Charlie Vignola and I are continuing our YouTube interview series—which I know I need to get set up as an audio-only podcast, forgive me.
We talked to screenwriter and director Jonathan W. Stokes, whose scripts I have enjoyed for some time (he has had five on the annual Black List).
He recently wrote and directed a very sharp hostage thriller called Wildcat, starring the fabulous Georgina Campbell. It does not seem to be on any major streaming services, so I rented it on DirecTV, and I’m glad I did. Very well designed and acted.
Be aware, it’s a “man in a can” (er, a woman in a can) premise—it’s all set in one room. But as we discuss in the video above, “art thrives on restrictions” (Nick Meyer’s line).
Jonathan also created his own web series about screenwriting, which is excellent: “Raising the Stakes.” Follow this first episode to the other entries:
Also last week, due to a scheduling matter we doubled up, talking to manager Peter Katz of Story Driven, which you can see here:
Peter loves the genre world—his brother is filmmaker E.L. Katz—and it was fun to go down memory lane about the rituals of being a cineaste (the days of VHS, and so forth).
I know it’s asking a lot for anybody to watch three hours of talking heads. Charlie and I are doing these because they’re fun, and we enjoy meeting people—and we’re very grateful to the guests who have joined us.
So if you can’t stand our show, rest assured, there’s more to come!