Scott Frank
Appearances
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Was es ist, ist, dass es ein paar Minuten am Tag gibt, wo es wirklich gut geht. Ja. Wo es subkonsensiv ist. Und ich spreche immer darüber. Es ist wie dieses Ball von Dough, das auf dem Tisch landet. Und du fängst an, das Ball von Dough auszulösen. Richtig. Und als es dünner und dünner wird, hoffst du, dass es noch einen gibt. Oh, richtig.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
There are a few movies that I... There's nothing wrong. They're absolutely perfect movies. Sicario, I would absolutely... You can put that on the list. Right. Three Kings.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Grown-up movies. For grown-up people. Right, where they never get together. The couple never gets together. That was his thing. I've had some really good mentors in my life. I've been really lucky that way. Who was the first one? Lindsay Duran, great producer, was the first one who taught me how to write. Then Sidney, then Bill Goldman. Okay. Oh, Bill Goldman, ja. Bill Goldman.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
You must have been old. This was 1990. I was 29.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Why isn't that celebrated? It's a really good movie. Random Hearts! Random Hearts I have more trouble with. The later ones, Havana, Random Hearts, even The Interpreter I have some trouble with. Jeremiah Johnson. I love Jeremiah. That's a perfect movie. Three Days of the Condor, you haven't mentioned that one. That's amazing for that day. One of the greatest lines ever at the end.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und es war. Es ist großartig. Es ist großartig. Wie ist Will Gere in dem? Oh, der Beste. Unglaublich. Ich liebe diesen Film. Das ist ein perfekter Film. Ich habe das gesehen und Outlawed Josie Wales am gleichen Tag. Oh mein Gott. Ein anderer perfekter Film.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But it seemed like you were trying to do too much. Do you remember it? I do remember it. I remember it being a lot of fun. Okay. I remember it being a lot of fun. I remember, and listen, when I wrote and made my own Western, I watched everything for a year. I only read Westerns and only watched Westerns. You mean godless or movie? Godless. That's all I looked at. So it was a genre stuff?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ja, ich dachte, ich liebe sie, aber ich dachte, wenn ich Leute nicht sprechen kann, kann ich es nicht schreiben. Und ich war überrascht, wie ich es schreiben kann. Wie, lass uns ein paar Grubben rütteln.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Right? Which is what, Shane, kind of? Shane, which I love, is for me another perfect name. Searchers? Searchers? I get bored with the Searchers. I like it because he's like a flawed guy. Yeah, well, he's a racist, for starters. Totally. Und es gibt auch einen tollen Moment darin.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Zuerst einmal gibt es nicht so viele Close-Ups, was ich glaube, großartig ist, denn jeder schießt so viele Close-Ups heute. Und das Film prüft, dass nicht jeder andere Schuss... Aber das ist, weil er mit der Landschaft verliebt war. Aber es gibt einen Moment, wo er aufsteht und seine Frau, ich vergesse ihren Namen jetzt...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Sie nimmt seinen Schlauch und du siehst, dass sie den Schlauch nur rüttelt, als sie es auf den Schlauch stellt. Und das sagt dir alles. Ich liebe kleine Momente wie das. Es ist großartig. Sie ist beschlossen. Ja, ja. Genau. Yeah. Yeah. Butch & Sundance. That's also terrific. And that script is a ball to read. In fact, that's what made me want to write scripts.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I read it when I was 11 and there's a line in it. Yeah, it was at the Gemco Checkout. So I'm a little older than you probably. I'm 61. How old could you be? Oh, you look good. It's all that SSRIs. Or all your insanity. They're both. Yeah.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But there's, you know, when you're 11 years old and you read in a screenplay, which I'd never read before, I'd never read a screenplay before, and it says, Butch delivers the most aesthetically exquisite kick in the balls in the history of modern American cinema. And that was Goldman? Goldman. I went, I'm 11, I'm a young kid, this is what I want to do.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
That and Dog Day Afternoon was the other one that did it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
He's one of my favorite directors as well, the other Sidney, and there's no score in that movie. There's just the Elton John song at the beginning, and then no music for it. And also it's just one ride. Yeah, it's one ride. It all happens in real time. Yeah, and then makes this fucking left turn in the middle of it. Yeah. And the audience goes with it. They go completely with it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And the gun. Oh mein Gott. Und dann versucht er die Box zu öffnen mit der Flasche, mit der Waffe in sie und in der Bank und es ist ein Mess, als er versucht.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Du lachst so hart und ich erinnere mich, dass ich da in der Audienz sitze und du lachst am Anfang und wenn er zu dem Punkt kommt, wo er schreit Attica, du weißt, Attica, jeder in der Audienz applaudiert und schreit mit ihm und dann wird es dead silent an einem bestimmten Punkt in der Audienz. Es wird super ruhig. Es war unglaublich, wenn man sich umschaut.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ich erinnere mich an drei Filme, die ich als Kind gesehen habe. Als ich ein Kind war. Ich glaube, ich war 14 Jahre alt. Es gab das, es gab Harold und Maude, die das gemacht haben, weil Hal Ashby einer meiner liebsten Direktoren war. Oh mein Gott, um zu sehen. Shampoo.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But that movie is great. He's amazing. Bruce Dern is amazing in that movie. And the other one was that really, believe it or not, Robert Aldrich, I think. The best. The Longest Yard, his version of The Longest Yard.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Oh boy. It's one, I've never seen. There's a few that are embarrassing that I've never seen. But he also did Kiss Me Deadly, which is great, which is fun. He did The Frisco Kid. Yeah, The Frisco Kid. I just watched that again.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
In not my immediate family, but in my sort of chosen family. But how did you grow up? I grew up very boring. I grew up, my dad was a pilot for Pan America. That's not boring. You get to go in the cockpit? Oh yeah, all the time. That's not boring at all.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
It was great and he loved to fly and pilots are like cops. All they talk about are flying. They all get together and they sit around and they talk about flying. They love it. They love it and they talk about, when you listen to the Black Box recordings, my dad would always say, before they take off, they're always talking about the three S's. Sex, salary and seniority.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Well, they might not even be, you might not be right. Yeah, they might be autopilot. Because autopilot, they can, I don't think they do, but the autopilot, they can land everything now. I'm not sure. It depends. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. I'm always wondering. He loved his job. It was great. He was a captain and he flew everywhere. It was before Pan Am.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
He used to fly all over the Asian Pacific routes. Those were his favorites. Did he have his own plane? He had a little Cessna that he used to pick me up at UC Santa Barbara in sometimes. Where did you grow up? Northern California, Los Gatos. Oh, okay. In the Bay Area. So you just fly down? Just fly down. So did you fly? I flew, but then I stopped.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And I still could, but I stopped because I'm a daydreamer. And I thought I'm a danger to myself and others. I should not be in a plane because I find myself driving and I go, wait. I was supposed to get off the freeway eight exits ago. Oh, I see. And flying, you can't make mistakes. And you're so, you have to really go through the checklist. And by the way, my dad was a lot like Sidney that way.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Sidney Pollack believed, because he was a pilot. He was a really good pilot. But if you just follow the checklist, everything will go fine.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
He's showing me how to fly. And just right away, whenever he takes anyone up, he just says, okay, you got it. And let's go of it and let you fly. And the story I would always tell, which contributes to my anxiety. I've told it a lot, but it's, he would say, okay, the engine cuts out. Where are you going to land right now? Where are you going to land? Right now. The engine's gone.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Where are you going to land? And so it made me in my life and career always think about where am I going to land? Yeah. Okay. This isn't going to, I have to think about where am I going to land? Nothing, nothing lasts. Also, you know, being a Jew, you're taught that nothing lasts because history has fucking proven that. Yes. Yeah.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
That you could be having a great life and in they come with boots and guns. Yeah.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I know. I'm trying to look to see where I can get a foreskin quickly. Otherwise I'll see you at Guantanamo. We can meet up there.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But it does teach you. And also, my parents grew up, you know, they were products of the Depression, too. So I got a lot of, you know, it's all going to be gone tomorrow. You never know. You might be doing well today, but you never know. And my mom constantly...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And the other thing I love talking about is I would come home and she'd be watching Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin and to go, that's Bobby Sherman, he's broke. He lost everything. He's almost dead right now. That's so-and-so. They lost all their money. That's it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I got two siblings. I have a twin sister and an older sister.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I have a twin sister and an older sister. Oh, okay.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
No, only when I wanted to take it seriously. Only when it was, I'm going to school and I'm getting a lot of, you know, doctors can write too. Michael Crichton is also a writer. You know what, being an airline pilot, that's good. I know a lot of pilots who are writing at the same time.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
What are you going to fall back? I had a great teacher at Santa Barbara, which was not a famous film program or anything, but he was great. He used to be a vice president under Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures. He was teaching screenwriting. He was a great teacher. He said to me, you're 19 years old. If you have a fallback, you're going to fall back. You don't have a family. You don't have this.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Just go for it. Let's see if you know how to write. If you can write, then you should chase it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I could teach. And they are. Yeah, I could teach. I mean, and so that is, that's the thing. And so you just realize that you have to at least try. Let the universe tell you that it's not going to happen. You know, not, you know, as a parent, you want to, I feel like,
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I minored in that. It's good. And so at Santa Barbara, because it didn't have a lot of money or production facilities, that's super interdisciplinary. So you're taking art history...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Other things and you're kind of looking at other kinds of movies and you're also really steeped in literature, art history and film history as well, which is great. And as a writer and even as a director, all that stuff I still think about all the time.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But I like directors like that. William Wyler is another one I love. He does The Heiress. He does Best Years of Our Lives. He's a really interesting filmmaker for me. They're just well crafted.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Yeah, Siad Mack. Yeah, he's interesting. Right? Yeah, very interesting, yeah. I mean, just kind of like matter of fact. Yeah. You know, kind of block. And that, when I went to college, Film Noir became the other thing like Sidney Lumet that infected me deeply.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Really big effect. That really was for me something amazing. All the stuff going on and the stuff said and unsaid and they're all fucked up.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Totally. But also, you know, The Third Man. That's an amazing movie. An amazing movie.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I mean, that's a good question, because it leads to the notion that Das ist problematisch.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
seems to be one of those things where on every side of the equation, people think that there is a way of doing it. And especially in this world where we game everything now, from politics to marketing to all these things.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But I love the movie. Well, that's a good feeling when you're done with something and you say, I don't care what happens to this. I love doing it and I'm happy with it. But the problem is, when you go to the movies, your disappointment 99.9% of the time is not with the cinematography or the acting or the direction or the music. It's with the story. Yeah, blame the writer.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But nobody even knows who wrote anything anymore.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Aber das sind die Regeln der Gilde, oder? Es sind die Regeln der Gilde, aber ich mag es nicht, dass Leute es öffnen. Leute sagen, hast du das gemacht? Hast du das gemacht? Und ich sage, nein, weil ich nicht da war. Oh, du hast die Geschichte nicht gemacht. Oder ich kam rein und habe etwas gemacht, aber es ist sehr anders, wenn du rein kommst und etwas machst, was du nicht machst.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
90 Prozent der Zeit, die Schriftler oder Schriftler, die ich fixiere, verdienen den Kredit. Ich verdiene den Kredit nicht, aber das zeigt dir die Art von Spezialität der Kreativität in der Filmmachung. Und das andere ist, aber das ist ein Problem.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And those kinds of movies that I'm fixing are rarely sort of, no one's going to fix a Wes Anderson movie or a Paul Thomas Anderson because they're so singular and we're not taught to do that. The movies that I'm fixing are often approached so mechanically that you can fix them. Or the studio will say, you know... Just do a pass? Well, you do a pass. Or actors are insecure.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Can you just do... And writers might be good at structure, but the dialogue isn't good. Or they have a great idea. And screenwriters, because they've been taught this, I think, have confused participation with creation. So they think, well, I was there first. I should have a credit. I was there first. That means everything came from me. Not really.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And it depends. It's more complicated than that. And the fact that you don't know it's more complicated than that is kind of interesting. And then, so that's, and it's a third rail of guild politics, is when you talk about that.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I share credit with a couple people that way, of whom has a big award nomination. Yeah, we're not going to go there, but it's fascinating to me. And because I remember sitting there with the co-writer writing together, Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja, ja. It's hard to have a career in Hollywood that lasts. It's very difficult. And I think that you think the credit is the thing.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And so there's a lot of fight over for credit. And I understand because a lot of people are denied credit that deserve it as well. But you listen to actors and directors going, I basically rewrote it. And it's like, no, you didn't. No, you didn't.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
It was a weird impetus. I was home for Christmas, my sophomore year of school, and I remember the Iran hostage situation was all going on. And I remember watching it on TV, and I just woke up in the middle of the night, and I had this idea... Jetzt gibt es tausende und tausende Little Man Tates. Ja, es gibt sie. Yes, there are. And so that's how it started.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And then I got into this screenwriting class with Paul Lazarus. Harry Cohn's guy? Harry Cohn's guy. Actually it was a different teacher the first time. Named Chuck Wolf, who was also great. And I needed an idea for a movie. And all I had was the kid and his mother. Because he was always going to be talking about his mother. And I just started writing it as a script. Oh, okay.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und dann wurde es ein Ding. Und dann wurde es ein Ding. Und das hat dich dazu gebracht? Das hat mich dazu gebracht, aber ich musste es ziemlich oft wiederholen, weil es viele Filme gab, wie Gary Coleman und der Junge mit der 200 IQ. Und ich konnte nur sehen, dass es nicht wirklich eine originale Idee war. Also musste ich etwas anderes damit machen, um es interessanter zu machen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Es hat mich als Agent eingeladen, es hat mich als Agent auf dem Paramount-Lot eingeladen, als ich 24 war, 1984. Wow, also du bist drin, und Jodie Foster wird... Sie wird später direkt werden, sie und Joe Dante werden es für eine Weile direkt werden. Oh, interessant. Was wäre das für ein Film gewesen? Es war tatsächlich, die originelle Version des Skripts war eine sehr schwarze Komödie. Okay.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und Jodie, und ich mag auch ihre Version des Films, aber sie war interessiert in alternativen Eltern. Ja. Und wie das funktioniert. Oh, und das hat einen breiteren Anliegen gemacht? Ich weiß nicht, es hat einfach einen anderen Film gemacht. Und ich glaube, und ich mag den Film wirklich und ich liebe die Erfahrung, ihn mit ihr zu machen, aber es war anders, als was ich in meinem Kopf hatte. Ja.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But we had a great time doing it. Also, because it got made nine years later in some ways, and I'd written it at such a young age, it was a little like looking at a high school term paper. I lost the feel for it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
It depends on the director. It depends on me. It depends on what the movie is and how it came together. I was there with her in Cincinnati while she was shooting it. I came home because Ken Branagh was going to start shooting Dead again right after that. So while that was shooting. And he wanted you on set too? He did. And because he came from the theater, God bless him. And again, Jody and I
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Also zwei Schauspieler, die zwei meiner ersten Filme gedreht haben. Der erste Film hieß »Playing Clothes«, den Martha Coolidge gedreht hat. Das musst du wirklich nicht suchen. Du musst es wirklich nicht suchen. Aber Ken Marana kam aus dem Theater, also wollte er es haben. Was auch interessant war, war, dass sie zwei Schauspieler waren und wir alle gleich alt waren.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und das war eine interessante Erfahrung für mich. Und Ken würde ein paar Fotos drehen und sagen, willst du, dass ich es probiere? Anything else? And I would look around wondering, who the fuck is he talking to? It's not my job. Yeah, wait, no, but it's great when he wants to do that. And so it was interesting. And then gradually, the more time I spent on sets... I just realized it's so boring.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Tell me about it. If I'm not directing it, I'm just sitting there. You have a voice, but no say. I find that as an actor. Yeah.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Es war hart und ich hatte viel Hilfe. Von ihm? Nein, von ihm. Er und ich haben immer darüber gesprochen. Ich erzähle dir eine Geschichte über das Ende von Out of Sight, mit der er mich wirklich geholfen hat. Aber ich hatte auf Get Shorty, in beiden von diesen Filmen, hatte ich Jersey Filme. Und die Leute wissen nicht, dass Danny DeVito seine Firma, Danny war ein wirklicher Produzent.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ein toller Produzent. Er hatte Stacey Cher, die für ihn arbeitete, der auch ein wirklicher Produzent war. Ja. And so I had help. I had help from Barry Sonnenfeld on Get Shorty. And the only reason I give the edge out of sight over Get Shorty is Barry did a broader version of Get Shorty than I had in my head a little bit. He wrote a whole script? No, no. He directed.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Barry Sonnenfeld was the director. And his sensibility, which works great.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
He's so much fun. And I love the movie. So let's be clear. I really love the movie. Well, you got all those fucking actors, too. But it was different for me in a way than what I had in my... Same with Ken Branagh on Dead Again. I had written what I thought was this dark thing. And he made it very theatrical in a way that works also. And so I'm learning all of that early on.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
It was just a little broader in tone a little bit. But I really, I so enjoy it. And then on Out of Sight though... I thought I did it because we had three kids all in one room and we needed a house, wanted to move to Pasadena.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And I grabbed it because I thought I had gotten away with one Elmore Leonard adaptation because I remember when I met him, the first time I met, he was telling me story after story over lunch about all his books that had been fucked up as movies. One after another. And so I thought, I don't want to end up another story and some other young assholes story. Okay, gut.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ja, und sie waren glücklich damit? Ja, und so... Und dann hat mich Ivan Reitman, seine Frau machte einen Film, ein Musikal damals, namens Casual Sex, basierend auf dem Groundlings-Show. Und er gab mir den Film zum Rewriten und gab mir ein bisschen Geld und gab mir acht Tage, um ihn zu machen. Und das erste, was ich tat, war, es nicht ein Musikal zu machen. Ja. Und ich habe es wieder geschrieben.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und ich war wahrscheinlich der falsche Typ für das. Aber ich habe es einfach angefangen, es zu machen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And in the case of someone like Elmore Leonard, who has a very specific voice. So you're trying to catch that voice and you're trying to... Because in his case, there's a need always to invent a lot of plot. You have to invent or invent some plot.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
You need to invent some things because oftentimes in his books, he'll either introduce a new character toward the very end all of a sudden or he'll become disinterested in a character. And so you're trying to find a movie shape to it. And that's what was really hard about it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Aber die Möglichkeit, einen Ton zu finden und das zu tun, ich weiß nicht, es war wie die Leute, die eine gute Ehe für Musik haben und sie die Song spielen können. Ich bin immer so mit Dialog und Ton.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ja, aber sie sind normalerweise nicht verbunden, während ich schreibe. Oh, okay.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Jesus. Absolutely. And the thing with also, you know, Jennifer Lopez, George Clooney, that was the right time for them and out of sight. And Stephen, I remember him coming to my office. Yeah, he would come to my office in Pasadena and we would sit there and just go through the script and act it out. And it was an amazing experience. Okay. Oh, even going back?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
In the truck? In dem Buch verändert sie sich nie als Charakter. Karen Sisko ist das gleiche, von Anfang bis Ende. Sie wird von dieser sexistischen Kompetenz definiert. Aber er ist wirklich traurig. Er geht um den Weg, den er nicht genommen hat. Er sagt, wenn ich nicht all diese dummen Sachen gemacht hätte, wäre ich ein verdammter Idiot. Also hast du das genommen? Nein, ich habe das genommen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ich habe mich wirklich darauf eingelassen und habe den Film über ihn gemacht. Also konnte es nicht enden. Aber was war sein Regret? that he couldn't be with someone like her.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
No, no, he just realized it was a stupid line of work. Yeah, yeah. But he was good at it. He was good at it, yeah. And so at the end, I was trying to figure out what to do and I was just talking to Elmer one day and he said, you know, he had just hung up with this guy he's been corresponding with in prison.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und er hat mir gesagt, dass dieser Junge ein Buch schreiben will, und er spricht immer mit ihm. Und er hat gesagt, ja. Und Omer hat gesagt, ja. Und er hat sich von 11 federalen Lock-Ups ausgeschlossen. Und ich habe gesagt, ich muss gehen. Ich muss jetzt hängen. Ja. I just need to go right now. And it just hit me when he just said that.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I went, of course, of course, I'm going to put him in a van with that guy. But I'm going to do a different version of him. I'm going to do, you know, the Muslim version of him.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And you wrote that in. Yeah, that's all in there. That's all in there. But when that happened, then I realized, okay, we're done. We're done now. Now we got it. Yeah, it was great. And then how do you go? And then you go to Minority Report? The hardest thing I ever worked on. It's a hard movie. A really hard movie. A really hard movie. And it...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
We spent a long time, originally that was going to be a job where I was going to work for a few weeks and on the script. And he, Steven Spielberg, was just wanted to work on, had a few things on the list he wanted to do with the script. And it was a very different movie. And it's a short story that's all of 11 or 12 pages, I think. It's a very short, short story. Who did it? Not J.G.Boward.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Who was it? Philip K. Dick. Oh yeah, Philip K. Dick. And also, he was an interesting guy as a writer. He seemed kind of to me almost fascist in some of the ways he thought about politics in his books, but also was really into drugs and experiment and things like that. I find him endlessly fascinating. But the book, rather the short story ended with him sort of trying to support Ja. Ja.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und so sahen ihre Häuser aus wie die Autos, alles fühlte sich aus wie die 1950er. Es war ein sehr anderer Ton. Es gab wirklich kein Mysterium in ihm. Es war sehr anders. Aber es war dieser Mann, John Cohen, ein sehr guter Schreiter, der mit ihm einen wirklich interessanten Job gemacht hat. Aber es war nicht... Es hat nicht wirklich funktioniert. Wir haben also angefangen, daran zu arbeiten.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und dann ist Tom Cruise mit Mission Impossible 2 in Australien gefilmt. Seine Zeitung wurde geschlossen, um das Skript wiederzuarbeiten. Und jetzt haben wir unendlich viel Zeit vor uns. Und Steven hat gesagt, wir schauen uns das mal an. Und du hast mit ihm vorher gearbeitet, Spielberg? Ja, ich habe mit ihm vorher einen Rewrite gemacht. Of Saving Private Ryan?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
He wanted to give the characters more individuality.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Yeah, he wanted to sort of give them so that they could be a little more specific. And it's funny, I never ever really talked about that movie until... Patrick Radden Keefe hat mich in The New Yorker geoutet. Aber es war ein wirklich guter Skript und eine wirklich gute Idee von Robert Rodat. Und er verdient all den Kredit dafür.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And that's usually, you read something and it's like the characters are not characters, they're attitudes or types. Sure. Or even worse, jobs. Or even worse, the actor. Yeah. You know, and so they're always looking to find a way to give them something to do, to make it, because character is what makes you care. Yeah.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
You know, that really is the thing, and plot should really come from that, not from sort of, and then this happens, and then that happens. Oh, interesting. You know, because you don't want people doing things.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Yes, and you don't want people, my pet peeve is when you see characters doing something because the script said so. You know, why are they arguing with each other right now? Why don't they believe Jack Bauer? He saved the world a hundred thousand times and now he's saying, I'm going to save the world again. Yeah. Und sie sagen, nein, du bist nicht, du hast ihn verabschiedet. Lock ihn auf.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Du sagst, warte, was? Oder der kleine Kind sagt, Mama, ich habe gesehen, nein, das ist nur deine Vorstellung. Und so ist das lausch. Du musst herausfinden, warum sie ihn nicht glauben. Ist es ein Junge, der Wolf weint? Ist es das? Sonst bist du nur erstaunt. Du fühlst nicht die Tension von jemandem, der nicht glaubt, dass du es nur erstaunlich bist.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
There are things, I just read something not too long ago, where I said, you don't want to get rid of this writer. This writer can write. No one is having the right conversation about the script. You don't want to get rid of them. And I wish I had been mature enough
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Or smart enough to recognize that, because there are probably many times where that had happened of the 50 or 60 or so things I've done over the years. There's a lot of them. And there are many jobs that I didn't do. Where you didn't stand up for the other guy, you mean? Not that I didn't stand up for the other guy, but that I didn't realize that they don't need me.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
There's something else going on here. This is another thing. And listen, as writers, we're also frequently our own worst enemy. Sometimes it's just a Personal lack of communication. Right, but also...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Nein, das ist, weil er, das ist wirklich klug, weil... He has, the thing, the good thing is that he has endless resources in terms of people he can talk to. So there's always ideas coming in, all new things. So if there's a way to make him better, he's agnostic in terms of who's making it better. He has his ideas and he just wants to see those ideas made manifest.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
So it's not really a personal thing for him. It's just like, I need this done. Can this person get it done or can that person get it done? Right.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
No, it was an original script. By you? No, I came in later. Charles Randolph wrote an original script. Und das Problem mit dem Skript, aus Sidneys Sicht, war, dass es eine sehr überraschende Endung hatte. Eine Art 6-Sense-Endung. Das war, als sie all die Vogue an der Zeit waren. Es funktionierte nicht mehr, um so einen Film zu machen. Es war nicht eine menschliche Geschichte.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Es war, aber es hielt auch auf diesem Zwist an. Alles wurde auf den Zwist gelegt. And so what Sidney wanted to do, which was, I think, a great idea, what Sidney really wanted to do was make a movie about someone who believes with her whole heart in diplomacy, but ends up with a gun in her hand at the end. How do you do that? How does that happen?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And he thought, and I agree, I think that was a great idea. And he wanted to shoot in the UN, no one had ever shot in the UN, and he was fascinated with... You know, the way diplomacy works and how it's getting a bad name and how the UN was getting a bad name. So in the original script, her family weren't victims? They were. They were. All of that was there in the original script.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But it was a very different kind of story. And I think that what he wanted to do also was focus on the relationship between the two of them. And so I think that was a big thing for him, that he really wanted to... What is the dialogue they're going to have, the running dialogue they're going to have as this...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
um movie goes on and is she really mysterious do you really could she be involved we want to know might she be involved what what happened we keep learning things about her that make her more and more suspicious she's acting like she's afraid of something and in the script All the threats against her were fake. She was making it up.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And so you had to believe that she was pretending to be scared by herself sometimes. And so the big change that we made in the film was to make it, she's really under threat and yet he's not sure, he's trying to find out the mystery of who might be after her and why. Also mussten wir einen neuen Subplot mit anderen Leitern aus dem Land erstellen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und wir mussten den Mann, den sie wollen, zu retten. Wir mussten ihn als echte Person erstellen. Ich habe viel über Mugabe gelesen. Sie nannten ihn der Lehrer und all diese Dinge, die ich liebte. Er hat sein Land verdoppelt. Und so sind wir immer tiefer und tiefer gegangen. And Sydney guided you there. He guided me there. But we also, it was hard and I felt like I couldn't deliver for him.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I felt like at a certain point I gave up. He was very upset with me. I kept saying, I don't think I'm giving you what you want. And I don't, and it was interesting because his apartment in New York City overlooked the UN. Okay. It was on the East River and out the window you could see the UN. And I just was feeling... Ja. Ja. Ich habe gesagt, das ist wirklich... Du bist sehr tief geblieben.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ich bin sehr tief geblieben. Und so habe ich gesagt, du weißt... Und so habe ich das Projekt verlassen. Und dann kam Steve rein und hat es beendet. Weil ich einfach nicht fühlte, als ob ich einen guten Job mache. Ich habe es nicht gemacht.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I know, that's, my son loves to make fun of me about that movie. You know, if he's trying to dig at me, he'll go, yeah, well, Dad, you wrote Marley and Me. It was a big movie. I love that movie. And we're big dog people, you know. And I... You needed a break. No, it was weird. I didn't want to do it. Elizabeth Gabler, who was running the studio, said, I need a rewrite on this movie.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And Don Roos, who wrote the first draft of the script, is going off to make his own movie. So he can't do this, which is usually a very common reason for why they need somebody else. Somebody is not available to finish or they don't want to finish. But Don was going off to make his own film. And I said, I've read that book. My daughter knows that book.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And my daughter, every night we would take the dog for a walk, she would tell me another chapter. That's so not me. And she goes, you know, it's a story and the story needs fixing and I think and finishing and I think you could do it. Just take a look at it. And so I read it and I realized, oh, this isn't about the dog, it's about my marriage. I'm gonna make this about the messiness.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And when I think about the history of our, you know, 37 whatever years, I think all you think about are the dogs and the different dogs and the this. And it's like this great metaphor. And so I really... ended up having a ball doing it. Oh, that's great. And so that's how it happened.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Am I wrong? Ja, Logan sicher. Wolverine war in, und ich sage das immer zu Jim, es war frustrierend für mich, weil ich das Skript gelesen habe. I didn't know anything about Marvel. I really barely do now even. I had not read anything. And so I read a script that I thought was really good. And I go, I don't know why you want me to come on here. And he said, well, I'm trying to do...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I'm trying to do something a little different. And he talked about it and I said, well, the only thing I can think of is, you know, in the end of the movie he loses his power for five minutes and then he gets it back again. I go, what if he lost his power in the first... 10 Minuten oder 20 Minuten oder sogar der erste Akt.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und jetzt hast du diesen Jungen, der unmordlich ist und all seine Probleme kommen aus seiner Unmordlichkeit, weil du Leute siehst, die du liebst, sterben. Und jetzt steckt er in Feudal Japan, versteckt sich in Feudal Japan, wie der Beobachter Harrison Ford zwischen den Amischen. Er ist zwischen den Leuten in, naja, nicht Feudal Japan, aber im rüren Japan, sorry.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And he's with this woman that he actually really cares for. And the irony is, he doesn't have any power to protect her. I go, that would be really interesting. And so we kind of wrote that all up. And the studio said yes. And the movie that was written ended with a giant robot at the end and all these things. And I wrote the script, rewrote the script.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
The next thing you know, the studio was like, well, where's the robot? Where's the this? Where's the bullet train chase? Where's the that? And suddenly, so the first third of it is one movie and then it just becomes a Marvel movie. So when Jim wanted to do Logan, I said to him, why?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
After all that happened before, he said, well, it's a different studio regime now and they're telling me I can do what I want. And he would send me the scripts. And I was, I had just moved to New York and I was working on my novel. Und ich war in der Schriftstellerin in New York. Sie haben dieses Gebäude, es ist wie von Tisch, der Kunstschule. Es ist nur ein Gebäude, wo du einen Tisch bekommst.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und ich wollte in ein anderes Gebäude gehen, um ein Buch zu schreiben, weil ich wollte fühlen, was das fühlt. Weil mit Schriftstellerin hast du so viele Stimmen in deinem Kopf. Und ich dachte, ich möchte versuchen, all das zu verbreiten. Und ich hatte einen Deal mit Knopf, und ich dachte, ich werde das machen. Aber er würde mir senden, zwei Dinge würden passieren. Er würde mir Skripte senden,
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
all the time of what he was working on for Logan. I would go, this feels like a Marvel movie. This feels like every other Marvel. They're killing the Vice President. They're this. He's a cage fighter at the beginning. There are all these characters from Touchstones. He had someone come in once and they did a version of it. Then someone else did another version of it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
The thing that was so annoying is, the reason I bring up the writer's room is, I was so happy Und ich habe meinen Agenten gesagt, ich werde nichts für ein Jahr machen. Ich habe für das erste Mal in vielen Jahren das Deck geschlossen. Ich habe einen Pilot gefangen, der nicht passieren würde. Ja. Es war ein Schwachsinn, auf den Telefon zu kommen, um mit ihm zu sprechen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ich musste rausgehen, ihn zurückrufen, vielleicht vermisse ich ihn, vielleicht, du weißt. Und dann sendete er mir diese Skripte und ich war einfach wirklich enttäuscht mit ihm. Und dann hat er endlich gesagt, und ich war in zwei Monaten, als ich in Godless schießen wollte, und er hat gesagt, I need you to do this. Can you do this?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And what had happened, the way he got me on Wolverine was he sent me a comic book. And I'd never really read any of these comic books. And it was a different one. It was called Old Man Logan. And it was Logan as Clint Eastwood. And I loved it. And so he sent me another comic book. And it was him with this little girl who has claws coming out of her hands for this one. And I thought, oh, fuck.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
It could be a super violent, like, paper moon. What if we did that? And so it kind of, I despite myself. And so I said, okay, what if I write the opening scene? And Jim is, he's the best writing partner imaginable. He's so good. And he's so, and even if he's not writing, he's just giving you, you know, guidance as a director. He's so smart. A big brain. And he kind of is...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Er ist immer sehr klar mit seinen Intentionen. Es ist für mich eine Art 1-in-1-ist-3-Situation. Ich genieße es wirklich, mit ihm zu arbeiten. Ich hoffe, wir schreiben noch ein paar Dinge. Er ist einer der wenigen Direktoren, für die ich noch gerne schreiben würde. Aber das letzte, was ich sagen wollte, war, dass ich die Eröffnungsszene schreibe.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und wenn du es nicht magst, weil es die Schlüssel der Lieder sein wird, dann machen wir das zusammen. Und er sagte, warum? Was denkst du? Und ich sagte, ich wollte immer einen James-Bond-Film machen, der nicht mit einem riesigen Stunt beginnt, aber er bekommt den Scheiß aus ihm. Und das ist, was ich hier machen möchte. Und er sagte, zeig mir, wie das aussieht. Und ich begann, es zu machen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und ich war so traurig, dass ich gesagt habe, ja.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Als ich schreibe, und ich weiß nicht, ob ihr das jemals erlebt habt, aber es kommt in der Schreibung heraus, bin ich so wütend, dass ich literally stoppe und schreibe diese zwei oder drei Paragraphen obnoxious as fuck Manifesto über dieses Film wird nicht so sein, es wird nicht so sein, es wird so sein, wenn jemand aus einem Fenster fällt, werden sie fucking sterben.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Es war wie diese schreckliche, dumme Sache, die noch heute in der Schreibung steht. Und dann habe ich die Eröffnungsszene geschrieben, die im Film ist. Und sie waren so, ja, lass uns das machen. Lass uns gehen. Und dann haben wir es einfach wieder und wieder gemacht. Wir haben es einfach, er war in Kalifornien, wir haben einfach das Skript wieder und wieder gepasst.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und ich habe immer Dinge gesagt, wie, ich habe gerade eine Szene geschrieben, in der diese ganze Familie massakriert wird. Es gibt keinen Weg, dass jemand das machen will. Und er war so, ich liebe es. Ja. Was war das für ein Element?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Du weißt, der Mentor, der violente Mentor und dann der junge Junge und die Art, den Ton von Shane für das und auch die Art Western-Feel, weil Jim Westerns liebt und so bin ich. Und ich dachte, das war eine wirklich gute Idee. Es war so klug. Und dann hatte ich diese seltsame Idee, die mir eines Tages herausgekommen ist, als ich es nur geschrieben habe, was ist...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
What if the whole thing this girl believes is true? This whole journey he's going on is based on a comic book, a Marvel comic book, where he realizes this whole place that she's got me taking her to, this Eden, isn't even maybe a real place. And the joke is, it turns out, of course, to be a real place. Und dann haben wir das Skript beendet und ich habe es vergessen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und er hatte eine Auszeichnung, die er folgen wollte, also wussten wir die grundlegende Auszeichnung. Und wir haben es geschrieben, wir haben es sehr schnell geschrieben und dann bin ich weggegangen, um Godless zu schießen und er ist weggegangen, um Logan zu schießen und ich habe es vergessen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und ein Jahr später hat er gesagt, du weißt, ich, ich, du weißt, Godless war ein langer, langer Schuss, weil es war ein langer, es war, du weißt, sieben Episoden.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
So I finished after he did. And when I finished, he said, you know, I have a cut of the movie and we tested it and it tested incredibly high. And I said, that's impossible. And he showed it to me and I watched it on my laptop. He sent me a link. I was so skeptical that I didn't even put it on a big screen. I just watched it on my laptop and I thought. Oh mein Gott, he stuck to his guns.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
He did everything he said. Nobody got in his way. They let him make this movie. I can't believe they let him do some of the things he did in this. And it's one of the, outside of the first time I saw Out of Sight, it's one of the happiest I'd ever been to see an early cut of something. And God bless him for dragging me into that. That's funny.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ich habe keine Ahnung, wie wir damit weggegangen sind. Aber du machst das nicht, den unabhängigen Film. Der Lookout war ein kleiner Film. Aber ich habe ihn nicht wirklich gemacht. Ich weiß nicht, warum.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Could be. Could be the monthly nut, you mean?
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I did this pilot called Hoke, based on these Charles Williford novels I love, but for FX that ultimately didn't happen, but it was a great experience.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
It freed me up. It was like, it was like, I mean, two things happened. One, I think going on Zoloft at that time. Yeah. Two, I think working on the book and just hearing, just listening. Ja. Ja.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And he's Michael Clayton, right? Yes, he's Michael Clayton. He's Andor right now. He's unbelievable. The best. Yeah, I talked to him. And, you know, we've known each other forever and maybe even longer than I've known Stephen, I think. But I showed them a cut of A Walk Among the Tombstones and the two of them just ate my lunch. I mean, I got vertigo walking home from that.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Aber der Versuch, etwas einfacher zu machen als ein Filmmacher, macht es eleganter. Und um es einfacher zu machen, musst du echte Regeln für dich haben. Und danach habe ich Hoke gemacht, wo ich experimentiert habe. Und dann hat Godless das wirklich für mich solidifiziert. Und Queen's Gambit.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Absolutely meticulous and it was really instead of trying to overcomplicate it, how do I really make this simple? How do I choreograph or block certain things? You make it about her. You make it about her, but it's even the filmmaking. How are you telling the story? And I relied more and more and on Monsieur Spade, I really experimented with this.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
How much story can you tell in a single composition? Wie viel kannst du erzählen? He's a hell of a filmmaker. Hell of a filmmaker. And a lot of these young horror filmmakers are doing that. Well, that's where it's all happening. It's fascinating to me. And so in Godless, I shot almost all of it with a 25 millimeter lens. And it's like, what can we do? And you still have to pace.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Instead of cutting just to cut, you cut when you need to cut. You cut when you need to punctuate something.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Du solltest nicht bemerken. Es ist wie wenn ich zu William Wyler zurückgehe. Du solltest nicht bemerken. Und es ist immer noch wunderschön. Es hat immer noch seine eigene rigoröse Palette. Und es hat einen sehr starken Ausblick. Es hat immer noch all diese Dinge. Und die Performances, du directierst sie immer noch. Aber du wächst nicht vor ihr herum.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ja, du kannst. Und ich schieße sie so. Ich schieße sie nicht Episode für Episode. Ich habe es auf der Departement Q letztens gemacht, aber das ist nur die Art, wie das zusammengekommen ist. Aber normalerweise schieße ich sie wie ein Film, aber auf der Location.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und wiederum, hat Steven mir gesagt, als er den Walk Among the Tombstones gesehen hat, er hat gesagt, das ist sehr unabhängig. Du hast keine... Das waren seine exakten Worte. Und dann sprichst du über Schriveling. Und so... Es gibt Zeiten, wo ich auf dem Set bin, wo ich schaue und ich erinnere mich... Weil es sich um die Geschichte handelt, hilft es dir, mit deinen Schauspielern zu sprechen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Diese Gespräche sind besser. Ja. Ich weiß, ich bin OCD, anal, was auch immer du es nennst, aber ich bin immer, ich bin sehr, Präparation ist wirklich wichtig für mich, um zu wissen, nur damit ich... Yeah. Yeah. Und dann erzähle ich ihnen die Geschichte. Ich erinnere sie daran, was die Geschichte hier ist. Und jeder wird aufgeregt und wir gehen.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Goldman was just a great yarn spinner. His instinct for going in the opposite direction, where they think you're going to go, to not do, to lead people on, like this is what's going to happen and that doesn't happen, something else happens.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Yeah, soon. But I don't want you to forget the first five, because I'm locked in. I'm going to get you the next one.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
So the idea is just the excuse to start with. The idea isn't everything. And when you put too much pressure on the idea, you're in trouble. And so the thing I need to be really clear about is who. Who am I writing about? And if I can't make two people talk to each other, I can't write them. I can't write characters if I can't. I don't know them well enough.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And so no plot is going to come from these people if I just know, you know, slightly of them. Und das ist eine Sache. Charakter, Charakter, Charakter. Wer sind diese Leute? Ich würde sagen, das andere, was du wissen musst, ist, dass du dich ständig erzählen musst, ob du die Fähigkeit hast, Yarn zu spinnen. Kannst du das auf einmal machen? Ja. Ja. Ja.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I don't know necessarily what the whole shape will be. I get ideas as I go. I'll spend months just writing about the script before I write it. Not doing exercises or things, just writing whatever. Whenever it comes to you? Yeah, whatever I'm thinking about. And then I'll reorganize that into kind of an order.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But I think the main thing is to keep yourself open and to not do things, again, to not give yourself these tasks that are more about being a good student than being a writer. Yeah. Und viele Leute lieben ihre dünnen Erdbeeren und ihre Karten und das und das funktioniert für sie. Aber ich habe eine sehr nette Tisch, weil ich eine sehr messige fucking Kopf.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Und so, so, das für mich, ich brauche es, einfach weg zu gehen und zu versuchen und zu schreiben, weil das ist, wie du den glücklichen Unfall bekommst. If you're careful, which I was sometimes early on, if you're too careful, it's going to feel that way. And so I would tell people, when you start, just make it downhill.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Don't have expectations as to how long it's going to take you to write, because that's always disappointing. And it's going to take you longer. And no one wins prizes for getting a script done. The contract in Hollywood is 10 or 12 weeks for a first draft. I have never in four decades ever made that deal. Ja, ja.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Well, I love those British procedurals. And this is a Danish novel that I turned into a British procedural. And I'm obsessed with like Happy Valley and Broadchurch and Line of Duty was this fucking masterpiece. It's like their wire. I think the blue lights, all these. Or going back to Prime Suspect. And they're great.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
And what I wanted to do, what was so fun about doing Godless, was to embrace every single Western cliche there is. The gunfight, the breaking of the horses, all this, the crazy bad guy, all this. And then turn it on its head somehow. And so I wanted to do a procedural that's also on tilt a little bit. And so that was the fun of it. And so I read these books frequently. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Listen, let me help you. We'll get a writer, you can work with somebody and you can develop it and you can, and then, you know, and I said, okay, but I'm not going to direct it or do any of it. And we worked for a year with this lovely writer, Chani Lakhani, who I co-created the show with, and then... Ja, ja. writing and directing.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I wrote them all, co-wrote them all essentially, or co-wrote with the other people and then directed Six of the Nine.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ich bin auf dem Prezips. Ja. Ja. Ja. Ja. I think I need a laundromat. I'm going to have a scene in a laundromat. I think I need this. I think I need that. And it was crazy. And by the way, because of that, it was eight scripts that became nine episodes. And I've done that a few times. It happened on Godless, an extra happened on... Because I don't know what I'm doing in terms of that stuff.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
That's exactly it. You've got to, where are you going to land? Right. Yeah, that's exactly it. And sometimes when you're cornered, I find myself doing amazing work and sometimes I find myself so frozen. Well, that's when you bail. Nothing happens. You eject with a chute. Yeah.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Yeah, I realize nothing is happening, I can't, you know, you're hoping, here's this facility that's going to kick in, and it just doesn't.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Yeah, it is, and that's why, again, going back to writing, and listen, you're storytelling, your work is storytelling, you are telling stories, there's a beginning, a middle, and an end, and that's what you're doing, and so, and the fun is that we can't guess where it's going.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Yeah, I could have landed. I could have tied the two landings together. You know what, the people who feel that way are usually really good at what they do. The people who say, I nailed it, are usually not. Oh, good, I never. No, I just watch and I think, oh man, if I had ten more minutes on that day, or if I had written...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I catastrophize over everything. And then it stays in my brain. And then I also... Spend the day with it. Why not? I would sit down to read a book. And I would still feel anxious, like maybe I shouldn't be doing this. Maybe I should be working. Maybe I should be... And then in our world, our business, nothing is secure. And especially with kids and everything. And this is
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
It didn't get better, it started to get worse as I got older. Just pile it on. Yeah, that's what's happening. It's worse.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
But still, it's like telling a manic depressant to just cheer up. Is it though? I think it is. I do. I think it is. I think that for me, I couldn't, I tried meditating, I tried a lot of different things. And I hear meditation is great. I was probably the wrong time to try it when I tried it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
So I am the same way. And I feel like 20 minutes in the morning, are you fucking kidding me? I need to get going. That's my good writing time. That's my, you know, and especially when I started directing too, you know, everything was too big in my head. I realized, and my son said to me, my son, who's sober, a lot of people in my family are, and he would say to me, you're not...
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Dad, you don't enjoy anything. You have all these things, you have this great life, and you don't even seem to really enjoy it. It's like you're in, you know, fight or flight all the time.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Or being in the moment, being comfortable being uncomfortable.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
I can do that. I don't know that I could. I had to kind of fix everything right away. And the irony is, in work, I'm a big believer in... You know, when it comes to writing especially, it's messy. You have to be comfortable with it being wrong until it's right for a year or two or whenever, however long it takes. It's just messy. I don't know how you do it.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
It's why I hate all these, you know, a lot of the film school programs and books and podcasts and things that try to organize it and turn you into a good student. You know, I really think that the great stuff comes from the mess and the happy accidents, but you have to really... Ich meine, ich denke, das ist das Schwierigste.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
Ich denke, dass Menschen, die in das Schreiben kommen, ohne es wirklich zu tun haben.
WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Episode 1647 - Scott Frank
No, listen, this is one of my favorite subjects. And it's the talent or the way of thinking even. And so they tell you, if you just follow everything that's in here. Yeah, and then you write. You have an outline, you have this, and you read scripts and things where people are behaving because the script says so.