Interview: Craig Mazin

Go Into The Story Interview: Craig Mazin

My in-depth interview with screenwriter and co-host (along with John August) of the popular podcast Scriptnotes.

Craig Mazin is a successful screenwriter in the comedy genre whose movie credits include RocketMan (1997), Scary Movie 3 (2003), Scary Movie 4 (2006), Superhero Movie (2008), The Hangover Part II (2011), Identity Thief (2013) and The Hangover Part III (2013). With fellow screenwriter Ted Elliott, he hosted the informative writing blog “The Artful Writer” from 2004–2011. Currently Craig and screenwriter John August co-host the popular weekly podcast Scriptnotes for which the pair recently celebrated their 100th recording.

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

Part 1: “It actually got one of the best reviews that I’ve ever gotten in my life, and I haven’t gotten many good ones. The L.A. Times reviewer, I can’t remember who the guy was, but he loved it. I just remember reading that review, going, “No. No. This isn’t very good.””

Part 2: “But, as David Zucker often remarks, he gave an interview in 1995 or something in which he announced that spoof movies were dead. A few years later, Scary Movie came out and made a gazillion dollars.”

Part 3: “I’m always fascinated by movies where the non‑protagonist is kind of pushed into the limelight as if they were.”

Part 4: “For me, what you call “the emotional life of the story” is everything. I want comedies to be about something. I want movies to be about something. I want them to have some sort of argument to make.”

Part 5: “I would say that the modern audience seems far less married to genre than movie critics. Movie critics love talking about genre and they get really antsy when they feel like a movie is a fish with feathers… Lately it seems like the audience has become far more flexible, and if anything they almost appreciate a certain audacity of genre bending.”

Part 6: “The one thing about me that’s been consistent in the 17 years I’ve been doing this is in eight weeks I’ll have a screenplay. I’m very good that way. I don’t dick around. Knowing that, I can say to myself, “Well, not happening today. Not writing,” Because I know that doesn’t mean the script is not going to get written. The script always gets written.”

Entire Interview

Craig is repped by CAA.

Twitter: @clmazin.

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