“I was obsessed with comedy writing as a kid,” said Nicholas Stoller. “I remember watching Saturday Night Live and not wanting to be the actors, but wanting to write the sketches. I don’t even know how I knew that was a job.”

As a screenwriter, Stoller has credits for Fun with Dick and Jane, Yes Man, Get Him to the Greek, The Muppets, Sex Tape, The Carmichael Show, Night School and Bros, many of which he also Directed, including Neighbors and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. 

“I’m excited Bros is going to be theatrically released, but a weird thing happened a few years ago where [studios] were like, ‘Comedies don’t work in theaters.’ Which is not true. Judd [Apatow] always says, ‘If The Hangover came out this weekend, it would make a billion dollars.’”

For whatever reason, studios just stopped making as many theatrical comedies. They’ve instead gone to television, limited series, and leaned in to action comedies for a broader, global appeal. “I love going to see comedy in the movie theater. You get to have that experience with an audience, laughing and reacting.”

“People say it’s a business first, but it’s not run like a business. If anyone thought about it like a business, there’s a huge hole in the comedy department.”

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If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep367 - Nicholas Stoller, Screenwriter ‘Bros,’ ‘Sex Tape,’ & ‘Yes Man’

“My family had a dude ranch in Colorado,” says Mark L. Smith, as to why he didn’t really starting writing scripts until his 30s. “It was 2,000 acres surrounded by a quarter million acres of natural forest. We were literally in the middle of nowhere.”

“Our driveway was a 2.5 mile road that was an old stagecoach trail, through a canyon. It was a resort and we were open in the summers, but we would shut down early fall. I found I had nothing to do during those five months in the snow, so I would write.”

In those early days, he wrote stories for his children and submitted a few ideas for children’s books. Then he took a stab at writing screenplays, did a few workshops in Los Angeles, and then starting to write specs, one after the other. “I just kept going, found my way through it, then got really lucky.”

Smith’s early films were in the horror genre, movies like Seance, Vacancy, and Vacancy 2: The First Cut. Then, in 2015, he hit global success with The Revenant, followed by Overlord, The Midnight Sky, The Marsh King’s Daughter, and The Boys in the Boat. Upcoming projects include Twisters and a new series called American Primeval. 

“I would option and sell drama. That’s where I learned to begin with but I couldn’t get anything made. The horror stuff was popping so I tried that. I wrote a couple of those and it became my thing, but it wasn’t what I had intended. I think I wrote The Revenant in 2007, so that’s when people noticed I could do more than horror.” 

Want more? Steal my first book, Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers right now for free. Simply head over to www.brockswinson.com to get your free digital download and audiobook. If you find value in the book, please share it with a friend as we’re giving away 100,000 copies this year. It’s based on over 400 interviews here at Creative Principles. 

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep512 - Mark L. Smith, Screenwriter ‘The Revenant’ & ‘The Boys in the Boat’

In ‘Day of the Dead: Bloodline,’ “A small group of military personnel and survivalists dwell in an underground bunker as they seek to find a cure in a world overrun by zombies.” In this interview, Director Hector Hernandez Vicens discusses the masters of suspense, his love for George Romero, what makes a film truly scary, and the importance of character.

Ep 27 - Hector Hernandez Vicens, Director ‘Day Of The Dead Bloodline’

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Welcome to Creative Principles, I'm your host Brock Swinson. Here I'll be speaking with writers, directors, actors, musicians and more. We'll discuss the habits, routines, and methods of a creative life.

Ep512 - Mark L. Smith, Screenwriter ‘The Revenant’ & ‘The Boys in the Boat’

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