Se7en Q&A, with Andrew Kevin Walker
Austin Film Festival's On Story
This week on On Story, we’ll travel back to the 90s with a retrospective on the crime thriller Se7en, with its screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker. Directed by David Fincher, Se7en stars Brad Pitt as David Mills, an idealistic young detective with a short fuse, who’s still adjusting to the violence and apathy of life in the big city. Mills is paired with William Somerset, a jaded Detective Lieutenant who’s only one week from retirement, played by Morgan Freeman. Mills and Somerset are tasked with investigating a pair of homicides that are exceptionally depraved and theatrical. The...
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The Writer's Toolkit: Inspiration
Austin Film Festival's On Story
Next Up, we’re joined by three accomplished writers, Virgil Williams, Nicole Perlman, and Scott Rosenberg, for a conversation on finding and maintaining inspiration. Virgil Williams began his career in television, writing on 24 and ER. In 2011 Williams joined the writing staff of the grisly FBI procedural Criminal Minds, and stayed on for a six-season run as a writer and producer. Williams earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work writing the script for the 2017 historical drama Mudbound, following the clash between two Southern families as they...
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On Wicked, with Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox
Austin Film Festival's On Story
This week on On Story, a conversation with screenwriters Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, on the years-long labor of love that brought Wicked from the stage to the big screen. Wicked takes us back in time to before the events of the classic film The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The story follows Elphaba Thropp, played by Cynthia Erivo, a misunderstood outcast who was born with green skin, and magical powers that she can’t always control. While escorting her younger sister to her first day at university, Elphaba accidentally uses her powers in an emotional outburst. The university’s Dean of...
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Refeed: On Dark Winds
Austin Film Festival's On Story
This week on On Story, we’re taking a trip back in time to an interview with writer, creator, and showrunner Graham Roland, as he discusses developing his AMC series Dark Winds. Roland joined us to share the origins of the project, the creative challenges behind adapting Tony Hillerman’s iconic novels, and what excited him most about bringing these characters to the screen. Let’s dive into his conversation and hear his thoughts on crafting Dark Winds.
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On Train Dreams, with Clint Bentley
Austin Film Festival's On Story
This week on On Story, Clint Bentley will talk to us about his work writing and directing Train Dreams. Train Dreams recounts the life of Robert Granier, an early 20th century logger and railway construction worker played by Joel Edgerton. Granier works in seasons, and his work keeps him separated from his family for months at a time. Throughout the story, Granier is haunted by the violence he’s witnessed in the course of his work, and he spends his life searching for meaning in the face of a world that seems to destroy and reconstruct itself around him at breakneck speed. Clint...
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Dead Man's Wire Q&A with Austin Kolodney
Austin Film Festival's On Story
This week on On Story, we’re joined by screenwriter Austin Kolodney for a conversation on the historical crime thriller Dead Man’s Wire. The film is based on the true story of a 1977 kidnapping carried out by Tony Kiritsis. Kiritsis believed that his mortgage broker, Richard O. Hall, was conspiring to unjustly seize Kiritsis’ property for himself. On a cold February morning in 1977, Kiritsis went to Hall’s office and wired the muzzle of a sawed-off shotgun to Hall’s neck. The trigger of the gun was connected to Hall by a “dead man’s wire” meaning that if Hall tried...
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Dissecting Top Gun, with Christopher McQuarrie
Austin Film Festival's On Story
This week on On Story, we’re joined by a titan of the action genre, Christopher McQuarrie, for a behind the scenes deep dive into Top Gun: Maverick. But before we ride into the sunset, we recommend you follow On Story wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes finishing your screenplay can feel like trying to land an F-14 Tomcat with a blown out engine and an empty gas tank, but, armed with a wide range of experience writing across film and television, our amazing guests are here to bring you home.
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Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Q&A, with Rian Johnson
Austin Film Festival's On Story
This week on On Story, we’re talking to Rian Johnson about his process writing and directing Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. This third installment of the Knives Out series follows an ambitious young Catholic priest, and former boxer, named Jud Duplencity. Jud teams up with detective Benoit Blanc after the divisive Monsignor of his small, rural parish is murdered mid-sermon. Outside of the Knives Out series, Johnson has two decades of experience writing and directing in the mystery and sci-fi genres. He made his directorial debut in 2005 with Brick, a neo-noir mystery set...
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The Prestige Miniseries, with Craig Mazin and Marissa Jo Cerar
Austin Film Festival's On Story
This week on On Story, a conversation on the prestige miniseries with Craig Mazin and Marissa Jo Cerar. Craig Mazin is the creator, writer, and executive producer of HBO’s Emmy-winning limited series Chernobyl. Chernobyl is a five-episode historical drama following the events leading up to the Chernobyl disaster and the cleanup efforts that followed. Mazin is also known for co-creating and co-writing HBO’s The Last of Us, and for his work on comedy films such as Scary Movie 3, and Identity Thief. Marissa Jo Cerar is the creator of the NAACP Image Award-winning...
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Succession, with Susan Soon He Stanton
Austin Film Festival's On Story
This week on On Story, we’re joined by Susan Soon He Stanton for a look inside the writers room of the hit HBO drama, Succession. Succession centers on the Roy family, the ultra-rich owners of a global media conglomerate called Waystar RoyCo. The family business is spearheaded by aging patriarch, Logan Roy. As Logan’s ability to lead the company becomes more and more uncertain, his adult children fight to out-maneuver their Father, and each other, to seize control. Each of the Roy children enters this fight for power carrying baggage from their bizarre upbringings within this cold,...
info_outlineThis week on On Story we’ll hear from some of the writing team behind the first season of the immensely popular Fox drama series EMPIRE and later we’ll hear from veteran television writer and producer Virgil Williams who was nominated for a 2018 Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for the film MUDBOUND.
Clips of Empire courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Television
Clips of Mudbound courtesy of Netflix and MMC Joule Films LLC
Clips of 24 courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Walt Disney Television.
On Story is part of a growing number of programs in Austin Film Festival’s On Story Project, including the On Story PBS series, The On Story radio program and podcast and the On Story book series. To find out more about On Story and Austin Film Festival, visit On Story.tv or austinfilmfestival.com.