Interview: Reid Carolin (“Magic Mike”)

One of the surprise hit movies of 2012 was Magic Mike starring Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, and Olivia Munn, and directed by Steven Soderbergh. With a modest production budget of $7M, the film grossed $167M worldwide. The screenwriter responsible for the script is Reid Carolin.

Here are links to the six installments of the entire interview:

Part 1: “That’s the book [Aristotle’s “Poetics”] that, I’ll go back and read that every year, at least, on a plane ride or something.”

Part 2: “It’s a sub‑culture that’s full of people who are risk takers, or ego‑maniacs, or damaged in some way, shape, or form. It is people living on the extreme edge of life, and that always makes for good characters, because they have drive and they believe in something and they are true performers. That inherently is cinematic.”

Part 3: “If you’re smart and intelligent and you have something to say, your movie’s going to find that tone, and you don’t have to whack people over the head with it.”

Part 4: “You’ve got to make a good movie, let the movie stand on its own two feet. But just because it doesn’t test well, doesn’t mean you have to change the movie. You have to realize, did we make a movie that we like? That we think works? And if we did, now let’s figure out how to sell it.”

Part 5: “There’s a magic to being present when you’re actually writing, and just writing a great character. There’s something about the act of giving yourself over and giving your brain over to just typing, just going… If you feel like that character feels, spit it out and then go back and edit it later.”

Part 6: “There isn’t another place in the world, besides Hollywood, that has the platform yet, where you can make a story that travels the world like a movie does, and that reaches as many people as a movie does.”

Please stop by comments to thank Reid and ask any questions you may have.

Reid is repped by UTA.

Twitter: @reidcarolin.