Script Apart with Al Horner

Script Apart
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A podcast about the first-draft secrets behind great movies and TV shows. Each episode, the screenwriter behind a beloved film shares with us their initial screenplay for that movie. We then talk through what changed, what didn’t and why on its journey to the big screen. Hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    Say Nothing with Joshua Zetumer

    Get ready for another in our Emmy Awards nominees mini-series. Today, Joshua Zetumer, showrunner of Say Nothing, joins us to break down his riveting adaptation of the book of the same name by Patrick Radden Keefe, which hit screens last year. Say Nothing offered a stunningly well-realised recreation of a tinderbox time on the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Spanning three decades, it followed two real-life sisters – Dolours and Marian Price – whose involvement in the 1973 bombing of London’s Old Bailey as soldiers in the provisional Irish Republican Army saw them sentenced to life imprisonment. In jail, the pair went on a hunger strike that became national news.  In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Josh tells me about approaching the story as an outsider, having grown up some five thousand miles away. We get into the show’s portrayal of divisive real-life figures who are alleged to have committed terrible acts of violence, the hurt from which still resonates today. And you’ll also hear about the theme of destructive silence that runs through this show - though for obvious reasons, Josh declines to say much about the shocking end to the series, which is currently the subject of a controversial court case. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Get in-depth feedback on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 1m

  2. 5 DAYS AGO

    Dying For Sex with Kim Rosenstock

    Today on Script Apart, the next in our run of conversations with nominees for this year’s Emmy Awards. Dying For Sex – created by Liz Meriwether and my guest today, Kim Rosenstock – is an adaptation of the popular Wondry podcast series of the same name about one Molly Kochan – a writer diagnosed with terminal cancer, who documents her sexual reawakening in the aftermath of that diagnosis. Played in the show by Michelle Williams, Molly leaves her husband and embarks on an odyssey of eroticism that forces her to confront a childhood trauma that has stalked her her entire adult life. Did I mention this is, at least in part, a comedy? At least, I laughed constantly throughout this series, which is tender and terrifically funny in equal measure, and well deserving of its Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Kim breaks down all the key scenes and characters from the show, getting into how, ironically, this is deep down a story about healing. We contemplate what it is about death that as a society we can’t help but turn away from – and why we stand to benefit from staring it straight in the eye with our pop culture, rather than flinching away from the abyss it can resemble. You’ll hear about why the show invented the neighbour character played by Rob Delaney in the series, as an act almost of wish fulfilment, giving Molly the chance to fall in love that she was denied in real life – and how working on this series affected Kim herself. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Get coverage on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 16m

  3. 5 DAYS AGO

    Andor with Dan Gilroy

    A long time ago in a galaxy not so far away, writer-director Dan Gilroy became captivated by the machinations of power; how throughout history, authoritarian figures have seduced electorates, seized control of nations and eroded important pillars of democracy – leading resistance fighters to push back across punishing decades of struggle. It’s a tale as old as time in our history books – but not necessarily in our movies and TV shows, which haven’t always shown just how bruising and thankless rebellion actually is.  That is, until Andor – the acclaimed Star Wars TV show created by Dan’s brother Tony Gilroy, which Dan is one of the key writers on. The 66-year-old was recently nominated for an Emmy for his work on the recent second season of the show, which concluded the gripping story of Cassian Andor – a complex hero first introduced in 2016’s Rogue One. The show’s electrifying portrait of a band of spies operating in the shadows to try and overthrow the Empire was sophisticated and in the eyes of many viewers, incredibly timely, too.  Today on Script Apart, Dan joins Al to dig into what Andor was really all about. The warnings he hoped his episodes would provide, about how fascism functions. The truth about who Cassian was, played by Diego Luna. The truth about who Imperial bureaucrat Syril was, played by Kyle Soller. Why if the show extended further, we may well have seen Emperor Palpatine. Excitingly, you’ll also hear in detail about an episode of Andor that Dan wrote but never made the screen – an episode he says would have been like Ridley Scott’s Alien, with fan-favourite robot K2SO playing a Xenamorph-like role. And of course, because 2014’s Nightcrawler, which Dan wrote and directed, is one of the great undersung thrillers of all time, there’s a sprinkling of chat about that film too. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Get in-depth feedback on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 5m

  4. 22 AUG

    Eddington with Ari Aster

    Welcome to Eddington – population: all of us. The new film from writer-director Ari Aster transports audiences to a town on the brink of combustion that, in a way, we’ve all been residents of for five years now. Look out your window right now and there may not be a New Mexico mountain range hugging the horizon like in the Eddington of Aster’s movie. But chances are you’ve absolutely felt it in the air – the same dread, the same fury, the same entropy and exhaustion that pollutes that dustbowl town. May 2020 – when Eddington takes place – was a time of neighbours split into culture war factions, with a steady hum of social media misinformation fueling their paranoid obsessions. We were already tipping towards that new age of civic hostility before the pandemic, mask mandates and the death of George Floyd, the auteur will tell you. But that year saw us cross a precipice that we’ve yet to turn back towards. Maybe we’re unable to. Which is what makes Eddington – Ari’s fourth film, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone – feel so vital and yes, so scary. The filmmaker’s first two features, Hereditary and Midsommar, saw him heralded as the new king of horror. It took his first film set in the real world – his first movie with nothing supernatural or occult-themed about it – to deliver arguably his most terrifying scares. His previous films, 2023’s Beau Is Afraid included, were nightmares his audiences were allowed to wake up from. Can you really say the same, stepping out of the cinema after seeing Eddington? Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Get in-depth feedback on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    57 min

  5. 14 AUG

    Stage Apart: My Neighbor Totoro with Tom Morton-Smith

    All aboard the Cat Bus for a moving conversation about one of the greatest animations of all time – and the emotional madness of trying to bring that tale to the stage in London’s West End. If you’re in London at the moment, you need to see the current theatrical adaptation of My Neighbour Totoro currently showing in the West End. Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company with puppet designs by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, this magical re-telling of the iconic Studio Ghibli animation was written by our guest today, Tom Morton-Smith – a storyteller whose past work includes Oppenheimer (not the Christopher Nolan movie, but an acclaimed stage drama) and Ravens, a Cold War thriller set at the 1972 World Chess Championship.  Taking on Totoro was an undertaking as big and daunting as the titular forest spirit himself. Set in post-war Japan, Hayao Miyazaki’s story told the tale of a father and his two daughters who move to the edge of an enchanted forest, to be closer to the hospital where the girls’ mother is undergoing medical care. As uncertainty gathers, strange creatures reveal themselves to little Satsuki and Mei – leading them on an adventure of wonder and awe. In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Tom details how he translated that wonder and awe to the stage. He’s also open about his persoal experience, writing the play amid huge change in his family life. The grief and loss – or potential for loss – that sits in the background of the Totoro story is something Tom was moving through himself as he sat down to pen this adaptation. We break down the tale’s themes of environmentalism and the kindness we owe to each other. We also get into the darkness of Ghibli that is often erased or reduced in how the west talks about films like this one. Finally, we talk about “ma” – the Japanese word for “emptiness” – that Miyazaki fills Totoro with, and why it might just be the secret to the joy of this film, now more than ever, in a frantic, digital world.  Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. Screenwriters – get comprehensive feedback on your latest script from Al Horner by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    49 min

  6. 13 JUL

    M3GAN 2.0 with Gerard Johnstone

    In 2023, Megan – a sassy robot, designed to be your daughter’s best friend – danced and dismembered her way to internet infamy. The title character of director Gerard Johnstone and writer Akela Cooper’s Blumhouse horror-comedy was an evil doll in the tradition of Chucky from Child’s Play, but at the same time, distinct in her modernity. As I asked in my review for Empire Magazine at the time: “Has Chucky ever interrupted a stabbing spree to sing Sia’s pop smash ‘Titanium’? Has Billy the Puppet ever broken into a TikTok-style dance before another Saw franchise victim met their violent demise?” The answer was no, and a moment in meme culture was born. There were SNL skits about Megan, starring Aubrey Plaza. The film took $181m at the box office against a paltry $12m budget. It seemed inevitable a sequel would follow – and two years later, that sequel is here. Written by Gerard, my guest today, from a story he conceived with Cooper, the film is bigger in every possible regard. It lays on the explosions and spectacle thicker and faster than before, throwing car chases and robot-on-robot fist fights into the mix this time around. It’s higher in stakes: the fate of the world is on the line here, as a new rogue A.I threat, Amelia, emerges. And it’s also more expansive in the conversation this Frankensteinian fable wants to have about parenthood, as well as the genie-out-of-the-bottle effect of artificial intelligence.  But did you know in the first draft of this sequel, Joe Rogan and Snoop Dogg had brief parts written for them? Or that at one point in the script, Cady – played by Violet McGraw – has to fend off her sweet, old grandad in a fight scene in a diner, because he’s being controlled by a neuro-chip? Or that the story initially involved Amelia firing missiles into the Middle East, sparking a new conflict in the region – a plot line removed for obvious reasons? In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Gerard walks me through his fascinating and extremely funny sequel. We get into all the important plot points in spoiler detail – and talk about the pressure of following up a film with the kind of immense digital footprint that the first one had. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. Screenwriters – get comprehensive feedback on your latest script from Al Horner by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    59 min

  7. 4 JUL

    Black Mirror with Charlie Brooker

    Today on Script Apart, we’re taking a long, hard look in the mirror – Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology series Black Mirror, to be more precise, with the beloved British writer joining Al for a spoiler-filled breakdown of the show’s brilliant latest season. Yes, this week we’re delving into a show that reflects back at us our darkest fears about the unrelenting march of technology on modern life. Across thirty three acclaimed episodes and one interactive special, Black Mirror has wondered what parts of the human experience might soon be transformed – or worse yet, disfigured – by advances in artificial intelligence. The answer is “a great many parts.” The resulting stories are always gripping. When Charlie conceived the show in 2011, those advances must have felt still quite abstract – a possibility on the horizon. In today’s time of Chat GPT, little is abstract anymore about the topics and technologies spotlighted in Black Mirror. The internet is constantly ablaze with observations about the collapsing gap between our reality and the reality of the show. Because what may begin as a flight of fantasy in Charlie’s hands has a distressing habit of becoming real years later. Yes, we’re living in a Black Mirror episode, to quote a common online refrain, and in the spoiler chat you're about to hear, Charlie and Al get into that. You’ll hear how the show has changed across its time on screen, responding to the fact that tech companies are no longer faceless corporations like they were when the show began; they’re now the extension of celebrity CEOs, with cult-like legions of disciples. You’ll get Charlie’s take on Al’s suspicion that episodes like ‘Hotel Reverie’ appear to indicate that something has softened in the writer since he began this journey with Black Mirror. And you’ll hear some truly mind-bending descriptions of the original ideas behind some of the series’ best-loved episodes, including one that was intended to be a Bond movie-esque adventure, one that was originally planned to be a musical and of course, the moving San Junipero. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. Screenwriters – get comprehensive feedback on your latest script from Al Horner by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 24m

  8. 27 JUN

    Elio with Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian

    As the Talking Heads once nearly sang: “And may find yourself beamed up into a spacecraft. And you may find yourself pretending to be the leader of Earth. And you may find yourself hanging out with weird and wonderful beings from outer-space, going up against intergalactic warlords and maybe learning a thing or two about belonging along the way.” Yes, it’s an Elio special on today’s Script Apart, as we venture across the cosmos with the Pixar film’s co-directors, Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian. Elio tells the story of a child who longs to be abducted by aliens. Still reeling from the loss of his parents and struggling to adjust to living with his well-meaing aunt, the character embarks on an adventure that changes how he sees life back on Earth. It was written by Julia Cho, Mark Hammer and Mike Jones, from a story by Madeline, Domee and Adrian Molina. Domee you may know as the director of Turning Red, which we covered on this show in 2022. Madeline, meanwhile, is the director behind Burrough, a beautiful Pixar short film from a couple of years ago (this is her first feature). In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, we discuss initial drafts of this story in which Olga was Elio’s mother, rather than his aunt. I ask about how the film grapples with loneliness; the process of creating the magical worlds that Pixar movies so often invite filmgoers into, whether that’s Monstropolis or Coco’s Land of the Dead; and of course, the meaning of that Carl Sagan speech asking “Are we alone?” that close the film. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. Screenwriters – get comprehensive feedback on your latest script from Al Horner by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    44 min
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About

A podcast about the first-draft secrets behind great movies and TV shows. Each episode, the screenwriter behind a beloved film shares with us their initial screenplay for that movie. We then talk through what changed, what didn’t and why on its journey to the big screen. Hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Script Apart
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2025
  • Episodes
    153
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Script Apart with Al Horner
  • Show Website
    Script Apart with Al Horner

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