Interview [Written]: Elan Mastai (“What If”)

A First Weekend Club interview with Elan Mastai, screenwriter of the indie movie What If aka The F Word, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan and Adam Driver.

How did you come to write the F Word? What was the inspiration?

I’d been screenwriting professionally for several years and had a few movies made, but I felt like I hadn’t really written anything that had my distinct voice, point of view, and sense of humour. I’d mostly been doing work-for-hire gigs for various producers and directors. So the inspiration was to take what I’d learned working for other people and write something more personal, even if it never got made.

The project went through a long process in terms of finding a studio home, and casting… Did you always feel like, yes, it will eventually get made? What kept you going?

Actually, the project found homes quite quickly, it was getting it made that took some time. It started with Sheep Noir Films as a low-budget Canadian indie. But then the script caught heat in the US, landing on the annual Black List of Hollywood’s best screenplays and got acquired by Fox Searchlight. Where it came agonizingly close to being made as a studio movie but fell apart for various reasons. Which turned out to be very good for the movie because then director Michael Dowse and the producers from No Tracing Camping got involved and we put it together as an international co-production — and actually made it.

Which is all to say, I was fortunate that there was never a lack of people who wanted to make the movie over the years. It just took a while to cross the finish line. The other thing is, as a working screenwriter, the script for THE F WORD became my main writing sample. So while I was trying to get it made, it was also helping me get hired on other projects.

A trailer for the movie What If:

For the rest of the interview, go here.

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