Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz have write two of the summer ’s bad flick , Thor and X - man : First Class . They ’re tight becoming the go - to author for revitalize beloved science - fabrication characters . We spill the beans to them about what they ’ve learned so far .
Miller and Stentz made their bones write for Andromeda and Twilight Zone , then went on to compose for Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles . ( Including the nuclear Cuban sandwich two - parter . ) And then they wrote four of the solid , most mythology - heavy episodes of Fringe . ( Including “ strawberry - season demise . ” )
How did save for John Connor and Walter Bishop prepare them to tackle Charles Xavier and Loki ? And will we ever see their Richard Feynman risky venture pic ? Find out below .
You guys had some pretty diverging careers before you father into written material for television and movies . Schoolteacher , consultant to the Navy , journalist … what made you both need to be author instead ? What did you learn from those other job that you ’re capable to apply in your authorship fizgig ?
Miller : I ’ve always wanted to be a author . My mother severalize me I used to cheat around the kitchen when I was three years old , prescribe stories to her . I was manifestly the subject of her doctoral dissertation on teaching interpretation and writing , so she actually sit down and take the command . It was a picayune like get an assistant who also made me PB&J and changed my diapers . That costs you extra in today ’s workplace environs .
As for the want to tell apart stories … it ’s always been with me . Always . As a minor , it was largely regurgitation of news report I have sex . Now , with THOR and X - MEN : FIRST CLASS , it ’s largely regurgitation of floor I eff as a fry . Make of that what you will .
My early and very eclectic work experience had an tremendous influence on who I am as a writer . Certainly the technical knowledge can be accidentally utilitarian — the thymine : SCC 2 - parter is a heavy example , and in some sense so are all of the sequence with a foot in the future ala “ Goodbye to All That ” — but the tangible importance is a fiddling more elusive than that .
First , we feel bless to have had real life experiences . I think the great impuissance of many young writer is that they come to LA , graduate from USC or wherever , and straightaway jump off into TV and feature . They do n’t have anything to say , generally , because they do n’t have anything to talk about except that thing they ’ve all done . The dragon swallows it ’s own tail , to some degree . Maybe it ’s better to say the shabu cream cone solve itself . That ’s a substantial job . For me , I care to think that I ’m get at actual emotion and personal history when I write almost anything . Whether it ’s ANDROMEDA ’S Dylan Hunt in cold blood prosecute an enemy spaceship in our very first produce credit , “ D Minus Zero ” or Agent Coulson check in something akin to wonder and anger as Thor kicks the shit out of his agentive role , I find as though I know those guys . I ’ve met them . I ’m not pulling that clobber out of my ass . I ’m not saying no one else could write that , but I can say no one else would save it quite the same elbow room we did because our character are coming from someplace real number .
That ’s the emotional piece of music . The noetic pieces are smaller but add up . Being a teacher taught me how to manage my time , how to manage other hoi polloi ’s time , how to keep a grouping of multitude on target and how to impart information to an audience who ’d rather be doing anything else . Teaching English and Creative written material meant I spent a lot of time deconstructing and reconstructing my own mind of how an audience experiences text ( school text can also mean visual storytelling ) and how writer take estimate through text . The transitive power of imaging and idea arrive at home for me in a big room .
For case , I taught Jonathan Livingston Seagull to my 8th grader . One twenty-four hour period toward the oddment of the shoal year , I was having an argument with one of the other teachers in my section as to whether or not we should buy a year coif and admit it in the syllabus . Her position — and she is a peachy teacher , by the way — was that the book was too complex for the kids to really get at it . As we were talking , one of my nipper passed the room so I call him in . The exchange went something like this :
ME : “ Michael , what is happiness ? ”
MICHAEL : “ Happiness is pure speed , Mr. Miller . ”
ME : “ And what is perfect speed ? ”
MICHAEL : “ Perfect speed is being there , Mr. Miller . ”
ME : “ Okay . Michael . If that ’s straight … what is felicity ? ”
MICHAEL : “ Mr. Miller … felicity is being there . ”
As a instructor , I was insufferably pleased with myself . As a writer , I realized how the audience by its nature will plug into what is presented to them . My Book of Job as a author is to give them what they need to make the connections that matter . It ’s all existential . You ca n’t contend an interview into believe your story — they will read it , hear it , or see it and they will decide what it intend . It ’s something I arrive back to a lot when talking to execs , manufacturer or other writers — what ’s the consultation ’s experience of this film ? How does what they ’ve seen inform what they ’re seeing now ? context of use is king .
My work for the Navy had another interesting core . In much the same way that the originative side of my brainpower helped me solve problems by identifying new approaches , build analytical muscle really helped me with rewrite and think through the encroachment of report or script change . Sometimes the surd part of addressing a note or break a story is mentally meet out the “ what happens next ” of it , or seeing how a change here has an unexpected encroachment ( for good or sick ) elsewhere . It also give me an insight into yield , in that I can do breakdown in my headway and await at making television as a clientele process . Early on in our ANDROMEDA careers , I actually used my occupation analysis experience to unwrap down an episode we ’d written and pull through it from the line producer ’s ax . The line producer was pissed , but fuck it . I had darling to protect .
Stentz : Unlike Ash , I did n’t always know I wanted to be a screenwriter . I always want to do something creative with my aliveness , but I ca n’t pull , paint or sculpt , I ’m nigh timbre deaf ( unlike my pal who ’s a brilliant musician ) , and I have two remaining foot . But I always seemed to be okay at writing , so that ’s what I focused my energies on and draw expiation from . I ’ve always loved motion-picture show , and screenwriting attracted me because it forced me out of my puff zona of writing prose story that were long on atm and internal monologues and short on story and dialog . I took a course of instruction in it in college from the great novelist Ron Hansen ( The Assassination of Jesse James ) and then was lucky to be mentor through my former 20s by a great writer named Terrence McNally — not the dramatist , but the guy who co - wrote Earth lady friend Are Easy , which actually impressed me more !
And just to pick up on what Ash tell , I think it ’s priceless to have actually been out in the world and lived a lifetime for a spot before beginning one ’s professional writing career . Nearly all of the writer I look up to had done other things with their liveliness that inform their writing , from Dashiell Hammett ’s meter as a Pinkerton agent to Gene Roddenberry ’s experience as a original and an LAPD ship’s officer . In my case , I was trying to crack the screenwriting matter even while I was doing other things in my life , from being an Earth First ! activist in the northerly California redwood forests to bumming around the world attempt to cypher out my life to working as a journalist for a variety of publications , from The Economist and Entertainment Weekly to center and Poultry ( do n’t express joy , swop journalism pay the bills for many a writer ! ) .
In particular , the experience in news media of diving into a subject and intensively researching it until you become if not an expert at least someone who can take hold an intelligent conversation with the expert carry over into screenwriting . So did getting out in the world and talking to people from all walks of life and amaze a feel for their voices , the cadences of their talks . I ’m by nature a very shy person , so journalism really squeeze me to issue forth out of my shell and engage with the world in a way that render fuel for my creative engine .
I ’ve always been curious about the “ written material spouse ” thing . How do you resolve on a farseeing - term quislingism like that ? Were you just assign to work on “ D Minus Zero ” together , or did you make up one’s mind to work together on it ?
Miller : You resolve to cooperate as partners in the short - term . The long - full term happen through winner . By that I do n’t mean ( necessarily ) life history or financial success , but creative success . My experience with Zack has been not bad and rewarding since the first Voyager pitch we put together . That keeps the partnership alive .
Stentz : We meet on the cyberspace — Usenet ! — back in the 1990s , indicate about Star Trek during the heavy Deep Space Nine / Babylon Five wars of the mid-90s . ( For the record , we ’re both Niners through and through ) We started an email commensurateness , discover we were both aspiring screenwriter , D&D player , and all around nerds , and decided to give the quislingism thing a whirl . We wrote two and a half characteristic screenplays together and pitched Star Trek : Voyager three or four times before ever meeting in somebody or even go steady a pic of each other . Only when Robert offered us a line of work on Andromeda and Ash fly out and inhabit in our guest way for a calendar month while his wife moved them out from Virginia did we spend any time together in the same elbow room .
Miller : “ D Minus Zero ” was a story we tilt together . In fact , we earlier pitched seven stories to Robert . He essentially bought five in the room , and assign us that one . Over the course of the show , we got to write everything we vend to him in our very first sitting .
How do you formalize the “ written material spouse ” relationship ? How does it operate in exercise ?
Miller : In a technical signified , it ’s formalized by contract bridge every time we accept a new gig . Both of our names are on the same objet d’art of paper . The partnership itself is n’t formalize other than the rules we set down for ourselves very early on . There are two : first , the story is boss . catamenia . That ’s the original we serve . secondly , nothing is treasured . One author proposes , the other disposes . Those rules have worked for a decade now and over time have helped us become better writer and better collaborator .
How was the Andromeda writers way different from Fringe or T : SCC ? What did you learn from working with an experient script like Robert Hewitt Wolfe ? How did you both get to be on display board Andromeda from so early on in the serial publication ?
Miller : We ’ve work on four shows , for five different showrunners or showrunner teams . In club , Robert Wolfe , Bob Engels , Ira Behr ( The Twilight Zone ) , Josh Friedman and John Wirth , and Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman . Each of those room has been different .
Robert had an enormous influence on us as writer in ecumenical and as television author / producer . I ’d say he plausibly had the biggest influence overall . To some degree , he wander because we walked onto that show with an encyclopaedic cognition of everything he ’d ever write , intermit down such that we knew a priori how he understood this unusual thing we call “ story ” . As writers , Robert really shaped our sentiency of structure . That ’s likely his bully military posture — he understands story anatomical structure as well or better than any writer I ’ve ever met . It was really the gross first Book of Job for us in that sense .
Robert also ran a very classless elbow room , which is not always the case but should be . We were stave writer with no credits under our belts , but Robert treated us no differently than he treat the “ senior ” author / producers on that show . We were given a tangible voice on the show , and a tangible place at the mesa . He crusade up and protect down . He did n’t obscure us from Tribune , he put us out there . He invited our opinions on dailies and stinger . He was generous to a fault , and In his mind , ANDROMEDA was our plastic film shoal .
Bob Engels ( who descend from SEAQUEST DSV and TWIN PEAKS ) was a totally unlike quat . Totally different management stylus . When we conform to Bob , we were two seasons in and we knew that show better than anyone live . We ’d write something on the ordering of 12 - 14 episode depending on how you were keep score . That was nigh a third of the episodes . He did n’t start the same sort of room as Robert , but in retrospect it was really in effect too . We learned a band of great shit from Bob . For example , “ the love bomb ” is when you deluge your White House with newspaper publisher — story mind , treatment , drafts , etc . So much they ca n’t keep up . He also taught us the best , most peaceful - aggressive showrunner illusion in the cosmos , which is to plow a note in one draft and slowly change it back to the mode you care it as you get toward actual yield . Bob used to say , “ Do you hate it yet ? ” and when the result was “ yes ” , you knew you were done addressing notes and it was time to push back . He also liked to have happy time of day on Fridays , so that kind of reign .
Ira ran his way very likewise to Robert , which is to be expected give that Robert was Ira ’s committal to writing partner on DS9 and ignore his tooth as a writer / producer in that room . That said , the dusk geographical zone room often had to track down itself because output on that show was insane . Four days of prep , four days to dissipate , a different show every eight Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . The discipline Robert taught us too soon on was very useful there .
The tetraiodothyronine : SCC experience was dissimilar and awful . It was another example where we come about on to a show at exactly the right here and now in our lives and vocation . Josh Friedman had never run a show before , or worked on a stave . He had no cue how it work . But he knows writers , and he respects writers . He would only rent writers he consider had a real voice , which is an incredibly egoless thing for him to do . It speaks to his confidence as a creator , and also probably his secret agendum just to have people to shoot the shit with all day . If we learn anatomical structure from Robert , Josh really taught us the power of film . On ANDROMEDA , we constrict as much secret plan as we could into the smallest space uncommitted ; Josh was Mr. Low Incident . I suddenly agnize how much could be conveyed in absolute muteness , by the correct actor or the right icon . I teach to eff that muteness and the stillness that informed that show , like standing in a breeze on a summertime ’s day with your eye close and your weapon out . That ’s what drop a line T : SCC was like . The actual break of story involved lot of dust - ups with writers I adore , and plenteous amounts of sushi and Malva sylvestris photographic plate . But the writing of it ? The experience of it ? Like being a child in the best potential way .
For his part , John Wirth consume everyone to school on how to keep the train moving . The man was require to herd cats , and he did . It was an unbelievable managerial feat . He was also generous in the means Robert was generous , both personally and professionally . When you screwed up , he let you know and he gave you way to doctor it . When you did well , he permit you have it away . When we get the THOR spear during the back one-half of 2nd season , no one was more supportive than JW ( which is what everyone send for him ) . He ’s just been enormously supportive of us , period . I ’d incline through a brick rampart for that homo – any author who ’s worked with him who narrate you different is , by definition , a fucking idiot . JW turns his writer into the best writers they can be as long as they let him .
As for FRINGE , it was yet another whole dissimilar experience . It was the first show we worked on where the entire staff did n’t break story together . mostly , we worked out our episode in detail on our own — once we jazz what our marching ordination were — then we went through it very methodically with Jeff and Joel . Sometimes , we were called in to help oneself them break their episodes or divulge story with faculty writer and free lance . We did a lot of employment on that show , everyone did . But there was no real elbow room — you just helped everywhere you could help oneself , whenever you could help . We learned a fate from those guys , too . Jeff has an astonishing way of founder down a scene or a sequence into a core thought and asking how everything within it serves that idea . Joel has this wonderful , childlike power to bring out the wonder in the mundane . We loved both of them . They ’re a great team .
Stentz : An interesting thing about author ’ rooms is that room cultures vary greatly and tend to be elapse down from show to show . The Andromeda way was one that Robert had adapted from his work with Ira Behr , which in turn was influenced by the previous , swell Michael Piller on Star Trek : The Next propagation . Josh Friedman and John Wirth had their own styles that they fused together , but it in turning was influenced by a portion of the lessons John had learn cultivate with Carlton Cuse on Brisco County Jr. and Nash Bridges . And Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman had a room running style was unambiguously their own yet drew elements from the J.J. Abrams method acting Jeff was exposed on Alias and Felicity . So we feel like the creative grandchildren of these great writer , some of whom we ’ve never even meet .
How did you make the jump from working on Andromeda to scripting Agent Cody Banks ? If you were sitting on someone ’s couch while they were look on Agent Cody Banks , what would you be tell them to watch out for ? What did you learn about screenwriting from that experience ?
Miller : We were good friends with one of the producers of the plastic film , Rob Burnett . He had read a spec characteristic of ours that he loved ( it ’s called NIGHT , a pseudo - post apocalyptic vampire story ) . He thought we were the guys to rewrite Jeff Jurgensen ’s original screenplay based on our writing . Plus he knew we had some TV under our belt and could turn over the book around cursorily .
The big thing we learned from that experience was just how speedily we could sprain a script around . It was 9 days from start to finish , all to accommodate Frankie Muniz ’s uncommitted window . We knew it was potential — that kind of agenda is n’t unheard of in television set on a page - by - pageboy groundwork . Television is the great instructor of screenwriters in that it grants you focus and subject , if you ’re so inclined to accept either . But citizenry were jolly blown off by just how fast we gave them a page - one rescript . The moving-picture show was greenlit off of that draft .
The other thing we learned is that Hollywood runs on fear . The start of production was nine weeks after MGM bought the handwriting . In the characteristic world , that ’s a terrifying schedule . The studio probably keep us aboard for no other ground than we were always the guys in the room say “ we ’ll be ok . This can be accomplished . ” We were say that from experience . In TV , nine weeks is a life .
see for the picture where Angie Harmon tells Cody to “ go home . Be a kid . ” That was the heart of the movie for us when we wrote it — the moment of epiphany that comes when you ’re a boy , when you see you are not yet a human race . The mo you understand the conflict . To us , that was the moment Cody was ready to take the next whole tone and become an grownup . Our original draught was tonally much more like that scene than anything else in the final photographic film . It was still a fun , James Bond adjoin teenage rom / com mash - up , but it had a spate more on its mind .
With deoxythymidine monophosphate : SCC , you were part of helping to expound a beloved universe that multitude were already really conversant with , adding a destiny of elements that open up the familiar mythos , admit Derek Reese and John Henry , without leaving behind the intimate Skynet / killer robots from the succeeding storyline . How does an experience like that prepare you to harness Brobdingnagian franchises like the decade - man and Thor ?
Miller : T : SCC help us get our head around the theme that no matter how large the canvas , you ’re writing about the quality first . We like to think of ourselves as fiber - focussed no matter , but there is a temptation to go screwball with plot when you ’re playing with these massive , straggle properties . If T : SCC proved anything , it ’s that small , real lineament move take on epic end run when set in the right context . It ’s the most dramatically fulfil experience , even if it does n’t always please the mythology - porn and action - porn fetishists — and bear in mind , we probably compose the most action - pornography and mythology - porn intemperate episode .
Were there plot line or theme that you really wanted to do in thyroxine : SCC that were too way - out , or that you did n’t get to do because the show was cancel ?
Stentz : We had a whole list of narrative on the board in the TSCC room of report to do in seasons three and four , from the serious to the facetious to the incomprehensible ( I still am scratching my capitulum over “ Sarah helps a wedding cake . ” ) The one I was always waving the iris for was labeled “ Pope Brazen Head . ” I was obsessed with the fable of Pope Sylvester the Second and his magical blab out metal head word ( seriously , look it up ) and like to imagine that it was a Terminator head that had been thrown back in prison term and spent 1000 year on the Q.T. influence the course of western culture . Josh was really intrigue by the belief , but alas , the cancellation monster claimed us first . But really , when we got to do story about Jazz Age Terminators and a Terminator on nuclear submarine , I feel that we really got to aviate our monstrosity flags on that show .
Miller : We were blessed with the triiodothyronine : SCC experience in that we were granted the opportunity to order all sorts of stories that we require to tell . If I had to name one thing we leave on the tabular array , it would be the story of John sending Kyle back to save Sarah , know he was send his founding father to his death . That ’s manifestly the core news report of the franchise , but what interested us was John ’s POV . We get to some of the emotion we associate with that level a few times , but we never quite get to that beat . credibly with good intellect . Josh would never sign off on something like that unless it was a perfect moment , in the vein of Sarah ’s meeting with Ellison in “ Mr. Ferguson is Ill Today ” . He vigilantly guarded the show against indulgences , and that very easily could have been one .
Other than that , there was a story we all wanted to do that finally became the Ellison / John Henry story . That ’s all that require to be said ( because Josh would murder us if we tell more ) but there were a few , small moments from the original conception that we miss . On the whole , we land on something much better .
Josh also had an idea for a Cameron sequence that would have been astonishing . awesome . If you ask nicely and pray a little bit , I ’m sure he will absolutely decline to tattle about it .
Oh , and there was that other matter . Josh wo n’t talk of that either .
Are we ever go to see the Feynman Chronicles movie ? Can you explicate to us how Richard Feynman is basically the arrant Disney hero ?
Stentz : My not - so - mysterious patch is to spell enough giant Hollywood summertime movies that we get enough clout to revisit The Feynman Chronicles and get it made . I deep love that script and call up that in the right helping hand , audience could really reply to this offbeat love missive to one of the 20th Century ’s dandy minds mask as a Spielbergian adventure caper .
Miller : You never want to say “ never , ” because you always hear about scripts that kick back around for years before becoming motion picture , but the passageway of time make it seem more and more and unfortunately unlikely . We have n’t lose Bob Hope , but we ’ve decided to let the universe happily surprise us on its own docket .
That account commence life as something of a barroom bet . We were both reacting against a film enactment of Feynman that withdraw this full of life , vibrant , volatile personality and ferment him inward toward sombre . I think it was Zack who say “ That guy rope needs to be an action at law hero ! ” . It was just one of those things you say . But then we looked at each other and said … holy shit . We married it to another idea , write the script thinking it would get us some really gravid meeting , and then Disney bought it pre - emptively .
Really , it solve because we countenance Feynman be Feynman and we never tried to turn him into something he was not . Zack ’s exclamation to the reverse , we did n’t paint him as Indiana Jones . He was just a young man in over his principal — a young man who happened to be one of the smartest people who ever lived . We teamed him up with Antoine St. Exupery , who we also allowed to be himself . Saint - Ex was the soul to Feynman ’s mind ( though we should point out for the record that Saint - Ex was n’t some tall mallow eating , poesy write wimp — he was a bad ass ) . The action at law was mostly carried by a distaff British spy role we created . The three of them together were our arrant Disney action submarine sandwich .
Throw in a closed book in the Congo , a jumbo Graf Zeppelin , Nazis , the Red Army and Werner Von Braun and what you ’ve buzz off is UNTAPPED BOX OFFICE GOLD . Not to cite cameos by Einstein , Oppenheimer and John Wheeler . Also , monkeys . That ’s just gravy .
During your time on Fringe , you save a few of the most important “ arc ” episode where the mythology of the fussy - universe state of war was developed . How much exemption did you have to get crazy with storyline like Walter ’s missing wit piece and his experimentation on kids ? Also , your episode seemed to hint at the idea that Walter with an integral brain really was a scary psychopath — was that something you really wanted to push ?
Miller : Any TV show is a collaborative attempt . We were yield a frightful amount of leeway in working through those stories , but you always have to bring it back to the show and recollect that it belongs to the showrunners . You ca n’t just go off half - cocked and invent mythology willy - nilly .
For our part , we were very concerned in the person Walter used to be versus the person we know him to be . We feel ( and still experience ) the strong version of Walter is the monster whose foolishness made him a gentleman’s gentleman . We push severely on that front , sometimes very hard . I think we for the most part won out because that idea tracked with how others in general saw him .
That said , it ’s very comfortable for a writer to become too sympathetic to his or her fibre . You start endorse aside from the thing that make them difficult , because you just like them too damn much . look at him or her objectively and let the character to be all things — just and bad , without sagacity — can be very hard . You have to be a cold boy of a bitch sometimes , and not everyone can do that .
The good news is your characters will often assert themselves , and prompt you who they really are . In “ Grey Matters ” there ’s a moment where pre - madness Walter wakes up in the chair — that beat emerged on the page . We had no theme it was going to be in the script until we were writing the scene . As a writer , you experience for that .
On the other side of the coin , Walter ’s breakdown in “ Northwest Passage ” also amount for the most part out of nowhere . It was a thought experiment that shoot on a lifetime of its own .
At the time we were on the show , we really think we were writing a clustering of Olivia episode ( “ Northwest Passage ” notwithstanding ) . In retrospect , we really wrote a four - part tale about Walter , his relationship to child , and the battle between Walter - who - was and Walter - who - is . If you look at it that path , his decision at the end of “ Northwest Passage ” becomes the second where he reconciles those things . He does n’t resolve them , but he comes to grips with them . Once again in retrospect , I think that ’s what the supermarket breakdown was really about . This happens — you think a picture is about one matter when you ’re in the middle of it , and realize it ’s something else entirely when you look back . Characters can be sneak motherfuckers that way .
Stentz : I ’m not sure how we stop up write so many of time of year two ’s mythology episodes , but it was deeply gratifying to get to hollow into the character of Walter Bishop , one of the greatest fictitious character in idiot box history , played by one of our great living doer . I think we were fill in a portion of what had already been implied about Walter and his past times , but I was always grip by the theme that this sad , sweet , broken man had once been this terrifying , Mengele - similar figure . It remind me a little of Ricky Lee Rector , the con in Arkansas who had murdered a cop and then tried to belt down himself with the same gun . He effectively lobotomized himself , to the extent that there was a debate over his execution of instrument — was he functionally the same human being who had done those frightening things ?
And of course of action , the Walter - Peter relationship was endlessly captivating and fun to indite for . Whenever I wrote scenes for them , I ’d always listen to the Kate Bush song “ Cloudbusting ” because the level of Wilhelm and Peter Reich in the song reminded me so much of Walter and Peter Bishop … a kinship that Bob Orci later on state me really did play into the creation of those two character .
Do you miss the relatively crying satisfaction of write for television , and the give - and - take in a writers ’ elbow room ?
Miller : dead on both enumeration . away from the pleasure of watching great actors say your Holy Writ , and the feeling of control you have over your fabric as a author on a TV show , watching performances and seeing deletion makes you better at your craft . Constantly breaking stories or building outline or writing scripts makes you better . Dealing with studio apartment and web notes , especially the difficult or thwarting ones , make you better . If you permit it , these experience give you tools that you’re able to utilise to the feature article world . Honestly , television writers have it all over feature author . Most feature writers churn out one , maybe two script a year . They go through the process with a studio in a production setting even less than that on ordinary . On television , it ’s another day at the office .
We also lack the elbow room . It amuse me sometimes to record what mass on the cyberspace think about the fact that some shows have many author , and how they bribe into this silly idea of an auteur . There are no auteurs . There are only bully leadership with imaginativeness who gather talented people and let them do their line of work . When you ’re a part of that , it ’s the best thing in the world . Those other talented people are generally fun to be with , they gainsay you , they teach you and they better you . Even Shakespeare had a fucking room .
Stentz : Oh , God yes . expend the day in a room with smart people creating television is heaven itself , and we ’re actively looking to get back into TV and do that again before long , hopefully with shows of our own .
How did you manage to score the gigs indite for both Thor and tenner - valet right after leaving Fringe ? Did both gigs come around the same time , or is it just a weird fluke that both films are come out the same summer ?
Miller : It ’s a trematode worm . We wrote THOR in the winter of 2008 - 2009 while we were on T : SCC . We were offer X - MEN after we left Fringe , but in part because we already had a different book assignment from Fox . We left Fringe to pursue characteristic , which seems to have worked out okay .
Thor is one of those characters that a lot of comics writers do n’t seem to screw what to do with , ever since the awesome Walt Simonson die hard . How do you make this big - than - life but also kind of silly fictional character coolheaded ? How do you resist the enticement to make Thor “ relevant ” or emo ? Were there any particular runs on Thor that you guys encounter helpful in beat a handle on the character ?
Miller : Walt Simonson was a huge influence . So was Mark Millar , in terminus of how Thor was presented in action in the Ultimates 1 and 2 . I ’m a Brobdingnagian buff of Thor , which I think is key . I think in his excited reality , so it ’s not surd to translate that into a handwriting . That ’s the key with any of these movies — obtain the emotional reality and dramatize it . That gives your characters weight and your tarradiddle time value . It ’s as true for Thor as it is for Derek Reese .
Stentz : What did they used to say in the 80s ? “ Let Reagan be Reagan ? ” We just tried to let Thor be Thor , because there ’s a really inviolable , defined core of that character that comes through loud and clear across the decades , whether it ’s in the space opera of Simonson , the epic zep of the Fraction one shot , or the more grounded version in the JMS running play . And honestly , we also went straight back to the source when conceive about and writing Thor — the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturlson and various Norse myths , which are so pictorial and memorable themselves . Those Norse fibber hump what they were doing when they paired a strong man and a clever humankind as friends , comrade , and competition .
The X - Men are often used as a metaphor for the Civil Rights movement , but ecstasy - Men : First Class in reality takes place during the era of MLK . cave in that this is a much more repressive civilisation , where difference of all sorts is less tolerated , how does that change the direction you think about the mutant conflict for acceptance ?
Miller : That sort of thing for sure hunt down through your mind , but you ca n’t make the pic about that . You ca n’t even make the pic about the Cuban Missile Crisis . It ’s layer into subtext – although funnily in this case , I reckon it ’s more explicit with esteem to attitudes toward women . Even that is very small .
Stentz : I think the MLK - Malcolm X duality has always been in the Singer X - Men films … he even has Magneto say “ By any mean value necessary ” at one point ! But actually setting an X - Men flick during the Civil Rights Era , which coincided with this wonderful , sick full point of technological optimism and opening , opened up the storytelling in a mickle of ways . Partway through the process , we realized that what we were write in many ways had the vibration of a 1960s Connery Bond film , which was something Matthew Vaughn really react to in the textile and ran with . He just did a rattling job of transplanting the X - man into a whole blue jet age , swingin ’ London , Civil Rights , JFK New Frontier geological era .
Also , should we be calling that plane the Blackbird , or just the SR-71 ?
Miller : Call it whatever you choose . In the script , the first decade - jet is actually a modified XB-70 . That appears to have changed on its direction to the stage , although never in the pages .
Stentz : Yes , in our drafts , the original X - super C was a epitome of the XB-70 Valkyrie , my favorite Cold War superjet of all clip . It was change to an SR-71 fairly latterly in the game , but I let in it would have been skillful to see that crazy Mach 3 stainless steel bomber on the big screenland .
Finally , what ’s going on with Damn Nation ? You mentioned you were work on itthe last sentence we interviewed you guy .
https://gizmodo.com/inside-matthew-vaughns-x-men-first-class-with-marvels-5532531
Miller : No idea what ’s happening with Damn Nation right now . Dark Horse has it , they love it . We ’ll see .
Stentz : We need to ask Keith Goldberg at Dark Horse about that ! Even with the number of zombie / vampire / position revelatory lineament int he landscape , we feel like Damn Nation ’s combination of horror / men on a mission military action / political thriller is pretty singular , and we ’d love to see it made .
And is there anything else in the pipeline you may tell us about ?
Miller : There is a caboodle of exciting stuff in the pipeline . unluckily , we seem to specialize in take on projects that for one intellect or another have to rest top secret . Sometimes it ’s obvious why these things are close grip , other times it seems unnecessary . But that ’s the job . We think of ourselves as the Green Berets of screenwriting – we get dropped into dangerous , highly classify situations , expected to come through or die fighting .
We ’re also very close to finishing a young adult novel that is nothing like anything you ’ve seen from us before . It ’s based on a spec pilot we drop a line a few yr ago ( which capture the tending of Josh Friedman and got us our job on T : SCC ) but it ’s in no manner a musical style piece . Not even a small spot . It ’s very close-fitting to our hearts .
Stentz : As Ash said , we ’re either actively write or developing a number of projects we ca n’t get into in detail , though we ’re thrilled that we suddenly seem to be in occupation with people we ’ve long admire , from legendary superproducer Walter Parkes to genius director and all around nice guy Peyton Reed and many others who would polish off us in our sleep if we revealed their names here .
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