226 | Challengers/Queer Writer Justin Kuritzkes: Asking The Right Questions While Writing

The Screenwriting Life with Meg LeFauve and Lorien McKenna

Meg LeFauve & Lorien McKenna

Tv & Film

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Justin Kuritzkes is having a good year. Two of his scripts Challengers and Queer, were brought to life by world-renowned director Luca Guadagnino, and despite being about completely wildly different world's, both scripts center complicated characters swirling in romantically complicated politics. Challengers, our focus of today's conversation, was born out Justin's sudden and newfound interest in tennis, and a fascination with what might be happening off the court between players in what is such a clearly intimate sport. His script almost instantly attached Zendaya, so he must have done something right.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome back to the screenwriting life.
0:06.4	I'm Meg Lofove.
0:07.4	Laurean is out sick today, so our wonderful producer, Jeff Graham, will be joining in.
0:12.2	Thrilled to be here, as Meg mentioned.
0:14.3	We are welcoming the writer of challengers.
0:16.2	It's Justin Kyritskis onto the show who's having an amazing year.
0:19.1	Justin wrote two movies that are being released this year, both directed by Oscar-nominated
0:22.7	director Luca Guadino, queer, which just premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was
0:27.4	nominated for the Golden Lions, stars Daniel Craig as an American expat in Mexico City who
0:32.1	becomes infatuated with a younger man.
0:34.4	Challenges, which I just mentioned, is what we'll be focusing our conversation on today.
0:37.9	It's a romantic thriller set in the world of competitive tennis.
0:40.7	The movie stars Zendaya, who also served as a producer on the film.
0:43.5	And Justin, we're thrilled to be here.
0:44.7	Thanks for being here on the show today.
0:46.3	Thank you so much for having me.
0:47.7	It's a real honor.
0:48.7	I'm thrilled to be here.
0:50.6	Great.
0:50.8	Fantastic. Well, we can't wait to dive in and ask you all kinds of writerly questions.
0:54.9	But before we do, we're going to do the section of the show that we like to call
0:59.1	Adventures in Screenwriting.
	...

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