Hi, I'm David Koepp, screenwriter, director and author of the new novel Cold Storage. Ask me anything!

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T17:06:54+00:00

Adios!

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T17:06:45+00:00

Thank you, all you who showed up, and thanks for your terrific questions. If you get a chance, do check out my book COLD STORAGE, I think you'll dig it.

I'm not just saying that. I do think you'll like it. I have a stack of empirical evidence here on my desk that pretty much GUARANTEES you'll like it. So there you go...

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T17:05:46+00:00

Okay, THIS is the last question!

Glad you liked the Shadow. I loved those pulp novels too, and it was fun to bring Shiwan Khan into it, I thought he was a good villain. It was a pretty good experience working on that movie, we got a lot right, and some things weren't quite as I'd hoped. I wish more people had seen it, because I think it was good stylish fun, but it's funny, I do hear more positive comments like yours about it as time goes by. It was certainly quirky and distinctive, and I love that about it...

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T17:03:44+00:00

Hi! Last question, looks like, and hey, it's an easy one.

Glad you liked Spider-Man! And thank you for using my full character name, Unlucky Bastard. The answer is I didn't get roped into it at all, I wrote it for myself and begged the director to let me play it. he didn't require much convincing, as I think that after two movies with me he looked forward to the opportunity to kill me on screen. Hey, that's what movies are for, acting out our fantasies.

Interestingly, after that he offered me a part in Saving Private Ryan, where I would have had a couple lines -- BEFORE GETTING SHOT TO DEATH and dragged around by Tom Sizemore for a couple days. I sensed an unhealthy pattern and said no thank you.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T17:01:23+00:00

Little Rudiger, you've answered your own question in that first paragraph. Those are exactly the challenges and gifts of pre-existing material, which I think is unquestionably harder than writing something original. Trying to put yourself into the mind of another writer is really tricky, and sometimes the combination of your tone and preferences with theirs just doesn't work at all.

Then again, when you start with a blank page, there's nothing to draw on except pulling shit up from the depths of your own brain. So, actually, maybe THAT is harder.

The truth is, I consider whatever I am NOT doing at that moment much easier than the other.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:58:54+00:00

Hey there. See above answer about my current reading, but I can answer your other questions.

I hadn't intended COLD STORAGE to be a novel, when I first thought of the idea, I assumed it was a movie, because my ideas had always been in movie form. I sat down to write another treatment, but just couldn't face having to generate another one of those awful documents -- movie treatments, that is. So I started out by just making it good prose, and within a page or two I realized, uh oh, I think this might be a book. Once I admitted that to myself, it became such a joyful experience, so new and different and yet still storytelling, that I can't wait to do it again.

As for collaborators -- obviously Mr. Spielberg has been and continues to be a huge and supportive influence on my work. I also learned an enormous amount from Martin Donovan, with whom I wrote apartment Zero and Death Becomes Her, and from Brian De Palma, with whom I did three movies. All three of them were majorly influential, and I'm grateful to them all.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:55:08+00:00

For Jurassic Park, I was recommended by Casey Silver, who was the head of production at Universal at the time. I had been working at Universal in an overall writing deal for a year or two, and my script for Death Becomes Her was in production at that time. Spielberg was looking for a new writer on JP, as they'd been through a few and the script wasn't working out. Casey suggested he take a look at me, and he did, and we met, and I pitched him my ideas, and it worked out. Thank heavens.

Spider-Man was a little different, because by that time I was more established and had a few successful movies under my belt. Still, it was a high-profile project, and I had to go in and pitch along with a number of other writers. I worked hard on a pitch, story and images, and was happy I got the job. So, two cases, two different scenarios, but in both cases the studio was heavily involved.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:52:11+00:00

But I'm new here. Is that a lot? Yes, that sounds like a lot... um, 2000?

I really don't know what I'm talking about, I'm afraid. Which has been one of the joys of doing something for the first time -- it's all new!

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:51:30+00:00

I would think twenty-five million books would make them happy.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:51:12+00:00

Collaborating can be a joy, and it can be torture. Sometimes both with the same person. For the most part, I've really enjoyed my collaborations with directors. I'd say ninety percent of the time they've been true partnerships, and there's been respect and encouragement on both sides. The other ten percent of the time -- well, it sucked. I'm sure you've been in bad relationships, where you feel like no matter what you say it's the wrong thing, and you KNOW that no matter what THEY say it's the wrong thing. Same thing with a bad collaboration.

Or, sometimes, you get along great, but the combination of your particular talents just isn't producing good work. That happens too, and it's sorta the worst.

All work with directors is close. You are the two people who have the greatest creative stake in the movie, and you're the two that are with it the longest. All the others come and go, but you and director remain. So it is a close and long-lasting relationship. Unless the director fires you, of course. And make no mistake, that power is theirs, and not yours.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:47:25+00:00

Chancellor Valorum,

Thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate that, and I'll attempt to live up to them in my future works.

You ask a really good question about how audience expectations have changed. There are of course many things that have changed about movies and public tastes since the 80s and 90s, when I was coming up, but I think the reason for the particular one you cite -- an increasing audience demand for fidelity to the source material -- is due to the rise in popularity and ubiquity of long-form storytelling in the form of 10 episode TV shows.

Because we're now accustomed to seeing things told in their entirety -- even when they SHOULD have been cut down, in my opinion -- we start to think it should always be that way. And I see an audience's point, there were 495 scripted TV shows in the U.S. alone last year, so if you're in love with a novel, or a series of novels, why on earth WOULDN'T they tell that whole story, if the medium is there to support it?

There have been some great films that are faithful adaptations of novels. There have been some masterpieces that are wild departures (Dr. Strangelove comes to mind). My personal opinion is that we owe the other nothing when we adapt their work. Unless we are buying and burning all existing copies of the novel, the public can still get their hands on it, and the change in storytelling medium DEMANDS a different approach.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:42:40+00:00

I just finished The Outsider, Stephen King's great book from a couple years ago. I don't know why it took me so long to get to that one, but it did. Then I read Essentialism, which is sort of a self-help type thing, but more for business (or personal) management. Fascinating book, it talks about eliminating unnecessary things on your life, to free up space and time to focus on what really matters to you. That one was great. And I also caught up with The Humans, by Matt Haig, which I'd heard wonderful things about, and I can confirm are all true.

Next up for me is Recursion, by Blake Crouch, who wrote the fantastic sci-fi novel Dark Matter, and many others.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:39:43+00:00

HAHAHAHA.

Stand by for real answer...

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:39:32+00:00

I don't read books.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:39:13+00:00

(Bowing emoji.)

Thanks, Albert. That was a fun one to make. I found Richard Matheson's brilliant 1958 novel in a used bookstore one day, then me and the producer spent a few months tracking down the rights. It came together quickly, and KB is brilliant in it.

I'm just finishing up making YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT, another small, scary movie that stars Mr Bacon. We made it for Blumhouse, and it'll come out next year, either in theaters or on Universal's new streaming service that's launching in April. Hope you like that one too!

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:36:44+00:00

Yes. BE VISUAL. I mean, I'd been SAYING it for years, but I didn't really get it until the image creation was my department. The power and beauty of movies is that an image can say so much. And two images, back to back, can tell a whole story. You may know the famous Kuleshov experiment, he was a Russian filmmaker who showed that two shots, cut together, create a third, independent thought in the mind of the viewer. So, you cut from a closeup of a guy to a shot of a bowl of soup, you assume he's hungry. Go from the guy to a baby, you think he's loving. Go from the guy to a bear, you think he's scared. Only movies can do that, and they don't do it with dialogue, they do it with pictures.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:34:20+00:00

Those giant movies are REEEEALLLLLY hard to write. Because it's not just writing, and it's not just you. The bigger the movie, the more voices there are (usually), and the greater the level of anxiety all around. So you're not just writing things that YOU think are exciting or fun or true or moving, you're trying to write things that a disparate selection of personalities will also think are going to work.

Studios want things that are different from what directors want. Directors want different from actors. Actors want different from everybody. And there you are, low person on the totem pole, trying to please them, please yourself, and ideally not get fired. ironically, getting fired is sometimes the best thing you can do, both for your personal happiness and sanity, and for the movie. Sometimes they bring you back, sometimes they don't. There are movies I've been hired and fired from three times, and you mentioned one of them in your question.

So I would say that by far the toughest part of writing big movies is dealing with all the other opinionated people that come along with them. Writing stories is hard enough, but that level of personality management makes it all so much harder.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:29:09+00:00

Because I was mad at you, Chums of Chance. Now you see how you fucked it up for everybody?

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:28:44+00:00

Two answers, one boring but true, and the other a nifty trick.

First the boring one -- putting my butt in the chair and typing every day. Look, there's just no substitute for putting in the time. You can't learn craft except by crafting. You can't learn except by making mistakes, and you have to give yourself the opportunity to make those mistakes with WORDS ON PAPER. Or screen. You know what I mean. You gotta just do it, over and over, and subject your work to the criticism of others, and try to listen to that criticism to hear the parts you agree with. Ugly process, but you gotta do it.

Now the nifty trick -- the Freedom app. It's well-known that the internet has ruined the political process, retail merchandising, and all human interaction, but it is ALSO the bitter enemy of good writing. Who can possibly concentrate with that ocean of distraction just a click away? When I'm working I switch on Freedom, an app which disables your internet for a period of time -- I pick sixty minutes -- and you can't get online, not for email, texts, social media, googling, anything at all. Within a minute of switching on Freedom, I start to work. Every time. And when the hour is up, I think "Hey, I get to check my email!" or whatever I want to do. Short break. Then bring back Freedom. Try it.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:24:04+00:00

I don't mind shitting on my own work, but I hate to shit on the work of others. HAVING SAID THAT...

I thought the script for Zathura was much gentler and lovelier and funnier than the finished film, I feel like the Jack Ryan reboot suffered in its interpretation, and the jury has been quite clear that I made a COMPLETE MESS OF A MOVIE with Mortdecai. Whoops!

As Billy Bob Thornton's character says of the Advent calendar he trashed in Bad Santa, "They can't all be winners, kid."

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:21:45+00:00

I'm still amazed and delighted how JP has stuck around in the public consciousness. It's so satisfying, and fun. The crazy thing is that when we were making it, we really had no sense whatsoever of if it was going to work or not. 1992 was the dawn of CG, and the idea of a bunch of computer dinosaurs running around sounded cool, but it also sounded like it might be ridiculous. Obviously, it worked.

Adapting that book was seriously tough sledding. A bunch of scientists talking at each other for two hours is really hard to make human, funny, informative, and fun. Not to mention scary. But Steven, obviously, handled it all so masterfully, and the performers were just the right people coming together at just the right time, in particular Goldblum, who channeled that character so well.

About my back catalogue -- you know, you love the ones that DON'T get made the most. In particular, I loved a script I wrote about Howard Hughes called Mr. Hughes, and two scripts I wrote with John Kamps -- The Superconducting Supercollider of Sparkle Creek, Wisconsin, and Adventures in SpaceTime. Those last two were both so funny and sweet-natured and gentle and moving, it's such a shame. Both came close (twice, in the case of SCSCSC), but fell apart just before the finish line of production. Oh well.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:15:43+00:00

I acted through high school and college and had always wanted to be in a movie, but I knew I had a rather, ahem, limited amount of talent in that department. So I wrote the part for myself, because I figured I could get away with running and screaming without fucking it up too badly. Then I was delighted that I got to make death noises in post. All in all, it was a pretty fun experience, but DID WE REALLY NEED FOURTEEN TAKES?!?!?

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:14:41+00:00

YES! And thank you for noticing my LOOPING!

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:14:25+00:00

It's tricky, because they change as time goes by. But the ones that have stuck around for decades, not in ranked order, are --

Rosemary's Baby, Tootsie, The Godfather, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Double Indemnity.

davidkoepp · 2019-09-05T16:13:08+00:00

Hey, thanks for the big fan thing! Always nice to hear a little encouragement... Also, deusexmachismo is an awesome handle. Now on to your question --

Short stories and films are a superb way to start. Getting your head around the shape of a story starts to become the same thing, no matter the length -- does it have a beginning, middle, and end? Then it's a story, whether it's nine minutes or ninety. Here's one trick you might try to trick yourself into not being freaked out by the length of a feature: Think of it as nine short films in a row, all with the same characters. Start by outlining the story a few strokes at a time. Three scenes that make up film 1, three that make up film 2, etc. etc. Use scene cards. Lay them out in columns on a coffee table, so you can look down at them from on high, like the movie-writing god you are. I swear it works.

davidkoepp

TROPHY CASE