Written Interview: Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli)
Today’s interview is with screenwriter Gary Whitta, whose movie The Book of Eli opens this weekend. The interview is found on DoneDealPro.com. Here is an excerpt:
You sold The Book of Eli in May 2007 to Warner Bros. and Silver Pictures. Where did the idea for the story come from, and what was writing the script like? What took place during the selling process? Were there rewrites?
The Book of Eli came from a number of different places. On a pulp level I’ve always been fascinated by lone wandering hero type protagonists; I love characters like The Man With No Name and those great old samurai movies like Yojimbo. There’s something quite mythic about the idea of the enigmatic warrior nomad, so I had been looking for a way to do my version of that character for a while. I’ve also always been fascinated by questions of faith and spirituality and was looking for a canvas that would let me explore those ideas. So Eli was really a combination of those ideas and wanting to create a story that would deliver on a bad-ass popcorn level but which might also leave people with something a little deeper to think about once the film was over.
The first draft of the script came together very, very quickly. It’s a very simple story that required minimal outlining (all I had was a one-page beat sheet and some longer essays I’d written for myself about who Eli was and what the theme of the film was), so I had a first rough draft finished in about six days, writing about twenty pages a day. I did some rewrites to clean it up, and we went out to studios shortly after and it sold to Warner Bros for Joel Silver to produce pretty quickly. We went into more rewrites after that, mostly working with the Hughes Brothers and Denzel to integrate their notes since they had very specific ideas about what they wanted to bring to the story. I have to say the development process with those guys was really fantastic and really helped make the script a lot better, but at the same time I have the rare privilege of being able to look at the finished film and absolutely recognize it as the film that I wrote; no compromises. I’m really happy with it.
This should underscore something for each of us: Write something we’re passionate about! That’s one advantage pre-pro writers have over professional screenwriters, who often accept writing assignments about which they are less than passionate — you can write whatever you want. So yes, look for a good story concept. Brainstorm great characters. But don’t forget to write a story with which you have a strong emotional resonance. That passion will not only help you to finish the script, it will also shine through in your words.
H/T to Joshua James for the link. Here’s the trailer for The Book of Eli: