Most people would settle for any one of Craig Lucas’ illustrious careers, but the multi-talented Lucas is always looking for a new challenge. After incarnations as a Broadway performer, playwright and screenwriter, Lucas is making his directorial debut with The Dying Gaul. Here, Lucas talks with MM about making the transition from writer to director.

Never hire your brother to be your teamster. Because no matter how much he loves you, you'll still be taking a taxi home every night. I'm joking, of course. One of the greatest joys of getting a little success is being able to work with my brothers.

Writer-producer Bobby Moresco is no stranger to multiple points of view. For more than a decade, he has collaborated with Paul Haggis on a handful of projects, including this year’s Oscar nominee for Best Original Screenplay, Crash. Moresco spoke with MM about his early days in the business, he and Haggis’ collaborative process and whether or not he’s got that Oscar speech ready.

Adapting the first quarter of John Irving’s A Widow for One Year into this summer’s A Door in the Floor—starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger—is certainly a project that has paid off for second-time director Williams (The Adventures of Sebastian Cole). Not only has he received accolades far and wide for his tale of a dysfunctional couple living in the wake of a family tragedy—he’s also now adapting and directing Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, starring Benico del Toro, for Focus Features. Williams recently spoke with us about his straightforward, old-fashioned approach, and how John Irving has gone from mentor to friend.

I worked at becoming the best writer I could be-the best writer in terms of character, dialogue and dramatic intent-and I keep working at it. I never stop, and by doing that it makes me valuable in the long term, not in the short term. I've written lots of spec scripts that don't sell, but it makes me valuable over the long term because ultimately what Hollywood craves is the Nobel Prize winner who they can make write romantic comedies.

How does a writer with a penchant for indie cinema and obscure foreign literature become Hollywood’s go-to guy for big-budget suspense, action and intrigue? Practice? Connections? “Luck,” says veteran screenwriter Daniel Pyne.

You have a choice of being "in the business" or of making movies. If you'd rather do business, don't hesitate. You'll get richer, but you won't have as much fun!

Over the course of 40 years, master moviemaker Wim Wenders has directed 45 projects (writing and producing many of them). At the age of 60, he shows no sign of slowing down. As he prepares for the release of Don’t Come Knocking, MM spoke with Wenders about collaborating with Sam Shepard, both on-screen and off.

People make it to the top of this business because they refuse to compromise or settle for less than the best finished product.

The biggest thing is persistence and really sticking to it. It seems to take anybody I know 10 years to really get started.

At first blush you may think that screenwriter Russell Gewirtz is the luckiest man alive… and you might be right! Originally written as a spec script, Inside Man is now one of the year’s biggest hits, thanks to taut direction by Spike Lee and an all-star cast that includes Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen. MM caught up with the screenwriting world’s most promising newcomer to discuss what makes a classic crime-drama and why it pays to live a little first.

Beginning with 1996's Citizen Ruth, Taylor and Payne have penned some of the most critically acclaimed scripts of the last 10 years, including Sideways, (a film that has already swept every critical and industry award list and is a surefire Oscar contender), Election and About Schmidt.

One day, when there's real interactivity, it will be just like life, with stories generating themselves. People will be getting online, and some guy will decide to shoot some other guy. Suddenly, a thriller exists.

Here's the set-up: You're the son of a New York video store owner, proclaiming to your mom, "I'm gonna make it as a screenwriter." Using her unconditional support as fuel, you fire up the ol' laptop and churn out more words per minute than Mavis Beacon can track. Suddenly, multiple production teams jump on board. Paul McGuigan, director of the cult hit Gangster No. 1, joins the team. To seal this sweet deal, Sir Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis sign on. Things become exciting. This is the life of screenwriter Jason Smilovic.

Build your foundation with the basics: Read folk stories, fairy tales, ancient plays, Shakespeare and mythology (and not just Greek and Roman-explore Chinese, African and Native American myths as well). Each offers a unique perspective on the world and the human condition and could be the foundation for your next big idea.

What would you do if you woke up chained inside a dungeon and couldn't remember anything about how you got there or what you had done? You could be a good guy or a bad guy, a hero or a traitor. In that moment of unknown terror, what would you do? These are the questions that screenwriter Matthew Waynee explores in his new film, Unknown.

Watch as many old movies as possible.

For writer/director Allison Anders, life has not always been "like the movies." From a tumultuous upbringing to the demands of motherhood while pursuing her career, Anders has worked tirelessly to make a name for herself in the film industry. Today, she remains one of America's most prolific and recognized female moviemakers, a reputation she's gained by giving the audience a piece of herself with each film.

Keep the actors relaxed, and keep them in the moment so that they can listen to each other and focus, so that they're genuinely affected and not just waiting to say their lines.

Director Terry Zwigoff's 1994 film Crumb garnered a degree of critical acclaim and audience support that typically proves elusive for other documentary moviemakers. Yet Zwigoff-about as anti-Hollywood a figure as one could envision-waited seven years to follow up that success with another feature (a timeframe elongated by the director's involvement in an aborted Woody Allen documentary).

I think it's really important to always keep in mind that you are an outsider and if you're trying to make something that's realistic, you need to do a certain amount of work to make sure that it's alright.

With the release of 1996's Girls Town, writer/director Jim McKay showed that teen films can be political. Though he's returning to familiar territory with Our Song, he proves that similar subject matter can yield a completely original and compelling story.

With his new picture, Baby Boy, writer-director John Singleton returns to his own backyard in South Central Los Angeles for an uncompromising look at the life of a young man in a state of arrested development.

Over the course of a career that began some 40 years ago, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala has penned over 20 screenplays-almost exclusively for director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. In Q & A with MM, Jhabvala discusses her lates film, The Golden Bowl, her longtime collaboration with the Merchant/Ivory team and the difficulties in adapting literature to the big screen.

Encourage the actors after every take. Acting is like jumping without a parachute-it's a scary thing to do. My acting coach made me try it once, so I know.

Before seven strangers headed off to the Australian Outback to do battle with ferocious beasts and other contestants, Daniel Minahan was hard at work on the screenplay for Series 7, a movie that takes reality TV to the ultimate Twilight Zone degree.

Always make movies for yourself. Never try to second-guess the public in any sort of way because you will always fall flat on your face.

Oscar-nominated moviemaker Michael Radford has explored the worlds of George Orwell (1984) and Pablo Neruda (Il Postino); Africa (White Mischief) and Scotland (Another Time, Another Place); and now the exotic world of a San Fernando Valley strip club known as The Blue Iguana.

It's hard to write one screenplay at a time, let alone more than one! Here, Hollywood's newest scribe, Alan Sereboff, talks about making it in Hollywood and how he handles the pressure of adapting Adrenalynn, Snowblind and Omerta, while his own script,The Payback All-Star Revue, is in development.

Ed Harris has long been heralded as one of the better actors of our time, and he's gotten two Oscar nods to prove it (Apollo 13; The Truman Show). Along with taking on the title character in the new film Pollock, Ed Harris has turned auteur by adding two new titles to his resume: director and painter?

First and foremost, you have to trust yourself, not let anyone talk you out of what you want. You have to trust your heart.

When it comes to independent film stalwarts, James Schamus has worked with some of the biggest. For Ed Burns' breakthrough film, The Brothers McMullen, Schamus served as executive producer and he helped to produce that film's follow-up, She's The One.

In his career as an editor, Michael Berenbaum has shown a tendency to collaborate with directors who look to film as something other than a commercial vehicle.

All it takes is a stack of index cards and a ballpoint pen to start your screenplay.

Some of today's most celebrated comedy writers talk about what it takes to be funny-and get paid for it.