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Webmaster's note: The following appeared in Echo Magazine, April 2003. Thanks to Neil Cohen and ECHO for the reprint!
Reel Thoughts By Neil CohenThe Phoenix Film Festival is coming April 11-13 to the AMC Theatres at Arizona Center. It promises to be a stellar event, with appearances by John Waters and the delicious Edward Burns (Saving Private Ryan). Waters will perform his one-man show, while Burns will premiere his hot new film, Confidence, co-starring Dustin Hoffman in his scuzziest role since Ratzo Rizzo! Another high point is the Sunday screenwriting seminar. I was pleased to hear that our own Cait Brennan is continuing her hot streak, and won yet another award for her screenplay, The People's Choice. Will success spoil Cait Brennan? Read and find out!
Echo: Tell me about your award. What is it for? CB: The award is the Phoenix Film Festival's 2003 Screenwriting award. They conducted a nationwide search for a great unproduced screenplay, sifted through hundreds of entries and mine prevailed, which certainly made me happy. It's your classic 'local trannie makes good' story. I'm honored they chose me. The screenplay that won is The People's Choice, which won the 2002-2003 Arizona Commission on the Arts screenwriting fellowship several months ago. It bounced around Hollywood awhile and bounced home again, and thankfully the Phoenix Film Festival folks loved it. I'm hoping that I can parlay my award into a meeting with John Waters — I could be the new Divine! No? Well, maybe the new Mink Stole.
Echo: How have things changed for you since we last spoke? CB: Things are the same, yet different. I still live in the same place and none of my screenplays are presently in production. I've had substantial, ongoing interest, though, both in The People's Choice and
in other work I've written. A second award certainly helps turn those Hollywood heads. I'm currently writing two new scripts — a classy romantic thriller a la Hitchcock, and Dramatis Personae, which is a very edgy coming-of-age story about discovering your identity — sexual, gender, and otherwise — as played out in a high school drama troupe. Think Dangerous Liaisons meets Pretty in Pink, with a bit of Heathers in there for fun. Knowing Hollywood's insatiable appetite for gay-themed material I expect there'll be an immediate bidding war.
Echo: What do you have to say to other aspiring screenwriters? CB: This goes against the standard logic of supply and demand, but I say this: we need more aspiring screenwriters. We need people from outside the Hollywood system, the Hollywood mindset, to pick up a pen or get to that keyboard and create new visions for the screen. I think we're seeing that the dream factory is breaking down, it's leaving too many of us out in the cold. We need new dreams tonight. I strongly encourage everyone to pack up your ideas and storm the gates.