Script Apart Script Apart

The Bikeriders is another triumph for Little Rock-born filmmaker Jeff Nichols. Inspired by and named after a 1968 photographic study of Chicago bikers by Danny Lyon, the film charts the rise and fall of not just a motorcycle gang but also an era in American history. It stars Austin Butler as young rebel Benny, Jodie Comer as his long-suffering partner Kathy, Mike Faist as Lyon and Tom Hardy as gang founder Johnny – and that’s just scratching the surface of a brilliant ensemble cast. At first ...

Brian Duffield is one of the most original writer-directors in genre cinema right now – a spec script maestro whose films are homages to the popcorn thrill rides he grew up on, without being nostalgic replays of those ‘90s classics. Instead, his movie’s always offer something new. Take Spontaneous, for example – his brilliant coming-of-age directorial debut romcom, set in a high school in which students are spontaneously combusting. Or even more pertinently, one of last year's most thrilling ...

Drew Pearce is the writer of movies like Iron Man 3, Hobbs and Shaw and 2018’s Hotel Artemis – the Scottish-born storyteller’s directorial debut. This week, he’s back in cinemas with The Fall Guy – a car-flipping, boat-exploding, bullet-dodging, unicorn-hallucinating love letter to practical filmmaking that’s pure adrenaline and charisma. The David Leitch-directed film – loosely adapted from the 1980s TV show of the same name – stars Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stuntman whose ca...

“You’re remembered for the rules you break.” So says Ben Affleck in Air, the 2023 sports marketing drama that took its own advice. Written by our guest today, Alex Convery, Air shouldn’t have been the captivating cinematic slam-dunk it turned out to be. At least, not on paper. A drama about the creation of the Nike Air Jordan trainer? That sounds like a film that’s gonna play out largely in grey, air conditioned boardrooms. It sounds like a film that’s gonna have limited suspense, because we ...

If you went down to the woods in July 1999, you were in for a big surprise. The Blair Witch Project – our movie this week, one of the most notorious horror films in modern movie history – was a phenomenon that no one saw coming. Its reverberations are still being felt today, not just in horror but in movie-making at large. Is tale of a group of indie filmmakers out in the wilderness, making a documentary about a mythical witch, is credited with birthing the found footage genre – a huge ...

Today on Script Apart – another in our "Stage Apart" series about great plays! Our guest this week is a storyteller beloved across stage and screen, whose 2009 play Jerusalem is frequently referred to as the best play of the century so far. His acclaimed theatre productions includes 1995’s Mojo, 2012’s The River and 2019’s The Ferryman – but movie fans might know him better for films like Edge of Tomorrow, Ford v Ferrari, the James Bond movie Spectre and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny....