For two relatively young guys, the Oscar nomination Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber earned for “The Disaster Artist” is a long time coming. From “500 Days of Summer” to “The Spectacular Now” to “Fault In Their Stars” the writing duo have shown a unique talent to bring a fresh perspective to familiar genres. At first glance “The Disaster Artist” seems like an odd fit for the writing partners, but as they note in our podcast interview at its core it’s more a movie about friendship than the making of the infamous cult movie “The Room.”
For those that know the story of Tommy Wiseau‘s bizarre drama and it’s improbable theatrical release “The Disaster Artist” was likely a joy. Neustadter and Weber adapted the novel of the same name by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell although they reveal they took little input from Wiseau and Sestero (who both starred in the movie) for their script. And if you’re curious, they do think Wiseau wants to attend the Academy Awards, but are hopeful he can star in one of host Jimmy Kimmel‘s skits to get in the building.
Our conversation covered their strategy for adapting the book, how they write with Neustadter in Los Angeles and Weber in New York, the experience of Tiffany Haddish making your name go down in history by mispronouncing it on nomination morning (in Neustadter’s case), their advice for young screenwriters and more.
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Look for upcoming podcast episodes featuring “Darkest Hour” screenwriter Anthony McCraten and two-time Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz, among others. And check out previous episodes with “Darkest Hour’s” Ben Mendelsohn, “Blade Runner: 2049‘s” Denis Villeneuve, “Thor: Ragnarok‘s” Taika Waititi, “The Florida Project‘s” Sean Baker, “Detroit‘s” John Boyega, get behind the scenes with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” producers and more on Soundcloud or on iTunes.
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