"I didn't think I'd be a good fit as a writer if they were going to do a PG version of the story. That's not where my strength lies, so the great thing is that the version Francis [Lawrence, the director] wanted to make was the version I wanted to write. A week later, we had a meeting with Lionsgate, we pitched the project, and they said, let's do it. So, it all happened very fast. It's really not common how smooth that process went," says screenwriter JT Mollner about sharing a clear vision with the film's director for making The Long Walk.

On today's episode, we chat with JT Mollner best known for his movie Strange Darling (2023), told in six non-linear chapters, and now The Long Walk. We talk about the challenge and thrill of adapting Stephen King considering Mollner grew up mesmerized by Stephen King's books. He even read Carrie in second grade – a transgression that landed him in the principal's office for possessing obscene material. Mollner also shares a birthday with King so it seems like it was all meant to be.

Mollner also shares that he made a decision early in the writing of the screenplay not to stray too far from Stephen King's beloved novel.

"I wanted the focus of the movie to be the emotions, and the relationships. And so Francis and I talked about it, and instead of updating it completely, we decided to keep it aesthetically, sort of in the same place where the book was written. We wanted to be very, very faithful to the DNA, however, maybe in a deviated version of reality, where our country had gone in a very different direction at some point," he says.

Mollner also talks about growing up in the family business of haunted houses and why he hasn't been interested in making a horror film – yet.

To hear more, listen to the podcast.

"I love adaptations. The beauty of adaptation, especially a classic, like Shakespeare and Chekhov or Ibsen, they're such a gift because they give you this beautiful framework, and it's almost like they're begging you to take it and make it your own," says writer/director Nia DaCosta about adapting Henrik Ibsen's 1891 play Hedda Gabler into her new film Hedda.

Set in the 1950s, the movie stars Tessa Thompson in the lead role, Imogen Poots as Thea, and reimagines the character Eilert Lovborg as a queer woman (now Eileen), played by Nina Hoss.

We chat with Nia DaCosta about her journey to becoming a filmmaker, genre hopping into horror with Candyman and the upcoming 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. She even made the superhero movie The Marvels. We also talk about the challenges of tackling the complicated, often cruel character of Hedda in the new film.

"When I read the play [Hedda Gabler]," says DaCosta, "I'm like, this woman is hilarious! She's absolutely absurd. In the play, she's so verbose roaming around this sitting room, yelling at everyone who comes in. I wanted to replicate that, but more through action. And then there's the empathy part of it. To me, her tragedy is that she will never know herself. It's a life's work to understand and know ourselves, our emotional world. I think because she is so cruel, because she is so unhappy, because she has made these decisions that have trapped herself in this life – that to me is really sad. But I don't want people to forgive her for what she's done, or to excuse it."

DaCosta also shares her advice on adapting someone else's story. "I think you have to know why you want to do it, and what it is you want to use the work to say. To let that 'why' sort of guide your pen. That's my convoluted way of saying trust your gut."

If you've been thinking about adapting a classic play into a modern movie, you don't want to miss this podcast.

"As you do draft after draft, it becomes shorter and rendered down. And [Keanu Reeves and I] would go through scenes going, 'Can people say less? Can the action be tighter? Can the action sequence be shorter?' The action is an extension of the hero's journey and if you don't give a sh*t about the character, it doesn't matter how great your action is," says Derek Kolstad about his writing process with actor Keanu Reeves when they worked on the script that would become John Wick and spark an entire franchise.

On today's episode, we speak with screenwriter Kolstad about his masterful John Wick action movies and his new animated TV show, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Deathwatch based on the popular video game.

Kolstad also shares his surprising advice for coming up with action scenes that feel fresh and inventive by going back to the silent era. "Look at Buster Keaton. Harold Lloyd, and Fatty Arbuckle, the Keystone Cops. Look at how those sequences were done, and then there's Asian cinema, you know? What I love about the things that I've been a part of is there's always this sense of humor at play. Nothing's so dark and so bleak that you're not enjoying it."

To hear more, listen to the podcast.