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‘This could end badly, Ron.’
A large crowd gathered at the Paramount Theatre at 3:45 on Saturday afternoon to hear three titans of the business, Ron Howard (“Apollo 13,” “Parenthood,”), Mitchell Hurwtiz (“Arrested Development,” “The Golden Girls”) and Steve Zaillian (“Schindler’s List,” “All the King’s Men”), discus the “The Art of Storytelling.”
The panel was moderated by trailblazing producer Marcia Nasatir (“Ironweed,” “The Big Chill”). While Nasatir at times seemed to have a very loose format to her questioning, her wit, charm and specifically her back-and-forth with the hilarious and sarcastic Hurwitz made for a compelling, if scattered, discussion.
What follows are some of the highlights:
- Hurwitz received a large ovation when he confirmed that, yes, there is going to be an “Arrested Development” movie and he will be directing. While he has been very tight lipped about what will be in the movie, Hurwitz relented to Nasatir, and said, that there would be a heavy jail presence and then made jokes about the inclusion of TARP money, a nod to the inability of a film to be as timely as television due to lag times in production and release.
- Speaking to the fact that many of his movies are based on real events, Zaillian said the reasoning is two-fold: 1) He’s always been interested in telling those kind of stories; and 2) Writers often get pegged with certain types of storytelling, and he has never felt the need to break away from that. As for his influences with regard to telling stories based on true events, Zaillian cited the Italian neo-realism movement and his love for documentaries. He said he has never liked the idea of putting “based on true events” at the top of one of the movies, as he feels that conceit is a loophole which serves as an “excuse to not do it right.”
- Howard on what makes a good script: “No matter what the genre, it has to be suspenseful.” He went on to say that most stories have to be about challenges and tests of character.
- On the writing process, Hurwitz said the things that come easiest to him in writing are the things about which he is the most suspicious, as he thinks it should be hard to write. He also described writer’s block not as the inability to sit down and write, but the fear that what he writes won’t meet his idea of what a screenwriter should be.
- On “Arrested Development” as a TV show versus a movie, Hurwitz said that he is excited to make the movie, because writing “A.D.” for only a 20-minute show is much more difficult because it restricts his ability to go into greater detail.
- While he said that there was a good reason behind why scripts he wrote didn’t get made, Zaillian did confess that he has one idea for a movie that he has carried around with him for years. He said he likes the idea of having one movie in his pocket for the future. In his case, that movie is an adaptation of Geoffrey Wolff’s book “The Duke of Deception.” Unfortunately, he said, the movie would be a period piece, which he said is “a great way to kill a project,” and not just because of the cost to rent the cars, as Hurwitz humorously suggested.
- On the writing process, Hurwitz gave an anecdote about listening to Timothy Geithner talking about trying to fix the economy. Geithner had said that even when they did not know exactly what they were doing or how to fix what was broken, the financial team just kept showing up to work their way through it. Hurwitz said this story correlates to his understanding of how writing works. You just keep showing up to work, and you write. Expanding on the idea of work as being a key to success, Hurwitz also told a story about two sets of children were given a math test. One group was a set of students who were told that they were very hard workers, while the other had been told that they were extremely smart. After the smart kids outperformed the other group on the first test, a second, much more difficult test was administered to the kids. On the second pass, the “smart” kids gave up before finishing the near-impossible test, while those who were told they were hard workers pressed on in an effort to solve the problems that were above their education level.
- At film fest panels, you will often get an awkward “question” from an audience member, and it seems at these large panels with big stars in big venues, you are almost guaranteed one. This year’s most awkward fest moment probably goes to the young lady who called on herself (in her defense, the room is big and recognizing questioners from the stage is a difficult task), and, after thanking the three men for inspiring her, went on a long tangent about the role of Ron Howard and “Richie Cunningham” in her life. She admitted that as a child she always thought “Richie” was a real person, and that instead of seeing the people on her TV as actors playing characters, she felt as if she was getting a look into someone else’s actual living room. This delusion continued, she said, until she was about 12 years old. She then said that when Howard left “Happy Days,” it scarred her and left a wound in her childhood. At this point, with the audience hoping a question was imminent, Hurwitz (who had the audience and panelists rolling throughout) leaned forward, looked at Howard and said, “This could end badly, Ron.” Everyone laughed, but the woman continued her questioning and pleaded with Howard that he produce Dan Brown’s new novel, “The Lost Symbol,” to help heal the wounds from her childhood. Howard laughed, and while admitting that these things take time, magnanimously assured the woman that there were development discussions underway.
- It all ended well when Hurwitz concluded with the sentiment that whatever writers do, they should make sure they enjoy it.
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