So if you’re “The Kids Are All Right” co-screenwriter Stuart Blumberg, do you play it chill on the morning of Academy Awards nominations and wait for the phone to ring with some welcome news?
“My morning was that I tried to sleep through it to act cool and could not,” Blumberg told PopcornBiz just two hours after being nominated in the Original Screenplay category with co-writer and director Lisa Cholodenko. “I kept waking up, so I finally admitted that I cared. I got up and I watched it live on IMDB.”
“It really was surreal,” Blumberg admitted of hearing the film’s four Oscar noms announced (Best Picture, Annette Bening for Best Actress, Mark Ruffalo for Best Supporting Actor and his shared writing nod). “Thank God we didn’t think about a day like this, because we just spent so many days, so many months in front of that computer screen just trying to make this the best possible script, and then spent years trying to make it the best possible movie. It’s crazy that that actually paid off, and I guess that it did.”
The screenwriter said that the film’s nominations “mean that people in our profession, our chosen line of work, have watched this movie and have seen something that they believe to be of substance and of merit and of lasting value, and that’s an incredibly rewarding thing – to be honored by your peers who know how hard it is to get a movie made, let alone a movie that has something to say.”
Blumberg and Cholodenko toiled for years on the project, and he said that once filmed, one scene in particular blew away their expectations beyond what they’d put on the page: “The dinner scene with Annette Bening singing the Joni Mitchell song. We had an amazing time writing that scene, laughing and crying while writing it. And then when we saw it actually realized it was better than we ever hoped it could be. It was truly a fulfilling artistic experience.”
And of course, he’s already made a momentous decision about Oscar night: to rent or to purchase formal wear. “I splurged and I bought a tux,” he admitted.
Showing posts with label Screenwriter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Screenwriter. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Screenwriter Explains ‘Modern Family’ Casting Rumors
Lisa Kudrow and Conan O’Brien’s right hand man Andy Richter were not necessarily on the wish list for the “Modern Family” cast during its pilot days, according to a TV writer/producer.
Earlier this week, “Weeds” writer Stephen Falk posted a one sheet on his Tumblr acount, showing a very different breakdown of the families that make up the hit ABC comedy, including a picture of the “Friends” star in the role of Claire Dunphy, former “Coach” star Craig T. Nelson in the role of Jay Pritchett, Richter as Mitchell and the now 35-year-old Sarah Gilbert, formerly of “Roseanne,” in the 13-year-old shoes of Dunphy daughter Alex.
On Wednesday, however, the writer explained the list wasn’t a breakdown of whom the show went after, or even necessarily wanted, for those parts.
“The ‘Modern Family’ document I posted yesterday was an attachment to the widely-distributed 2008 pilot script and was simply character shorthand (for executives to quickly ‘see’ what the writers were going for) and not a ‘wishlist,’” Falk wrote. “[‘Modern Family’ producers] Steve Levitan and Chris Lloyd did not, as far as I know, wish for Sara Gilbert to get in a time machine and become 13 again.”
“I only posted the one-sheet because I thought the document held informative value and insight into a common writer practice,” he continued. “(The character sheets for the pilot I’m currently writing have photos of Matthew McConaughey and Artie Lange pasted onto them; I do not intend to try to actually cast Matthew McConaughey and Artie Lange.)”
As for that “Modern Family” sheet that was attached to the pilot, there were two faces that, in fact, did make it on air – Sofia Vergara who plays Gloria, and Ty Burrell, who plays Phil Dunphy.
Earlier this week, “Weeds” writer Stephen Falk posted a one sheet on his Tumblr acount, showing a very different breakdown of the families that make up the hit ABC comedy, including a picture of the “Friends” star in the role of Claire Dunphy, former “Coach” star Craig T. Nelson in the role of Jay Pritchett, Richter as Mitchell and the now 35-year-old Sarah Gilbert, formerly of “Roseanne,” in the 13-year-old shoes of Dunphy daughter Alex.
On Wednesday, however, the writer explained the list wasn’t a breakdown of whom the show went after, or even necessarily wanted, for those parts.
“The ‘Modern Family’ document I posted yesterday was an attachment to the widely-distributed 2008 pilot script and was simply character shorthand (for executives to quickly ‘see’ what the writers were going for) and not a ‘wishlist,’” Falk wrote. “[‘Modern Family’ producers] Steve Levitan and Chris Lloyd did not, as far as I know, wish for Sara Gilbert to get in a time machine and become 13 again.”
“I only posted the one-sheet because I thought the document held informative value and insight into a common writer practice,” he continued. “(The character sheets for the pilot I’m currently writing have photos of Matthew McConaughey and Artie Lange pasted onto them; I do not intend to try to actually cast Matthew McConaughey and Artie Lange.)”
As for that “Modern Family” sheet that was attached to the pilot, there were two faces that, in fact, did make it on air – Sofia Vergara who plays Gloria, and Ty Burrell, who plays Phil Dunphy.
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