“The Hero’s Journey: Jeff Nathanson on the road to writing Indiana Jones”

“Written By” magazine is the monthly journal put out by the WGA — and I love it. This month, they have numerous articles including ones featuring Danny Strong, who wrote the screenplay for HBO’s Recount, David Koepp (pictured at left), who received “screenplay by” credit for the new Indiana Jones movie, and Jeff Nathanson, who received shared “story by” credit for the same movie. The latter article is available online here. An excerpt:

“There were many drafts and so many writers involved… And it’s not necessarily that any one those from the past couldn’t have been a good version of this. It’s just the timing was right… and this is sort of where it landed. And Steven was finally ready to make the movie, I think. In the back of his mind once he got ready to make the movie, then it sort of became a much easier development process.”

Many of the articles in “Written By” focus on the screenwriting process, told first-hand by working screenwriters — and that’s an invaluable resource. Here is the “Written By” website.