John and Craig are joined by the writers of the some of the biggest superhero movies to talk about why these characters resonate. Andrea Berloff looks for the primal essence of Conan. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely discuss the challenge of bringing Captain America to a global audience. David Goyer talks about keeping Batman grounded even while Superman flies. Then the whole panel gets busy rebooting randomly-assigned superheroes.
Then it’s time for the Three Page Challenge, with special guest judge Susannah Grant joining us to look at three entrants with scripts ranging from singers to zombies to yes, superheroes.
This episode was produced as a benefit for the Writers Guild Foundation, whose programs support writer education.
Links:
- The Writers Guild Foundation
- Andrea Berloff on IMDb, and Deadline’s Conan announcement
- Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely on IMDb, and their interview on LA Times Hero Complex
- David Goyer on IMDb, and his BAFTA Screenwriters Lecture
- David Goyer’s arms
- Spider-Man, Hulk, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor and Storm
- Susannah Grant on IMDb, and a feature on her from Salon
- The three Three Page Challenge entries, and all 57 that were submitted
- Intro/Outro by Scriptnotes editor Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
You can download the episode here: AAC | mp3.
UPDATE 5-23-14: The transcript of this episode can be found here.