Interview (Part 4): Joshua Golden

Joshua Golden wrote the spec script “Road to Oz” which was not only a finalist in the 2014 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition, it sold in September to New Line. From THR:

New Line Cinema has preemptively scooped up spec script Road to Oz, written by hot rising talent Josh Golden.

Recently I interviewed Josh and learned how he had taken an interesting proactive approach to marketing “Road to Oz,” something from which all writers can learn.

Today in Part 4, Josh discusses how he landed an agent, attached a producer to the project by himself, became a Nicholl finalist, then sold the script to New Line:

Scott: The tone, I’m guessing, must have been a big concern for you, finding that right balance between realism and fantasy.

Joshua: Honestly, I had an easier time balancing the realism and fantasy than I did with balancing the lightness with some of the darker, more “adult” moments.

I wanted this to be a movie that parents could take their kids to and not have any kind of reservations about it, and have it be something that they could enjoy together. There are some of these more adult themes. Finding that balance was probably more difficult.

Scott: Because Hollywood has this affinity for edge…

Joshua: Right.

Scott: Did it ever concern you that this story might be received by people in the movie business as being soft?

Joshua: Honestly, it didn’t concern me because that’s the type of movie that I’d like to see, and that’s the way I wanted to tell the story. I thought back to Finding Neverland. That had a very similar tone, I would say. This might be bigger in scale, but a similar feel, for sure. There’s an elegance to it.

Scott: It’s not like your story doesn’t have tension. You’ve got people with physical ailments. You’ve got dire financial situations. The mother‑in‑law’s disapproval. The presence of Rak. Yet, throughout, Frank’s family is a loving, supporting family. You hit that balance quite nicely while still being realistic.

Joshua: Thank you. I appreciate that. That’s what I was going for. Hopefully, that ends up coming through.

Scott: I can’t analyze the script without getting into all the wonderful moment where things Frank hears or sees become inspiration for his book, from Dorothy, to Toto, to Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, even tiny things, horse of a different color, or slippers, in this case silver, but even the derivation of the name Oz, that whole sort of Shakespeare in Love kind of thing where you see things in real life and then take that as creative inspiration. I assume that was a very early choice on your part.

Joshua: Very much so. That was probably one of the most fun things about writing this, for me. It was incorporating those elements. Some of the places he drew that inspiration from are, somewhat, historically accurate. Others I kind of worked in on my own.

But that’s definitely something that I hope will be a lot of fun and nostalgic for the audience. To see those moments and connect the dots. Yeah, that was a lot of fun.

Scott: I’m curious how that process worked. Did you make a laundry list of things, at the beginning say, “OK. I now wanted to get this beat, and this beat, and this beat from the movie,” and then try and work that into the plot? Or was it more of an organic thing, as you were working with the characters and the story that those elements kind of popped out? Or perhaps it was both?

Joshua: Some of them I knew very early on, and were kind of a big part of the outlining process. I knew one of the first things he was going to see was the hot air balloon taking off into the stormy sky. I knew the way he was going to be welcomed to Aberdeen was going to be reflective of how Dorothy is welcomed into Munchkin Land when she arrives in Oz.

I knew the slippers, when those were going to come in, because they were going to play a pivotal role in Dorothy’s story. Those were all kind of anchors in my outline, I would say. But there are smaller things, like when I was writing the county fair sequence.

There were things that kind of organically came up, like, “Oh, this. OK. Well, this could be a good moment for us to see, to see the monkeys or the lion.” There were small things that came up while I was writing. But a lot of the big ones I knew, going in, when they would all happen.

Scott: Let’s talk about all the good news regarding your script. First, the Nicholl. What was it like to become a finalist?

Joshua: That was very, very exciting. I entered, like I said, one of the earlier drafts of the script into Nicholls back like seven months ago or something like that. Actually someone, my now-manager, had recommended that I submit it. That whole process was really exciting. Lots of waiting around for the next phone call.

But it was an honor. It’s a great group of people, and the other finalists, and the fellows. I’ve read a lot of the other scripts as well. It’s a really talented group of people. I’m honored to have been a part of that.

Scott: The script sells to New Line. Did you get representation off the fact that you became a finalist in the Nicholl? How did all that work out?

Joshua: This all really started about seven months ago when I finished a draft of the script that I was happy with. Then I sent it out to three or four writer friends of mine, who all kind of said the same thing, “OK. This is good. It’s ready. Do something with it.”

I then did my research, as far as representation goes. There was one individual, Rich Green, at Resolution Agency at the time. He was someone who really stood out to me and represented writers whose work I admired and envied. I sent him a very nice query letter. The query letter was intercepted by the head of the Story Department over there at Resolution, a guy by the name of Jeff Portnoy.

I got the typical, “Agents can’t read unsolicited material, but I’ll check this out.” He did. The rest is kind of history. I developed the script a little further with him. He suggested I submit it to Nicholls, and I did. I worked with him for months and, at the same time, brought my own producers onto the project.

About two months ago, once the script reached the semifinalists stage of Nicholls, Jeff brought me up to the agents at Resolution and brought me in. I signed with them. The representation, that’s all very recent. Then following that was the Nicholls finalists and all of that. It’s been a busy couple of months.

Scott: How did you attach a producer?

Joshua: I went about it the same way I went about reaching out to my representation. I knew what type of project I had. Like I said, Finding Neverland was something that I was a huge admirer of. It was kind of a similar story. I reached out. I sent a nice letter to Nellie Bellflower, who produced Finding Neverland.

I said, “OK. You know, I’m a big admirer of your work. I have a lot of respect for Finding Neverland. I just finished this project…”

She got back to me, read the script. We had lunch. Then I started developing it with her and her husband, Michael Mislove, also a producer. So here we are now, and they were all a part of the deal that we made with New Line.

Scott: Speaking of New Line, how did all that play out?

Joshua: We had a whole plan. A strategy. Our plan was, as soon as the top ten finalists lists were announced, that we would go out with it. We had a list of producers and production companies that we were pretty much ready to click send and to make those calls.

But just literally a couple of days prior to that, producer Beau Flynn had gotten a hold of the script, spoke very highly of it. Him and New Line made an exclusive offer. It happened very quickly. I was not expecting it to happen like that, but I’m very glad that it did.

Scott: I’m sure you are. Where does the project stand now?

Joshua: The project, I’m doing my work on it. Some rewrite work. Once that’s wrapped up, then next step is to find a director and put it together. It’s been great. It’s a really great group of creative, kind, and passionate people. They’re really excited about it. So, we’re moving forward.

Scott: Have you got any other writing projects in the works?

Joshua: Aside from the myriad of people I’ve been meeting, doing the whole water bottle tour and all that, I’ve got another project or two that I have been developing and working on prior to and while the whole Oz thing was happening.

I’m excited to kind of wrap those up and see what the next steps are for those. Projects that are very much in the same vein of Oz. I spend my time in the family genre.

Scott: I would imagine soon DePaul will be calling up and saying, “Hey, Josh. Come on back and speak to our students.”

Joshua: [laughs] It’s funny. DePaul has their LA immersion program out here, which is out here a few quarters out of the year. I already went in, actually, to talk to a group of students that are out here. But I’m definitely willing to and am game to go back to Chicago. I owe a lot to that school, so I’m willing to help out, obviously, in any way that I can.

Tomorrow in Part 5, Josh shares his thoughts on some key aspects of the screenwriting craft.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Please stop by comments to ask any questions you may have for Josh.

Josh is repped by ICM and Heretic Literary Management.

Twitter: @joshmgolden.