The Dialogue, Vol. 1-4: PART I

Ever since I started watching Inside the Actor's Studio a decade ago, I've wondered why there isn't a screenwriting equivalent. Well, the wait is over. The only problem: The Dialogue isn't a TV show, it's a series of DVDs. It's not clear whether these discs are available in stores, but they are available through amazon.com and The Dialogue website (which also offers a buy-five-get-three-free deal). If you order the twelve episodes that are currently available (Vol. 1-4), you can view them as the first season of a terrific (but non-existent) new TV series.

Hosted by studio executive-turned producer Mike De Luca, The Dialogue is a one-of-a-kind series of 90-minute interviews with leading Hollywood screenwriters. You don't have to be an actor to appreciate Inside the Actor's Studio and you don't have to be a screenwriter to appreciate The Dialogue. In essence, this is really intelligent, insider discussion of the Hollywood system with particular emphasis on the art of screenwriting. De Luca has a tendency to jump around a bit in his questioning -- and he isn't always 100% comfortable on camera -- but he makes for a surprisingly good host.

Best known for shepherding projects like Seven and Boogie Nights at New Line in the mid-90s, De Luca was actually a screenwriter of some repute in his twenties (his credits include Freddy's Dead and John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness). Combining the idealized perspective of a devout movie geek with the more practical outlook of a seasoned producer, De Luca asks perceptive and relevant questions that may seem straightforward at first, but actually inspire unexpectedly in-depth conversation. With the traditional interview hierarchy gone -- in fact, several of these writers are currently employed by De Luca -- gushing is replaced by the more informative act of two industry pros talking shop.

While this distinguishes The Dialogue from Inside the Actor's Studio, there are several direct references to James Lipton's (in)famous series. For one, De Luca holds a stack of cards with interview questions in his hands at all times. These aren't quite as prominently displayed as James Lipton's notorious mountain of questions, but the effect is similar. Also, whereas Lipton is known for asking every guest to answer Bernard Pivot's questionnaire, De Luca has a slightly more bizarre ritual: "the object exercise." In this exercise, a butler (sadly, not named Jeeves) approaches the subject with a platter, lifts the lid, and reveals an object. The writer must then spontaneously create a story/monologue about this object. The results are hilarious, dramatic, baffling, and ridiculous. More importantly, this exercise proves two things: 1) most writers are frustrated actors and 2) few screenwriters can generate spontaneous storytelling magic (writing and improv are two very different skills).

To help you prioritize in the buying and/or renting process, here's an episode-by-episode breakdown of the six interviews I've viewed, thus far. Since there's something inherently educational and academic about these programs, I'm giving each interview a letter grade, Entertainment Weekly-style.

Jim Uhls

Jim Uhls isn't the most prolific writer of produced screenplays, but he's been toiling away at his craft for many years. To date, he is best known for his first major screenwriting credit, his adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's "Fight Club." While Palahniuk and director David Fincher tend to get most of the credit for that sardonic cult classic, Jim Uhls's personality in this interview suggests that he might have contributed more than he gets credit for. Likably laid back with a dry sense of humor, Uhls offers many worthwhile tips (ie. he interviews his characters on paper before writing his scripts, he sometimes writes a script's key scenes first to get the ball rolling), as well as some memorable tales from the Fight Club experience. Uhls also discusses some of his upcoming projects, most notably his adaptation of Theodore Roszak's "Flicker," which Darren Aronofsky once planned to direct (Uhls has condensed the novel's unwieldy twenty-year timeline into two weeks). If you'd like to learn more about Uhls before viewing this episode, check out the blog he's maintaining at The Dialogue website. B+

Scott Rosenberg

More than any other guest on The Dialogue, Scott Rosenberg (Beautiful Girls, Con Air) embraces an "I don't really give a shit" attitude... and it's kind of endearing. Outside of his thoughts on screenwriting, the highlight of this interview is his detailed description of the notorious bar altercation involving Steve Buscemi, Vince Vaughn, Rosenberg, and a group of angry locals back in 2001. The main thrust of Rosenberg's screenwriting philosophy is his insistence that scripts should come together fast. He thinks it's crazy that some writers spend a year or more on a single script and boasts that he wrote Gone in 60 Seconds in only ten days. This may not seem like much -- given the mediocrity of that film -- but Rosenberg maintains that his version was far better than Bruckheimer's. Apparently, alcohol is also an important part of Rosenberg's process. When he was researching Gone in 60 Seocnds, he got a bunch of car nuts drunk, recorded their conversations, and used the best excerpts in his script. Rosenberg also explains that, in the rare instance that he experiences writer's block, he cancels his Friday night plans, picks up some cans of Budweiser, blasts some Metallica, gets wasted, and writes like a maniac. While ninety percent of this material is useless, the best ten percent is usually enough to help him overcome any creative roadblacks. Rosenberg is a practical screenwriter and he offers a direct and sensible distillation of his craft: "actors want to say cool stuff." A-

Paul Haggis

While I'm still not convinced Paul Haggis is the master screenwriter that Million Dollar Baby and Crash fans may believe he is, he certainly gets points for being an engaging and pleasantly self-effacing interview subject. Haggis tells Mike De Luca the story of his entire career, beginning with his father's unlikely advice that he quit his normal 9-to-5 and pursue a screenwriting career in Hollywood. He also speaks at length about the ups-and-downs of television writing and his late-blooming screenwriting career. Best of all, Haggis shares some memorable anecdotes about his epic, but rarely mentioned directorial debut, Red Hot -- only half of the film was ever shot, but the financiers scrapped a version together and released it anyway -- and the process of developing Flags of Our Fathers with Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood. Like many interviews in The Dialogue series, this one is filled with the kind of movie business minutiae that hardcore film buffs should find genuinely rewarding. Haggis also describes his screenwriting secrets, including his reliance on outlines and treatments. Crash was so heavily planned in advance that it only took two weeks to write (with co-screenwriter Bobby Moresco). Not bad for an Oscar-winning (if endlessly frustrating) script. B+

Callie Khouri

Of the six interviews I've seen so far, this is the only one that kind of disappointed me. To be honest, I've never been much of Callie Khouri fan -- didn't care for Thelma & Louise, never saw Something to Talk About or the Ya-Ya Sisterhood movie -- but I'm also frustrated by her vaguely grouchy, uninspired responses to De Luca's questions. With genuinely skilled, original female writer-directors like Rebecca Miller, Nicole Holofcener, and Sofia Coppola out there, it's unfortunate that Khouri still remains the most revered female screenwriter in Hollywood (De Luca claims that the studios consider her for every project with a female protagonist). While I'm sure Khouri has plenty of talent, she lacks the insight and visible passion of De Luca's other guests. Still, it's interesting to hear how she would have improved Thelma & Louise. C+

Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel

Again, I'm not really a fan of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel -- their sitcom background has always been a little too evident in their movie scripts (Splash, Gung Ho, Parenthood, EDtv) for my taste -- but I actually found their interview tremendously informative and entertaining. Ganz and Mandel have a way of communicating insight in a straightforward, common sense form. This is also the most dynamic interview in the series, benefitting greatly from the presence of two subjects, as opposed to the usual one. Ganz and Mandel share several entertaining personal anecdotes, including details of the inspiration their children provided for Parenthood. In fact, they spend much of the interview discussing their various sources of inspiration (including the inspiration for Babaloo's name) and their perspective on the process of working with Ron Howard. They jokingly refer to Howard as an "evil genius," the irony being that he is the furthest thing from "evil" (or a "genius," in my opinion) in Hollywood. Whether you appreciate Ganz and Mandel's scripts or not, this is a lively and enjoyable interview. A-

Nick Kazan

This is definitely the best of The Dialogue interviews I've seen thus far. While Nick Kazan's filmography is far from perfect, he's responsible for some genuinely fascinating scripts (At Close Range, Patty Hearst, Reversal of Fortune) and he's the son of one of the great American directors of all time (Elia Kazan, a subject that is conspicuously absent from this interview). Kazan is a virtual fountain of screenwriting wisdom, overflowing with theories and ideas. His thoughts regarding "automatic writing" -- a habit he later learned he shares with Harold Pinter -- are particularly intriguing. Rarely does a minute pass without Kazan delivering a genuinely insightful observation. It's not hard to understand why, in a profession dominated by insecurity and self doubt, Kazan is one of the few established screenwriters who is confident enough to write most of his scripts on spec. He has moments of doubt, but he knows what he's doing and radiates a genuine confidence that most of the other subjects lack. Kazan also offers a myth-busting glimpse at Christopher Walken's unorthodox acting process. If you're not sure whether this series is for you, this interview makes for an idyllic, risk-free sample. A+

There are six more interviews in Vol. 1-4 of The Dialogue -- with Stuart Beattie (Collateral), David Goyer (Batman Begins), Ted Griffin (Ocean's Eleven), John Hamburg (Meet the Parents), Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries), and Sheldon Turner (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) -- and I hope to report back soon with thoughts on those installments soon. In the meantime, whether you're a writer or not, if you have any interest in the art of filmmaking, I highly recommend that you seek these discs out. -- Jonathan Doyle