authorities believe it was an effort to collect insurance money to pay off debts of Calument Farms amassed by the owner who married into the business and ran it into the ground.
 

I’m writing the script for the novel adaptation of James Patterson’s book, Lifeguard while waiting for a director to be determined.

Plus I’m writing the script for Counter Clockwise starring Jennifer Aniston. It’s the story about Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer and her aging theory studies, in which she reversed the aging process by convincing her subjects they were younger.

I’ve been hired to pen the script based on the adaptation of Dan Zevin’s comic memoir of the same title, The Day I Turned Uncool: Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-Up. Adam Sandler deals with his catastrophic reality of hitting 30 and his unenthusiastic commitment to adulthood.”

JML: Is this a dream come true?
PB:  “Yes—it’s unbelievable now. I wrote the script for Hollywoodland and I loved it whether or not it got made. It took about 3-1/2 years to make it happen, but it made my career completely turn around. It is unbelievably, amazingly, cool.”

JML: What can you tell aspiring screenwriters about the business?

PB:  “1. You can’t give up. Don’t throw in the towel too quickly. Getting your shot in Hollywood is dependent on your perseverance and willpower to write the best script that you can. If you do this, you have a shot to make it.

2. Many aspiring screenwriters say, “It’s too hard, I can’t handle the rejection,” but for me the prospect of having the same job in TV was even scarier.

3. You have to love writing screenplays, it’s an investment, so much time of your time and energy, and most times it’s not going to pan out, so enjoy the process.”

4. You can’t believe the first thing that you write is the best thing you can do.”

Thanks to Jill Murphy Long for the interview!