Screenwriting 101: Richard Matheson

“Most of my ideas have come from films. When I lived in Brooklyn, I went to see a Dracula film and the idea came to me: If one vampire was scary, what if the whole world was full of vampires? That became I Am Legend.

Another time, I went to see a comedy with Ray Milland and Aldo Ray [Let’s Do It Again, 1953]; and Ray Milland was leaving an apartment and he put on Aldo Ray’s hat and it came down way over his ears. At that second, I thought, “What if a guy put his own hat on and that happened?” That’s where I got the idea for Shrinking Man.

Through the years, I have been able to get more and more into character, but I never went into stories based on characters. I went into stories based on a story idea. Then I put characters in the story that I hoped would be believable and realistic in real life and maybe move you. But I’m a storyteller. The story is the thing. They can put that on my tombstone: Storyteller.”

— Richard Matheson (The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Twilight Zone, Stir of Echoes)

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