Screenwriters Roundtable (Part 2): Jessica Bendinger, Lindsay Devlin, Stephany Folsom, Liz W. Garcia, Julia Hart, and Lisa Joy
A special treat this week and next as I will be posting excerpts from an extensive screenwriter’s roundtable I did in December 2015 with a group of talented Hollywood screenwriters: Jessica Bendinger, Lindsay Devlin, Stephany Folsom, Liz W. Garcia, Julia Hart, and Lisa Joy.
Here is Part 2:
Scott: Sticking with HBO, Lisa, why don’t we jump to you? You’ve got Westworld. Isn’t that debuting in 2017 on HBO?
Lisa: Yeah. Really looking forward to it.
Scott: I know you can’t talk a lot about it, but you were a staff writer on Pushing Daisies, which was on a broadcast network, and you were with the USA series Burn Notice. Now you’re show‑running Westworld. What’s that like?
Lisa: The show’s really ambitious and working on it has been fulfilling, challenging, and deeply rewarding. I’m lucky enough to be working with an incredibly talented cast and a fantastic crew — and I’m co-showrunning with my husband, Jonathan Nolan. So it’s been a labor of love to work on it.
We got to explore basically every idea that we’d been kicking around both separately and together for several years in terms of the story. There’s artificial intelligence, there’s exploring tropes of the Old West in a new way. It’s just a fantastic opportunity, so it’s been fun and exhausting at the same time. As I said, someone please take me to a movie.
Scott: How old is your daughter?
Lisa: Two.
Julia: We should definitely talk, because I have a 19‑month‑old and my husband and I work together, so maybe we can leave the babies with the husbands and go see a movie.
[laughter]
Scott: While we’re talking about TV, Liz, you’ve had extensive background in TV. Wonderful, Cold Case, and Memphis Beat, which you co‑created, but you’re currently working on a movie, as I understand it. Sisterhood Everlasting, which is the third in that series of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?
Liz: Yes.
Scott: What’s going on with that?
Liz: I just thought I was finished with it, and I’m not, apparently.
[laughter]
Liz: It has been a really positive experience which I find that these studio feature assignments usually are not. They’re something that I do to make money, and because I feel compelled to operate in that world for some reason. Usually there comes a point where I flame out and I can’t deal with the notes anymore and I have no idea what we’re writing.
But with Sisterhood Everlasting, it was brought to me like, “You wouldn’t want to do this, would you?” I was like, “Yes, actually, I’m going to stop pretending I want to do highfalutin’ stuff and I’m going to admit what I really want to do, which is just write about women.” I just want to write about women wherever I get the opportunity, and so I took the job and really enjoyed it.
They were very patient, because I was pregnant with my second kid when I got hired, and was slow because I had a little baby. It was a really rewarding experience, and now what’s interesting about this is that the first two films were made by a studio and distributed by a studio, but this film is being pieced together.
It’s an indie film. I’m doing a number of drafts, the actresses are very involved, and then Ken Kwapis is directing it, and the producers are going to take it around town to find someone who will finance.
Scott: Liz, good luck on that. Lindsay, you had the horror thriller Devil’s Due, which came out in 2014, and several things in development including, Sleeping Beauty.
Lindsay: Yeah, my movie came out two years ago, it was a thriller about pregnancy, and ironically I found out I was pregnant as it premiered. My last name being Devlin, we had the little pun of Devil’s Due and Devlin’s due.
I had written a pilot for ABC, and an adaptation of a YA novel for Fox 2000, and all of that got turned in when I was close to giving birth. I thought, “Great, I’ve turned in my projects. I take some time as a mom and then get back to writing in a few months,” not realizing how all‑consuming mothering would be. I was able to work on a few pitch and spec ideas but honestly, that first year was just about survival as a new parent, and making time to be creative became a new challenge.
I don’t know about you ladies, but I’m best under deadline. It’s harder to start something from nothing, especially after some time away. But I’ve got renewed energy and determination, and will just need to find that balance that so many working parents struggle with.
Julia: Can we please start a baby mama screenwriter support group?
Lindsay: Yes.
Julia: I am so amazed that there are so many of us. As you said, finding the balance is difficult sometimes. There’s something about needing to be creative vs. being a nurturer that butts up against itself at times.
Liz: It is a vital conversation to be had, because it’s something I know that when I didn’t have kids, I was looking around like, “Where are the women who have the career that I want, who also have kids? I wish I knew more about that, because I’m so scared I don’t know what I’m getting into, and I don’t know if it’s going to be OK.”
You just hear, “Oh, it’s impossible to have a personal life in this business.” A, that’s not true, but B, that’s a little bit of a male luxury to say that. “Oh, I just don’t take my personal life as seriously as my professional life.” If you want to have kids, you have to.
Each day this week, I’m going to highlight one of the writers. Today: Lindsay Devlin. After heading up the Creative Group while working at CAA, Lindsay spent time as a production executive with Wolfgang Petersen, then Jordan Kerner’s company. Branching off into her own as a producer, Lindsay eventually started writing and her first feature length movie Devil’s Due came out in 2014. She is also involved with other movie projects including Sleeping Beauty and Reboot, and a TV project “Beta”. And in a deal which just closed, Lindsay is working on a feature adaptation at a major studio.
Lindsay Devlin
Please take time to leave a reply with your observations and follow-up questions, and while you’re there thank these writers for taking time out of their busy schedules to do this roundtable for GITS readers and the wider online screenwriting community.
On Twitter:
Jessica Bendinger: @JBendinger
Lindsay Devlin: @DevlinLindsay
Stephany Folsom: @StephanyFolsom
Liz W. Garcia: @lizwgarcia
Julia Hart: @juliahartowitz
Lisa Joy: @lisajoynolan
For Part 1 of the series, go here.
Tomorrow: Part 3 of this exclusive screenwriter’s roundtable.