Screenwriter/Director, Stuart Beattie, joins me in Episode 10 to discuss his journey from a little Australian film, JOEY, to big Hollywood movies like PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and COLLATERAL, then back on home soil with AUSTRALIA, TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGAN and I, FRANKENSTEIN.
Stuart grew up in Australia and studied at Charles Stuart University, from where he did a college exchange to Oregon State University, USA. He then moved to Los Angeles in 1992, supporting himself by day at Taco Bell as he studied screenwriting by night at UCLA Extension. After he won UCLA’s Diane Thomas Screenwriting Award, Beattie signed with a Hollywood literary agent. And so began his Hollywood ride…
In particular, we chat about:
- Working at Taco Bell, flipping burgers and working at a ‘bottle-o’ while studying screenwriting
- Connecting with the Aussie Mafia in Los Angeles
- Writing a feature screenplay in 4 weeks
- Breaking into Hollywood after writing the Australian films, JOEY and KICK
- The inspiration behind COLLATERAL
- Avoiding writer’s block
- How to avoid being typecast in a particular genre
- Dealing with notes about your script
- Making the step from writing to directing with TOMORROW, WHEN THE WAR BEGAN
- What to do, and not to do, as a director
- Making a ‘Hollywood movie’ in Australia
- What Stuart would do, and not do, if he had his time again
LINKS
- Stuart Beattie on IMDb
- Stuart Beattie on Twitter
- Joey on iTunes
- Joey on IMDb
- Kick on IMDb
- Collateral on IMDb
- Tomorrow, When the War Began on IMDb
- Tomorrow, When the War Began on iTunes
- I, Frankenstein on IMDb
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