On Saturday night at the San Francisco International Film Festival, screenwriter, frequent Ang Lee collaborator and head of Focus Features James Schamus (“Taking Woodstock,” “Hulk,” “The Ice Storm,” “Ride With The Devil”) was honored with the Kanbar Award for excellence in screenwriting.
In a program led by film critic B. Ruby Rich, Schamus reflected on his career as a screenwriter and revealed his most recent screenwriting effort. “For my next screenplay: my own adaptation of Euripides’ ‘Iphigenia in Aulis,'” he said, though cautioned he still wasn’t sure if he’d go all the way with it.
The ancient Greek play is set during the Trojan War when the Greek coalition is at a standstill due to lack of wind to send their ships out to sea. Agamemnon, the leader of the Greeks, decides that the only way to appease the gods and finally bring wind to their port is to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia, who happens to become engaged to the great war hero Achilles.
Schamus says the story “says a lot about contemporary American puerile culture” and after giving a brief synopsis of the dark play replete with tragic ironies, claimed flatly, “it’s hilarious.”
Schamus also suggested that “Iphigenia in Aulis” wouldn’t necessarily be directed by his constant collaborator Ang Lee. He has written solely for Lee during the last 20 years (save for uncredited writing contributions to some larger Hollywood films). But when Schamus was asked if he could imagine ever writing for a director besides Lee, he quickly interjected. “Absolutely. He’s off charging things like ‘Life of Pi‘ for [20th Century] Fox, which is a gigantic budget movie and I’m still busy at Focus.”
While Schamus and Lee are on pause as creative partners, there’s still a strong connection between them for propagating future projects. “We go to dinner more, we go to the theater, we actually talk to each other about stuff. For twenty years we literally, basically talked about work. It’s been great because, as a friend, the guy is actually kind of interesting.”
The story of “Iphigenia in Aulis” was already told in cinema once by Greek filmmaker Mihalis Kakogiannis with his 1977 film, “Ifigeneia.” If you’re curious you can pretty much watch all of the movie for free on YouTube. – Sean Gillane
