Every Podcast Conversation at Your Fingertips

As we reach our 600th episode, John and Craig welcome back writer and director Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Top Gun: Maverick, The Usual Suspects) to continue their decades-long argument on the future of the movies and the forces that power the entertainment industry.

Together they lead a wide-ranging debate on the corporate lure of AI, cultivating movie stars, the bad habits writers have to unlearn, the importance of making genre movies, feeding the Hollywood machine, and the false division between art and entertainment.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John, Craig and Chris discuss the best way to watch movies and the ideal exhibition of sound and picture.

Links:

Chris McQuarrie on IMDb and Instagram
The looming threat of AI to Hollywood, and why it should matter to you by Alissa Wilkinson for Vox
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0:00.0	Hey, this is John. Heads up that today's episode has just a little bit of swearing in it.
0:06.8	Hello and welcome. My name is John August.
0:09.8	My name is Kring Mason.
0:15.4	And this is episode 600 of Script Notes, a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting
0:22.2	to screenwriters. Trouffles, clothes, saffron, and cooking, there are some ingredients that are so
0:28.0	flavorful that they must be portioned carefully, deliberately, less than overwhelmed senses.
0:33.7	So to it is with podcast visitors, a guest who appears to frequently loses their impact,
0:38.2	their novelty. One cannot be shook if one is already shaking. One such guest is writer,
0:43.5	producer, director, Christopher McQuarry, who has appeared just twice on Script Notes,
0:47.3	and only on to 10-year episodes. And after the deliriation, Craig and I have decided to invite
0:51.6	him back here today to mark our 600th episode, joining us from London, I believe, Chris McQuarry.
0:59.7	Yes, London and congratulations on episode 600. I don't know. Is it a congratulations
1:06.0	or is some sort of pity to be called for here? I mean, yeah, I mean, this is just,
1:12.0	I mean, good Lord. Here we are. Nothing ever changes. We're back with McQuarry,
1:19.6	with McQuarry. So sorry. So sorry. We recently put up a best of episode where we talked through,
1:27.4	it's from your two previous appearances. But just in case someone has no idea who you are,
1:32.8	you are the writer and director of the Mission Impossible movies, the usual suspects,
1:37.5	Valkyrie, Jack Reacher, your credits are long and wonderful. But you're also a good foil for Craig
1:44.8	Mays, and which is why I'm so delighted to see you on this podcast.
1:49.6	You know, you say that I'm here for it's just far with great stay short. So McQuarry and I have been
1:55.8	in the same fake fight for, I don't know, 20 years, I don't know how long it's been. You will not
2:03.5	find two men who love each other more and agree on less. That's an interesting take on our
	...

600 - McQuarrie Returns

Scriptnotes Podcast

John August

Summary

Transcript