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This week on the show – Azazel Jacobs is here! Azazel is writer-director of the new Netflix drama His Three Daughters, one of the most deeply moving films of the year so far, and a stunning addition to a filmography already brimming with intriguing tonal blurs and beautiful realised characters. You might know Azazel for acclaimed works like The GoodTimesKid, Momma's Man, Terri, The Lovers and French Exit. This film, though, cuts closer to the bone for the filmmaker (and audiences) than ever before, telling the tale of a tense, tender family reunion – one taking place within a heavy cloud of preemptive grief.
Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon and Natasha Lyonne play estranged siblings Christina, Katie and Rachel in the film, summoned to their childhood home as their father enters his final days. In the quiet wait, ghosts from their childhoods reemerge and threaten to pull them further apart. In the emotional spoiler conversation you're about to hear, Azazel and Al break down why it is the painful wait for a loved one to pass away is rarely acknowledged in media – and delve into who these characters were for the filmmaker, who describes emerging from the making of this film a changed man.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
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Great Scott, it’s been 35 years since the second instalment in one of the most beloved trilogies of all time – Back To The Future Part II, directed by the great Robert Zemeckis and co-written by our guest today, Bob Gale! Bob first guested on Script Apart in 2021, breaking down his first draft of 1985’s iconic debut outing for Marty McFly and eccentric scientist Doc Brown. You may remember that episode detailing how Bob’s original vision for that film was quite wildly different – Doc Brown had a pet chimp and the movie featured a huge nuclear explosion. Part II similarly went through multiple iterations, with the film initially expected to include a third act set in the 1960s. Instead, Bob landed on a story full of darkness that broke from the optimism of the first film to depict a dark future – one that in many ways, we’ve actually come to inherit.
In the conversation you’re about to hear, you’ll discover what drew Bob to that darkness, the secret to Back To The Future’s longevity and which of Part II’s predictions he’s surprised have come to pass in real life. Thanks to Bob for being a brilliant guest once again.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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For a film built around a song titled Remember Me, Pixar's Coco sure has proven absolutely unforgettable in the seven years since its release. Directed by past Script Apart guest Lee Unkrich, the animation told the story of Miguel – a young boy voiced by Anthony Gonzalez who is accidentally transported to the Land of the Dead, where he seeks the help of his deceased musician great-great-grandfather to return him to his family and reverse their ban on music. It’s quite simply one of the richest and boldest family movies of all time, confronting ideas around death, legacy and remembrance in a way that moved the needle culturally in this way that only Pixar can. Much like how Inside Out gave parents a framework for talking to their kids about emotions, Coco is renowned today as a text that helps facilitate conversations with children about what it means when someone passes away.
In the conversation you’re about to hear, co-writer Matthew Aldrich drops by to break down the film in detail. We discuss the musical version of the film that was in development before he joined the project. We get into how the film’s villain, Ernesto Del La Cruz, represents the folly of chasing the wrong sort of remembrance: a remembrance of celebrity and fame, rather than family. And you’ll hear about what makes Remember Me such a beautiful part of Coco – the genesis of that astounding piece of music, that lands like a gut punch when we hear it for the final time in act three.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
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Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley are the co-writers (and in Greg's case, director) of Sing Sing – a prison drama that tips on its head the entire prison drama genre. This is a film that forefronts humanity and tenderness instead of the violent and savagery that often powers movies set in jail. There are prison dramas we all adore but how many times have we seen a vision of prison that depicts those places as violent pits where society’s most dangerous animals stew in their savagery?
In Sing Sing – about a group of convicts who stage a play at the Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison near New York – our characters, many of whom are played by real-life graduates of the Rehabilitation Through The Arts programme seen in the movie, are depicted with a rare sensitivity. Whatever their pasts, as this group of would-be thespians build towards the staging of a comedy titled Breakin' The Mummy's Code they’re human to viewers in a way cinema rarely affords. It’s besides the point to say that the film is already being tipped for Oscar glory – this film and the performances of Colman Domingo and newcomer Clarence "Divine Eye" Maclin in particular, is a phenomenal achievement in itself without awards validation. Don't miss this in-depth conversation about how it came together on the page.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
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"His stories were good because he imagined them intensely, so intensely that he came to believe them." So wrote Patricia Highsmith in her seminal literary thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1955. You might also characterise the work of our guest today, the talented Mr. Steven Zaillian, this way. The worlds and characters of his films and TV shows are imagined in such rich detail and complexity that you can absolutely imagine him believing them to be real as he crafts them on the page. In fact, that level of detail and depth has been his calling card for over thirty decades in Hollywood now. From 1990’s Awakenings and 1993’s Schindler’s List, which won Steven an Oscar, all the way to films like Gangs of New York, American Gangster, Moneyball, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Irishman, there’s a thrillingly convincing quality about whatever story he’s telling – oftentimes, his characters are people you can imagine pulling up a barstool next to you and telling you a tale you’ll never forget.
This month, he’s up for an Emmy for his work with Ripley – a Netflix adaptation of Highsmith’s novel, that Steven acted as showrunner for, writing and directing every episode. The series is a hypnotising ten hours in the company of a conman, Tom Ripley, who’s hired by a wealthy businessman to convince his son to return home from a life of leisure abroad on the Italian coast. But the more Tom – played here by Andrew Scott – ensconces himself in the lives of Dickie Greenleaf, played by Johnny Flynn, and Dakota Fanning as his partner, Marge Sherwood, the more his lies and his lust for what Dickie has mutates into something murderous.
In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Steven tells us about the relevance of fraudster stories in a time of Trump and other public deceivers. We get into the writing tricks and tips that make you root for the morally thorny characters he often writes. And the rationale behind every change from both the novel and the Matt Damon-starring 1999 adaptation of Ripley is uncovered too, as we delve into the slightly different ending to this version of the tale and the meaning of Italian artist Caravaggio’s presence throughout this story.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
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Unless you’ve spent the last year locked in a radiation-proof vault deep below the surface of the Earth, you’ll have no doubt heard about Fallout – a TV video game adaptation unlike any other. Created by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and our guest today, former Portlandia writer Graham Wagner, the show brought to life the blue suits, barbarism and bizarre humour of one of the biggest game franchises of the century so far, transporting viewers to a nuclear-scored Wasteland hundreds of years in the future. The surprises of this Prime Video series, produced by Westworld creators Jonathan “Jonah” Nolan and Lisa Joy, just kept coming across the eight episodes comprising its first season, with each revelation a powerful observation about the greedy workings of corporations to whom nothing’s more important than their profits – not even human survival.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
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Today on Script Apart – a film about a man trapped in an air-conditioned purgatory, full of fast food joints, luggage carousels and people in transit, while he himself remains frustratingly locked in place. 2004’s The Terminal is the Steven Spielberg-directed tale of Viktor, played by Tom Hanks: a kind-hearted soul marooned at an American airport owing to a unique diplomatic situation that broke out his fictional home country, Krahkozia, while he was flying to the US. The film was written by our guest today, Sacha Gervasi, who you might also know from movies like the music documentary Anvil and the Peter Dinklage-starring My Dinner With Herve, as well as the 2012 Alfred Hitchcock biopic with Anthony Hopkins.
In the conversation you’re about to hear, Sacha and I get into what The Terminal taps into that gave it such universal appeal on release, twenty years later and also notably during the pandemic, when people were confined to their own purgatories in lockdown. You’ll discover the darker tone of the original draft of the movie, written for Sam Mendes to direct before a reshuffle behind the scenes. And you’ll discover what the film sought to express about the arbitrary nature of borders, as well as the truth behind the real-life inspiration for the film: Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who lived in Charles De Gaulle airport for eighteen difficult years.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.Support the show
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This week on Script Apart – a sit-down on a proverbial park bench to pick through the box of chocolates that is Forrest Gump, with the legendary screenwriter behind the classic drama, Eric Roth! Marking the film's 30th anniversary, Roth regales us with secrets from the Gump's creation, breaking down why he elected not to make Forrest a NASA astronaut (unlike in the book on which it's based) and what makes the character so enduringly endearing.
You'll also discover how the relationship between Forrest and Jenny was informed by Eric's own love for his wife, what the feather at the beginning of the film represents, and what happened to the ill-fated sequel that Roth wrote – only to abandon in the days after 9/11.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.Support the show
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Two sisters on opposite sides of the Force; one terrible trauma that sent them on those divergent paths... Set one hundred years before the Skywalker Saga that would define a galaxy, The Acolyte – Disney's newest Star Wars TV show – explores uncharted territory for the franchise in more ways than one. Not only have fans never seen this era in Star Wars lore explored on-screen before; it's also a departure in just explicitly it explores the idea that the Jedi as an institution might be corruptible and flawed. For 47 years, since George Lucas' game-changing A New Hope, the Jedi have been held up as a noble band of guardians. This new series, from Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland, asks the question: what if there's more to that nobility than we've come to understand?
In a spoiler-filled interview, recorded days after the show's finale, Leslye breaks down its major surprises, key scenes and crucial characters – explaining how Fight Club, Frozen and Kill Bill played a significant part in its conception...
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
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A Quiet Place: Day One is an alien invasion tale well and truly worth shouting about. Written and directed by our guest this week, Milwaukee-born filmmaker Michael Sarnoski, it’s a rare example of sequel that prioritises its characters and their connections instead of chasing bigger, more bombastic explosions. Where most franchise follow-ups get bogged down in expanding the mythology and upping spectacle of previous instalments, this one is focused on telling a devastatingly simple story. Sam, a cancer patient by Lupita Nyong'o, realising her world is ending, crosses New York in search of one last slice from her favourite pizzeria.
In the conversation you’re about to hear, Sarnoski tells Al about what inspired such an intimate approach to tackling a Quiet Place sequel. We get into the scene in Central Park that unfortunately had to be scrapped and the subtle joke involving Sam’s cat’s name that acts as a clue to the structure/inspiration behind the movie.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
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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 glance, the drama seems like a departure for Jeff, known for movies like sci-fi adventure Midnight Special and apocalyptic drama Take Shelter. Peer a little closer at his screenplay, however and you soon start to see familiar Nichols-isms. For starters, there’s a “rurality” to Jeff’s work too, with so many of his stories unfolding down down dusty dirt trails, in parts of America that Hollywood doesn’t often turn its cameras towards. Then there’s the themes of masculinity, finality and devotion that simmer beneath the surface of all his movies, and rear their heads again here.
In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, we get into those recurring threads across his work, the post-Vietnam context for the film’s final act, the influence of Scorsese’s Goodfellas on the first act’s structure and the modern male malaise that this film comments on. Be sure to watch the film before tuning in.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
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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 horrors: No One Will Save You, Brian's tale of a young woman with a chequered past, whose solitary life is interrupted by an alien invasion. The film plays out almost entirely without dialogue.
We had the pleasure of chatting with Brian about who Brynn was to him, the idea of this story being about alienation in more ways than one, and exactly what is happening as the film reaches its ending – a moment that had the internet rife with theories as to exactly what goes down as Brynn’s fight to survive takes on a dreamy, seemingly utopian turn.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
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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 career isn’t the only thing derailed when he suffers a terrible accident on the set of an action movie. His fledgling romance with emerging director Jody Moreno, played by Emily Blunt, also hits the rocks – that is, until an opportunity arises to perhaps win her back. The star of Jody’s new sci-fi blockbuster, Metalstorm, has gone missing. If Colt can use his stuntman skills to track down the Hollywood A-list actor he used to double, he decides that Jody might give him another try.
In the spoiler conversation with Drew that you’re about to hear, you’ll discover how the film began life as a more straight-action, Mission: Impossible-inspired stunt bonanza. You’ll also hear how there was a moment where The Fall Guy was going to be a “jukebox musical” devoted to the band Kiss. We talk about how the movie fits into a lineage of films about filmmaking that runs from Singing In The Rain to Babylon; what the movie is designed to express about the replacement of practical filmmaking techniques with VFX tools; and how a near-death experience years ago, in which Drew technically died for a minute or two, gives him a different appreciation of moments like this one, on the brink of releasing one of summer 2024’s most joyful, exciting blockbusters.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft and WeScreenplay.
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“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 all know that Air Jordan became this huge sports brand. It also sounds perhaps like it could be a nakedly capitalistic celebration of a product – Hollywood scraping the barrel in a time of endless IP and emphasis on “brand recognition."
But Air turned out to be a film about Nike. At least, not entirely. It’s a drama about our connection to “things” and the intelligent people that foster those connections – who recognise how, for better or worse, in a capitalist world, products like an Air Jordan trainer can become these symbols of the lives we want to lead and the people we aspire to be. Directed by Affleck from Alex’s spec script, it starred Matt Damon as Sonny Vaccaro and Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan, mother to Michael Jordan – the greatest basketball player of all time. Alex had the idea for the movie after watching Netflix documentary series The Last Dance and – well, we'll leave the rest for him to explain.
It was a total pleasure chatting with Alex about what Air says about 1980s America, and about stories that use an un-obvious perspective to frame their subject – Jordan through the eyes of a marketing exec, like Jesus through the eyes of the devil in Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. We also get into how Air fits into a new Hollywood trend of movies based on products: Barbie, Blackberry, Tetris and so on. Alex had great insights on it all.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
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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 staple of blockbuster filmmaking for decades to come. But maybe more importantly, the film announced to emerging storytellers that, in a new era of digital video and the internet, anyone could be a filmmaker, able to make and market a film to audiences. All you needed was imagination.
The Blair Witch Project was written and directed by Daniel Myrick and our guest today, Eduardo Sánchez – two friends fresh out of film school. In the conversation you’re about to hear, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the movie, Ed looks back at the film’s conception. We get into what psychological tricks found footage as a format plays on the audience’s brain to heighten their sense of terror. And you’ll discover how deep mythology of the Blair Witch goes – a mythology that, as you’ll hear towards the end of our chat, isn’t finished scaring audiences yet.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft and WeScreenplay.
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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.
Yes, Jez Butterworth is here, discussing his triumphant return to London’s West End with The Hills of California, directed by Sam Mendes. The play tells the tale of a group of sisters reuniting in the faded seaside town they grew up in, aspiring towards musical stardom. Decades after the death of that particular dream, they’re left to reckon with what their lives became versus what they once imagined for themselves – with one painful secret no longer able to be confined to the past. It’s an incredibly moving and at times, hilarious meditation on regret, Britishness and the vultures that circle showbiz – inspired in part by Jez’s run-ins with disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, who the playwright once punched in the face.
In the spoiler-free conversation you’re about to hear, he tells us why he continues to gravitate towards “death of a dream” stories. We also discuss how the experience of tragically losing his beloved sister informed the play, and have a beautifully vulnerable discussion about a period of Jez’s life in which his mental health was suffering – and how that intersected with his experience of working on Edge of Tomorrow. We hope you enjoy.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft and WeScreenplay.
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This week on Script Apart – a storyteller who began penning films like 28 Days Later and The Beach, before stepping behind the camera as the writer-director of stories that go to fascinating philosophical places, asking borderline unanswerable questions about humanity along the way. Alex Garland's fourth time in the director's chair, Civil War, is his most explosive film yet – a film that riffs on America's intensely fractious present by imagining a future in which the country has torn itself in two.
The tale of a group of photojournalists – led by Kirsten Dunst’s Lee – travelling towards Washington as the country unravels is a tour de force on par with Ex Machina, Annihilation and other movies in Alex’s impressive filmography. But how does the movie connect (or decline to connect) to our current political landscape and what are the storytelling philosophies that continue to make Garland one of the most interesting filmmakers operating today? Find out by tuning in.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
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This week on Script Apart, we’re broadcasting from the Upside Down. Yes, grab your Eggos and Metallica CDs for a special, spoiler-free conversation all about Stranger Things: The First Shadow – the first theatre production that we’ve covered on the show, as part of a new strand of episodes called "Stage Apart."
The First Shadow is a show that, as reviews have underlined, accomplishes things not thought possible in a play till now; as a spectacle, it's breathtaking in the way it conjures all manner of demogorgon-related chaos, live in front of you. But also staggering is what the show achieves as a piece of storytelling. Which is why this week, we’re delighted to be joined by the wonderful Kate Trefry – writer of a great many of the show’s best episodes, and writer of The First Shadow.
Working from a story created by Jack Thorne and show creators The Duffer Brothers, Kate penned The First Shadow as a prequel, pulling the curtain back on how and why the Upside Down came to Hawkins in the first place. Set in 1959, it introduces us to younger versions of fan favourite characters like Hopper, Joyce and Bob Newby, as a mystery unfolds in their sleepy hometown; beloved household pets are turning up not just dead but grotesquely disfigured. This spate of killing coincides not just with the production of a play at Hawkins High School that Joyce is directing, but also with the arrival of new kid Henry Creel – a kid that, those up to date with the latest season of Stranger Things will know, has a dark future he’s about to inherit.
Stranger Things is one of the biggest TV shows of the last decade by pretty much any metric and in the conversation you’re about to hear, we talk to Kate about why that is. We get into how the tale of Eleven, Hopper and co has become almost a new American myth – and discuss what The First Shadow does to extend and complicate that fable. Without giving anything away, we discuss how The First Shadow ties the horrors of the Upside Down to 1950s racism and America’ involvement in World War II. You’ll also hear about the supposed “real-life” incidents – including a horrifying alleged event called The Philadelphia Experiment – that intersect with what happens in Hawkins in the astounding The First Shadow. Listen out, also, for a tease at what season five has in store, as Stranger Things approaches its final ever episodes.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft and WeScreenplay.
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Welcome to another Script Club episode of Script Apart, in which storytellers we admire pick a film or show they love and talk about why it's special. Today, revered Folio Prize-winning author Carmen Maria Machado (Her Body and Other Parties, In The Dream House) breaks down the dystopian delights of Alfonso Cuarón's Children Of Men, co-written with Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby.
Based on a 1992 novel by P.D James, this 2006 action thriller forecast a Britain in the mid-2020s on the verge of collapse, governed by a party waging a cruel war on asylum seekers as a distraction from its problems. The UK may not currently be staring down a fertility crisis like the one depicted in Cuarón's film, but Children Of Men was, in other ways, eerily ahead of its time in some of its predictions.
In the spoiler conversation you're about to hear, Carmen shares what she finds so impactful about the tale, and the influence it has had on stories of her own, such as 2017's chilling Inventory. Carmen is one of Al's favourite working writers, and someone whose work has been a north star in his own fiction, so we were delighted to have her on the show, breaking down a drama that only grows more relevant with each passing year.
** COME TO OUR FOURTH BIRTHDAY LIVE SHOW! Script Apart presents Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa with Neil and Rob Gibbons at Picturehouse Central, London – March 11th **
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
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“We are what we survive.” That’s the message of Expats, the powerful new limited series from our guest this week, Lulu Wang. Lulu is a writer-director whose stories are unflinchingly intimate portraits of characters captivatingly full of contradictions. In this show, adapted from a novel by Janice Y.K. Lee, those characters are three women, different in age, class, personal circumstance and relationship to motherhood, who become linked by an unthinkable tragedy. These women’s stories combine to tell a tale of grief and privilege in a modern day Hong Kong battered by typhoon weather and simmering political dissent. And they do so movingly.
Lulu till now has been best known as the writer-director of 2019’s The Farewell, based on a radio story she wrote in 2016 for This American Life, about her own Chinese-American immigrant family. This follow-up to that breakout hit sounds like from the outset some kind of thriller: Nicole Kidman plays Margaret, an American living in Hong Kong whose youngest son disappears at a night market. Instead of a pulse-pounding pursuit, full of cops, clues and criminals like most abduction dramas, Expats instead unfolds at a meditative, mournful pace, against the backdrop of the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests in Hong Kong.
In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, celebrating the magnificent finale that dropped today, Lulu discusses about what happened to Margaret's child Gus, why the show refused to give an explanation for his disappearance and instead prioritised what it means to grieve; how grief doesn’t shrink, leaving us instead to grow around it.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
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- Visa fler
