Screenwriter STUART BEATTIE: Tricks of the Trade

Australian screenwriter Stuart Beattie is credited with having written the role no one ever thought they'd see Tom Cruise play: Vincent, the riveting homicidal hit man in Beattie's original screenplay, Collateral, directed by Michael Mann (The Insider, Heat). After 15 years in the business, Beattie has learned a thing or two about how to make characters and plots sing (or sting) on the page. And his long-gestating idea for a rejuvenation of the pirate movie eventually hit pay dirt with the Jerry Bruckheimer blockbuster, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, on which he has story credit. Listen in as Beattie describes what it feels like when Tom Cruise looks like he wants to kill you, where the best story ideas come from, and how to stay passionate when you can't even get your mother to read your screenplays.

This video is an excerpt from the full interview, available on DVD at TheDialogueSeries.com .

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• beattie
• film
• lesson
• script
• movie
• screenwriter
• screenplay
• tutorial
• dialogue
• conversation
• television
• discussion
• prod

[Privatejoker88]

"No bookends"? He wrote Collateral, In one of the first scenes Tom Cruise talks about a guy dying on the train and nobody noticing, the last scene of the film bookends this.

[nkh40]

@DafTacoustics Brilliant. Dead ringer.

[kacyjan]

I am pretty damn sure the film had a bookend too. Well.....a bookend at the beginning anyway

[kacyjan]

In Tomorrow When the War began, written by Stuart - the DOG died!!!

[DafTacoustics]

Stevie Janowski?

[greatwareagle]

The logic behind killing an animal is that they purely act on instinct - they dont have a concept of right or wrong. They lack all of the things that justify (or rationalize) the killing of humans on film, such as manipulation, deceit, malice, betrayal, etc.

If an animal does engage in such behavior, it is only because we interpret it that way - the animal has no way of realizing it.

[pikiwiki]

@Cuah123 rodriguez is way, way better

[pikiwiki]

@alejandro15187 if you have ever been chased by a dog like that, you know what the term hellhound describes

[carlos1234567898765]

waste of my time. there are no rules to a truely good film. this guy makes shitty hollyhood fuckups.

[alejandro15187]

I scoffed when I first read this, but your right. Think of the scene where the pitbull is chasing Broslin's character. It starts off  all menancing, then they both end up in the river, which is bigger than them both and therefore equalizes them. Then Broslin gets out, dries his gun, and shoots the dog. I felt bad for the damn dog!