You are now listening to Post-Mortem with Mick Garris, on the Dread Podcast Network,

where the most influential voices in horror cinema will spill their guts to the renowned

horror director, writer, and producer.

Now here's your host, Mick Garris.

From Nice Guy Productions World Headquarters overlooking the glamorous San Fernando Valley,

I'm Mick Garris and this is Post-Mortem.

When people think about the movies they think of the visuals, the actors, the design,

the special effects, the cinematography, the sound design, but the creation of the screenplay

is rarely the main topic of discussion.

Of course, in the beginning there was the word, and that word was expanded into a screenplay

often referred to as the blueprint for the movie that results, but it's a mistake to

think of the script as merely a schematic upon which the movie is based.

A great screenplay is also great literature.

Though it need not stand the scrutiny of being read like a book, the point of a good script

is to engage the reader, weave the movie you want to make into a dreamscape of words

on a page, to make said reader, whether it's an actor, a director, a cinematographer, or

a producer, or a studio executive, eager to turn the page and visualize the motion picture

in their minds.

One screenwriting is every bit as literary as good fiction writing.

You want to hook the reader and pull them deep into the story you have to tell.

Some scripts read like a blueprint, most famously the shooting script for the original alien

which we discussed a while ago with Walter Hill.

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