Interview: Chris Borrelli (2009 Black List) — Part 4

Christopher Borrelli, who wrote the 2007 Universal / Gold Circle horror thriller Whisper and co-wrote the 2009 Fox / WWE action film The Marine 2, sold the spec scripts “The Vatican Tapes” [Black List] to Lionsgate and Lakeshore in 2009, “Wake” to Hammer Films / Exclusive Media Group in 2010, and “Sad Jack” to Code Entertainment in 2011. In addition he has worked on the remake of Bad Influence for MGM, an adaptation of the French horror film ILS (“Them”) for Gold Circle, a live-action series “Necessary Evil” at the Cartoon Network with partners Jonathan Davis and Max Burnett, and has a blind deal at Focus / Rogue. Also “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead” with Todd Lincoln attached to direct.

In April “The Vatican Tapes” was greenlit for production with a July 15th start date. In May, Chris agreed to terms on the sale of another spec, the announcement is forthcoming.

Today in Part 4, Chris discusses how two of his spec script sales went down:

Scott: The story’s Nemesis is a man named Marcos, and he’s got an interesting criminal enterprise. How would you describe this character?

Chris: Well, I really went simple. There’s that character, and there’s his son. We’ve seen that dynamic before…the old school, older mob type, and the younger, more flashier guy…up and coming. But to me, there are different versions of antagonist, and often antagonist drive the story. I honestly just feel that this is a character that is someone you can…I just wanted to make him as frightening as possible, to sound very basic about it. Because really, the story’s about Jack, and really these other characters are there to be a challenge to him, and they certainly are.

I got one little idea from him, from a conflict as a kid, where there was a set of killers, so dangerous, that if they had your number, there was no one you could go to. So that always stayed in the back of my head as a very frightening idea, and I went with that with our antagonist.

And that, again, is why someone like Caroline can’t go to the police, can’t go into hiding for the rest of her life. I just wanted to set up a high mountain for the…heroes to have to climb. If that’s not a term, I’m sorry, I just made it up [laughs].

Scott: In some ways, he’s like the perfect type of Nemesis to the story. He’s in prison, yet a runs a substantial criminal empire, orchestrating things while he’s behind bars. He’s like the man, behind the man, behind the man.

Chris: That’s part of the fun: What do you do if your villain is already in prison? You know, obviously your legal system is going to fail you, so it was a nice shortcut. Throughout film they realize they have no way of getting to him until the end when Jack devises a different kind of plan. But essentially that is an idea. There’s something extra frightening and intimidating that your villain is locked up because it’s kind of like the world’s already done everything it’s going to do to him and there’s obviously no legal recourse to someone like that. So it was a simple, and I thought pretty clean way to have a sort of overlord. To have a kingpin type character.

Scott: It’s almost like he’s a mythical figure in a way if you were describing him to a regular person, and so that fell right in to the delusion of a paranoid schizophrenic.

Chris: Well, you know, there’s a saying and I heard it a few times too many, but it’s that even paranoids have real enemies. And that’s a nice one‑sentence thing for what’s happening to Jack and Caroline. So that’s kind of the idea, and, you know, I also like horror and of course in horror the first thing you do is isolate your main character. It makes horror movies, but it works very well in action thrillers also. These characters that don’t have anyone else they can turn to. Jack was there by his will. He could at any time get out of this situation, at least to a point. Then around the middle of the film, of course, he’s in all the way.

Scott: The story takes place over the course of a few days. Do you like working with stories that have a compressed time frame?

Chris: Yes, very much. So many of my scripts really do take place over two or three days or one or two or three days. I do like to do that. Of course, I’ve written a couple the other way, but it fits well into action genre tension and it keeps things simple and clean. Again, in a book or another art form, you really have more time to play with, and of course even films can take place for years and years as well, but I tend to gravitate towards isolating the characters in some way, even if they’re in a crowd. Even if they’re in a city. Then from there having an aggressive time frame. I’m just drawn to it.

Scott: You just don’t have to deal with all those time ellipses. You set the pace and it just goes.

Chris: It’s really, largely a pacing issue. Pace is something that I find comes pretty naturally. I don’t really think about it, it just kind of comes. One of the reasons is that I’m not doing something where the story takes place over weeks or months. Pace is one of those issues I don’t give much thought. I just follow the lead of the story and the action and it tends to just work out which in my opinion sounds a little lucky. I don’t know. So far, I tend not to think too much about pacing. It just kind of happens if all the other elements of story are all there.

Scott: I’m not going to give away the ending, although it certainly works and it’s emotionally compelling. Picking up on this sadness underlying the relationship between the two lead characters, the ending is not the happiest resolution in the world. How conscious were you about Hollywood’s obsession with happy endings, and why did you choose to pursue this particular resolve to this story?

Chris: I had worked really hard…12 scripts, and I’ve had a pretty good track record. I’m very fortunate. But I really don’t trace trends or ideas, and if someone wants to change the ending, they own it at that point. I understand that. But for me it felt the most natural way for the film to go. At the same time, there’s something about it that is a victory. It didn’t make me too sad, because there’s something about it that the resolution is right. I guess I would say, it seemed the only proper way to end the film. I didn’t over‑think in that sense, what someone will think about the one ending. In fact, if someone closes a script and they’re emotionally affected in some way, or if the movie ends and they’re emotionally affected, then we’ve done our job.

Scott: That’s why I said it felt very compelling and it felt appropriate for the characters. Within that story universe, it felt like the ending that had to happen.

Chris: I felt it was honest. I felt it was the most honest way to end the script. Still, I felt it was enjoyable and satisfying. I didn’t feel it would have been perhaps a more common ending.

Scott: How long did it take you go from story concept to final draft?

Chris: The actual write time for this script, and for most scripts I really hunker down, which is three to four months. But the ideas have been germinating for a year or more, in some cases. This was something I have been searching for the idea for several years. I had different scribblings and notes in my idea file and so on and so forth, but when I actually saw the light with this and I started to write, it only took between three and four months. I enjoyed it. My favorite part of screenwriting is that time where I’m generating five, seven, eight pages a day. That feels pretty good, and at the end of the day my screenplay has gone up in page count. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to be rewritten several times.

I’m going to go back, and I might cut one of the two scenes I wrote, but it feels very good. There’s a sense of momentum as that happens. And also, that’s also when the ideas just keep coming.

I just know in the back of my head, there’s a character in my head, I’m on page 40, and I think of something I should have put on page 20, and then I also think of something later in the day. I’m in the shower, I’m out…wherever I am, and I think of all these other parts that can go into that particular script.

It’s a great feeling. So it’s, I guess you can call it being in the zone. I would say it took me about 10 weeks to write.

Scott: How involved in feedback and the script development process were your reps at WME and H2F Entertainment?

Chris: I do more development with my managers. Also, I have a core group of friends who are either writers or people who really understand screenplays, not just great friends, but they’re talented in that way. I get a little feedback from them and I gel it all together. Then I do it for spec, because I’m not working for someone directly as I write it. I do what I want in the end. I’m a little, when I’m working for somebody, I mean, I’m their employee, I see myself and I’m going to try to give you the best script possible. But they insist upon something, I would try to give it to them.

But I definitely use them on that. I use whatever resources are there, and I take it all in, and then I’ll make the best decision from the information in front of me.

I think when we’re younger, when writers starting out, they are a little too precious, it’s just natural. Or they think of feedback as, they can feel very insulted. It gets to a certain point and I don’t feel that way at all. I really want to know what someone thinks because I don’t care, you can’t really hurt my feelings. I just want to know.

Hopefully people like it, I’m hoping they’ll like it, but f they don’t I’m extremely curious what isn’t working or what wasn’t working for them, and then I try to address it. Especially if I hear it from more than one person.

Scott: So “Sad Jack” ended up selling with interest from multiple bidders. How did that deal go down?

Chris: It was really fun to have more than one company after it, even though I’m a big believer you really only need one company. Of course you want many, but you really only need one. When I wrote the students in my alumni association I always tell them that. I really just try and do that. I was flattered to have several companies after the script, and we just went with one of the offers. All great people though. I actually know people in all those companies and they’ve all been really supportive.

Scott: What’s the status of “Sad Jack?”

Chris: We just re-optioned it. We have our director, and we’re making offers to actors right now, now that the year’s essentially started up again.

Scott: Another one of your projects, “The Vatican Tapes,” that made in the blacklist in 2009 right?

Chris: Yeah, yeah that was a thrill.

Scott: Describe that experience for me.

Chris: Well, we sent that script out two weeks before “Paranormal Activity” came out. We had a buyer, but the moment “Paranormal Activity” came out, we had everybody else want it. We’d already made a verbal deal. It was just a thrill at the end of the process, at the end of the year, to get that kind of accolade from the business itself. The business saying that they enjoyed this little horror movie that was not easy to write, because so little has to happen as a point of view movie.

Point of view’s are getting a little tired, people say, but I truly believe that there must be some market for them, because we’re living like a found footage right now. More people are using their iPhone’s to film what’s going on around them.

I don’t think it’ll ever go away. I think it’ll always be some point to them, around. But it was just a real thrill for me and it was a kind of difficult script to write because I had to trust that it was all going to hold together from some very small little movements. You really had to get that structure perfect, where in a regular film I could have little asides that the character would say that are kind of funny I could cut in. But in this film it had to feel like you were actually watching a real movie.

Scott: That actually dovetails into another question. Are you going to sit in this area: action, action thrillers? Or do you have any plans to try to expand out into other genres?

Chris: I really love all kinds of genres. Usually I start with the characters. Even my horror films are very character central in most cases. I don’t see them as very different genres. I know they are, but to me they’re either character driven action or thriller or sci‑fi or horror. Those are the movies I also go and see so right now those are the formats I really enjoy working in. I really do start with the character first and I try to give him or her something interesting about them, then I try to challenge them with the actual story. That should be the challenge for the main character. That should be what the film is about. And of course, the journey as well.

Tomorrow in Part 5, Chris shares some insights into his approach to the craft of screenwriting.

For Part 1, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

For Part 3, go here.

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

Chris is repped by WME and DMG Entertainment.