• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

John August

  • Arlo Finch
  • Scriptnotes
  • Library
  • Store
  • About

Mostly Terrible People

Episode - 339

Go to Archive

February 27, 2018 Film Industry, Follow Up, News, Producers, Scriptnotes, Sundance, Transcribed

John and Craig evaluate another set of exceptional news stories for their fitness for the big screen in this week’s How Would This Be a Movie?

We consider stories about counterfeit debt collectors, the worst roommate ever (beside’s Craig college roommate), the girl who posed as a grown man online and began exhibiting genuine symptoms of toxic masculinity, a family that fights to preserve their daughter after she’s been declared brain dead, and a cruise ship that descends into anarchy.

We also follow up on the mystery of MoviePass with a listener that has seen a new film each day for months. Did we judge this model too quickly?

Links:

  • Applications are being accepted for the Sundance Episodic Lab
  • Millions Are Hounded for Debt They Don’t Owe. One Victim Fought Back, With a Vengeance by Zeke Faux for Bloomberg
  • Worst Roommate Ever by William Brennan for New York Magazine
  • What Does It Mean to Die? by Rachel Aviv for the New Yorker. John also mentioned this story about Jon-Erik Hexum by Gareth Davies for the Daily Mail.
  • Teen Girl Posed For 8 Years As Married Man To Write About Baseball And Harass Women by Lindsey Adler for Deadspin
  • A Carnival cruise in the South Pacific descended into violent anarchy by Avi Selk for The Washington Post
  • Bridge Constructor Portal
  • A Very Fatal Murder
  • The Good Place on NBC.
  • The Scriptnotes Listeners’ Guide!
  • The USB drives!
  • John August on Twitter
  • Craig Mazin on Twitter
  • John on Instagram
  • Find past episodes
  • Outro by Rajesh Naroth (send us yours!)

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

UPDATE 3-6-18: The transcript of this episode can be found here.

Related Posts

  1. Television with Damon Lindelof
  2. Period Space
  3. Final Draft, software and people

Primary Sidebar

Each week, screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin discuss screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters, everything from the craft to the business to the best ways to get yourself writing.

The most recent 20 episodes are available for free on this site and Apple Podcasts. The entire 430+ episode back catalog, plus bonus content and episodes, are available to Premium Subscribers.

Where to Find It

  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
  • RSS

Scriptnotes Premium

  •   Bonus segments and episodes
  •   Early access to events
  •   450+ episode back catalog
  •   Use your favorite podcast player.

Join now

Scriptnotes Shirts

Every Scriptnotes shirt is available on-demand from Cotton Bureau. 14 designs and counting.

All-time listener favorites include Scriptnotes Midnight Blue, Three-Act Structure and the Scriptnotes Tour Shirt.

These high-quality tees are super soft and available in all sizes, including children’s and hoodies.

Browse the catalog

© 2025 John August — All Rights Reserved.