In Hollywood these days, it sometimes seems easier to find an actor who’ll admit to having had plastic surgery than it is to find an original idea for a movie. Case in point: Legendary horror director John Carpenter.

When I was 21 and under the influence of books like James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain, Jack Kerouac’s The Subterraneans and Larry McMurtry’s All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, I started writing a wildly autobiographical piece of fiction about my experiences upon arriving in New York. I wanted to write about trying to “make it” as an actor and centered the story on a soul-crushing, identity-defining encounter with first love.

After sharpening her multi-tasking skills with Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy is writing, directing, producing, editing, scoring and starring in her own take on cross-cultural romance with 2 Days in Paris.

From soundless filming to nausea on the set, Jeff Garlin relives the experience of writing, directing and starring in his directorial debut, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.

Selling a spec script is no easy task. Selling a spec script about a real-life serial killer who was never caught is slightly harder. So how did writer James Vanderbilt manage to do just that with Zodiac? By writing a cohesive, suspenseful and surprisingly humorous screenplay about one of the most fascinating manhunts in U.S history. (It didn't hurt to have David Fincher attached to direct.)

There are a lot of smart and intelligent people working in this business who are excited to make challenging films.

The budget doesn't matter. $5,000 or $50 million, there's always someone to tell you "there's not enough money."

Most screenwriters will tell you they feel a personal connection to the scripts they write, but David Paterson has a whole other layer of attachment. His most recent effort, Bridge to Terabithia, is based on the Newbery Medal-winning novel written by his mother, Katherine.

Only a madman would sit down to write a script believing that it will one day become a successful movie. Be a madman. As the Book of the Samurai notes, "Nothing great was ever accomplished through common sense. One must become insane and desperate."

For a screenwriter, there's no greater risk than throwing in the towel of a life of secure employment and handing yourself over to the writing trade. And there's no greater payoff than writing a hit movie the first time out. As the awards season kicks off, MM chatted with Little Miss Sunshine scribe Michael Arndt about risking it all for Hollywood.

Don't ever let them see you panic or lose your composure.

With a hit movie just barely out of theaters, it's hard to believe Brad Gann's second feature film is already in the can. But as his script for Invincible, starring Mark Wahlberg and Greg Kinnear, was being shot in Philadelphia, Gann was already busy on the set of the 24-day shoot for Black Irish, a movie he wrote, produced and directed.

Be yourself. If you come as somebody else, one day you'll forget who that is, and you'll look a fool.

Jeremy Brock has a knack for depicting the intimate lives of the very famous. Whether it's a grieving Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown or the infamous dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, Brock manages to create complex, larger-than-life characters who are still somehow relatable. But Brock has more than just one trick up his sleeve, as the diversity of his projects attests. In addition to The Last King of Scotland, which is already attracting a healthy amount of Oscar buzz, Brock's first outing as a director, Driving Lessons, hit theaters this month.

Never, ever, give anyone-friend, foe,and especially a professional-a script whose three digit page count has the middle numeral of "three." "One" is preferable. "Two" only if necessary. "Four" or higher means you should not quit your day job.

For writer Steven Peros, overnight success has been a long
time coming. Though he thought he was "on his way" when his
first original screenplay was optioned shortly after his graduation
from NYU, the movie wasn't made. Unlike many neophytes, though,
Peros believed in his talent enough to persevere, and he survived
for a dozen years working as a reader for William Morris and
landing "sporadic, small-change writing gigs." Finally, his
script for The Cat's Meow was brought to the project's
ideal director, Peter Bogdanovich, and the rest was history.

When you're a director embarking on your very first project, it might seem intimidating to have your work backed by one of the world's top fashion magazines. But this is just how Julia Stiles found herself both writing and directing the short film Raving, which premiered at this year's Tribeca Film Festival in April and aired on The Sundance Channel in May.

I think a major sin in screenwriting is not listening to your critics. However dumb they may seem to you, however brutal their criticism, remember that you are in a room with five people, and if you don't get it right there, you're going to end up out in the world with thousands of people and it doesn't get any better. So listen because they are trying to make it better, however wrong-headed their decisions may be. I think that young writers find criticism is hard because it's very personal, but it's crucial. It's called collaboration; it comes in the form of notes and sometime they're hard. Experience teaches you to take it less personally.

English screenwriter Jeremy Brock had it coming. After cutting his teeth as a writer in British television for over a dozen years, he vaulted into feature writing when Miramax saw gold in his original script, Mrs. Brown. With Charlotte Gray -- his second feature -- in release, Jeremy Brock has returned to the big screen with another complex and fiery heroine. In an interview with MM, Brock discusses his beginnings in the industry, his ways of working and what it takes to create the kinds of characters that stay in your memory long after a movie's over.

Writing with a sibling is a unique collaboration. Because we share similar backgrounds and experiences, there is a kind of unspoken communication between us that can save time.

Five years after their triumph at Sundance with Clockwatchers, sisters Jill and Karen Sprecher have re-emerged with 13 Conversations About One Thing, an extraordinary film that explores the dramatic impact strangers can have on one another.

I didn't realize until years later that my college experience was not like others. SUNY Purchase at least in the era that I attended was a haven for weirdo artists and misfits. It was originally conceived as a state university for the arts, so freaks were the normal people, no frat boys or rich brats. It was a very healthy place to be in that regard. And there's a pretty vast network of Purchase mafia that continue to work together, live together, drink together...

Writer-Director Ilya Chaiken plunged into her first independent
feature, Margarita Happy Hour, even before she found
financing. Set within the community of downtown artists now
relocated to Brooklyn, Margarita Happy Hour is a richly
detailed, funny and unsparing glimpse at motherhood on the
fringe. Chaiken, a single mom herself, first received attention
for her acclaimed short film, The Actress, a festival
favorite later broadcast on PBS.

I've always been a bit nervous about dealing with actors and that relationship. I always feel I don't know the dialogue or the language you speak with actors. I've never rehearsed, so I'm pretty much winging it on-set. Everything happens right there and then, and it's always risky. More money would mean more time and it would mean spending more time with the actors.

Gary Burns, a writer-director from Calgary, Canada, has created
three features in six years. His first, The Suburbanators
was a critical success; his second, Kitchen Party,
was called "the funniest, nastiest comedy of manners to come
down the pike in months" by The New York Times. His
latest feature, waydowntown, a smart satire on corporate
life and modern human existence, was the winner of the Best
Canadian Feature at the Toronto Film Festival in 2001 and
is currently playing in theaters throughout America. Here
Burns discusses the challenges of being a writer-director
and the pleasures involved with dreaming up stories for a
living.

I think film is more like a canvas, a painting, and you make it alive with flesh and blood characters. You have to have a particular vision; a film has to have a certain look to it, and you have to create that look. All of the various components contribute to that painting, whether you are talking about the production designer, the actors, the locations, the music. All of this adds to the complete canvas. And if one portion is weak then the canvas in not complete. These things cannot be compromised on. If there are money restrictions or whatever then you go and steal the money from somewhere else. These things reflect in your work so you can't compromise on them.

One half of Merchant Ivory Films, a company associated with
some of the most literate, laced-up, quality cinema of the
last 20 years, Ismail Merchant has built a reputation as one
of the most successful producers in film today. His recent
forays behind the camera now include The Mystic Masseur
(opening nationwide next month) adapted from the novel by
V.S. Nipul. The main character shares Merchant's own seemingly
boundless energy—and his talent for reinventing and redefining
himself.

Be simple with what you tell them. Don't spend too much time explaining. It's a lot like sports. In sports, if you ask somebody to do something that they know how to do that's good for them, they will often do it and do it brilliantly. And if you asked them to do something they don't know how to do then they suffer, and it will be awkward. One of the most important things in working with actors is to learn what they are and what they do naturally and work with that; go with that; use that.

Henry Bean has put himself in the hot seat. A successful
scribe for many years, he has moved into the director's chair
on his new picture, The Believer. Shot on Super 16mm
for $1.5 million and seen earlier this year on Showtime, The
Believer (now in theatrical release) has generated more
than its share of praise and controversy.

Try to have a little fun along the way in the process because life is very short. And it's very difficult to be in the film business-or any artistic business, whether it's music or painting or anything like that-and I'm just trying to have a little fun.

2001 proved an unbelievable year for Milo Addica: six
years after co-writing the script for Monster's Ball,
the writer/actor witnessed the enormous success of a film
that almost never was. With several new projects on his plate,
including one for Steven Soderbergh's Section Eight and another
for Imagine Entertainment, Addica opens up about the writing
process and the power of perseverance.

Never stand in doorways.

If you don't recognize writer Coleman Hough's
name from her equal billing with Steven Soderbergh's on the
poster for the powerhouse director's new film Full Frontal,
it's because this is her first produced screenplay. Here Coleman
talks with MM about working with Steven Soderbergh
and how her writing is always "torn from the pages of
her life."

Don't be delicate and don't be precious with the original story. Infuse yourself into the work; take it, own it and make it yours. Never worry what the writer of the original story will think or you will be blocked.

She's no stranger to the literary world. A writing professor
at Duke University and a renowned playwright, Erin Cressida
Wilson's work has been performed at theaters around the
globe. Her first foray into the realm of screenwriting has
proven successful as well. Based on the short story by Mary
Gaitskill, Secretary-directed by Steven Shainberg and
starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader-has gained wide
acclaim since its 2002 Sundance premiere.