Save your money. Especially if you want to make films that are personal, or in any way 'difficult' or uncommercial, you will go through years where your income is little or nothing. It's a big temptation for young filmmakers when they get their first check to go buy that Porsche. Don't. $100,000 may seem like a lot of money. But what if you have to live on it for three or four years?

Hollywood screenwriting isn't just about writing. It's about being able to listen to the desires of the director, the actors, the producers, the studio and myself--and being able to meet all of our needs simultaneously. In most situations, if you don't give up, a story can meet everyone's needs.

As an actor, Keith Gordon made a splash when he portrayed a young man homicidally in love with his car in John Carpenter’s Christine. Gordon’s finest moments, though, have been behind the camera. He’s made a niche for himself by adapting challenging novels and proving their stories could become compelling cinema.

For an aspiring screenwriter, finding your first big break is not just about being in the right place at the right time--it's about being willing to accept $150 for all your hard work. That's the total sum that moviemaker James Gunn received for penning the script to Tromeo & Juliet. But times have changed for Gunn. With two films in release, Scooby-Doo 2 and Dawn of the Dead, Gunn chats with us about escaping categorization and the need to bitch-slap Matthew Lillard.

Paul F. Ryan may not yet be a household
name. But this
September, he'll
be living
the dream of every independent moviemaker when his debut feature, Home Room,
begins its nationwide theatrical run through DEJ Productions, the distribution
arm of Blockbuster. Here, Ryan speaks with MM about the challenges
of working
with an extremely sensitive subject line and what it's like to wear the simultaneous
hats of writer, director,
producer and editor.

I work on a laptop, so when I'm in writing mode, I can be anywhere at all and still put in a good day's work.

If a character is in a hurry, what kind of hurry is she in? God, of course, is in the details, but the devil's there too. I think a lot of directors get very impatient with actors and you see movies where you know the choices were generic.

What’s a first-timer supposed to do when all he’s got to show for himself is a great idea and a burning desire to make movies? If you’re Roy Finch, writer-director of Wake, you assemble a stellar cast of actors, grab a digital camera, fly off to the coast of Maine and make your dream happen!

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).

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.

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.

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 Love and a .45, writer-director Carty Talkington has created a stylized, darkly comedic journey through the contemporary American landscape of murder, media, music, controlled substances and unbridled love. Fast-paced and infused with a refreshingly twisted take on pop culture, the film lures the viewer in with its peculiar charm before springing a plot and tone shift that at once stuns and captivates. Filled with unexpected strong performances and a rollicking musicality that often runs counterpoint to the dramatic mood, the film hardly plays like a directorial debut.