Christopher Kyle is the well respected playwright of The Monogamist and The Plunge. He is also a sought after screenwriter who has worked on The Weight of Water and K-19: The Widowmaker. Most recently he has fulfilled nearly every screenwriters dream by working with Oliver Stone on the film Alexander.
Check out the official site of Alexander
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did the gig on Alexander come to you?
Christopher Kyle: I wrote a film called K-19: The Widowmaker and when that movie was in production Oliver [Stone] read the script. Then he asked me to meet with him and then he asked me to write Alexander.
DRE: Oliver and Laeta Kalogridis are also credited with the script. Did you work with them or just write a draft?
CK: Laeta wrote a draft several years before I did for a different production company. Due to various complicated contractual rules they didnt show me or even tell me about that script. As I knew when I started the film, I would do several drafts then Oliver would do his own script to shoot. Thats always his MO. So when he created his final draft he used some scenes from Laetas draft and thats why she shares the credit.
DRE: Could you tell me one specific scene you wrote?
CK: That always gets into a contentious issue with writers. There are several scenes in the film that are quite similar to the way I had them in my script but every scene has been tweaked and adjusted. There are scenes that are largely someone else but might have some elements that are mine and vice versa.
DRE: What did you think of the final picture?
CK: I was very pleased with it overall. Its a challenging picture because its not just the spectacle and the action. It requires you to think and I found it quite engaging.
DRE: How did the bad reviews affect you?
CK: You cant do anything about the critics. I think to a certain extent Oliver has been so provocative over his career and thereby has made himself a target for the critics. I felt there was some vitriol behind some of these that had little to do with the movie and a lot to do with the critics personal feelings towards Oliver. There have been some really good reviews as well as some not so nice ones.
DRE: How was it working with Oliver?
CK: It was great. As a screenwriter there are two things you hope to get when you are paired with a director. One is that they are available so that you could get ahold of them when you have questions and Oliver was very available and even gave me his home number. The other is that the project is one that the director really wants to do. Some directors will develop 10 to 15 things and then pick one to do so you never know if you are on the one they care about. But Oliver was completely focused on Alexander the whole time I was on it. That was great.
DRE: Did he tell you the Gore Vidal story?
CK: I had heard he talked to Gore Vidal about writing the script.
DRE: Supposedly Gore freaked out on him.
CK: [laughs] I didnt hear that.
DRE: Did you get to go to the set of Alexander at all?
CK: No I didnt which isnt unusual. Ive only been to the sets of movies Ive worked on a few times.
DRE: Obviously writing movies is much different from writing theatre, have you gotten used to it yet?
CK: Ive gotten used to it but I prefer the autonomy you have working on a play. Ive been fortunate that Ive been able to work on films with people I really respect and on projects I find interesting and worthwhile.
DRE: Is your writing process for movies different from when you write plays?
CK: Its absolutely different. The main difference is that when you are working on film there are all these people involved before you even write that first word. So you generally have to lay out where you are going in the form of a treatment or an oral discussion. With a play I prefer to have a rough sense of where its going then explore it as I write. When I am working on a play I wont even tell my wife what it is about. But with film they wont even hire you unless they know what you are going to do.
DRE: Do you use scriptwriting software?
CK: Yeah I use Final Draft.
DRE: What about software for writing theatre?
CK: Final Draft has a theatre script template but since I developed my own idiosyncratic format on Microsoft Word I continue to use that.
DRE: When you are writing a biopic like you did with Alexander if you get stuck at some point do you go back to the research?
CK: Ive worked on some plays which have historical research. I wrote one play based on a relatives diary who was in the Civil War. Other plays start from personal experience, sometimes current events but with plays the characters begin to dictate where its going. Sometimes I start just by the sound of the way someone talks which suggests who they are. Its much more of an organic process for me to write a play.
DRE: For your draft of Alexander were you able to make it personal?
CK: Yeah Alexander is a good one because although there are many books about him, the number of facts about him are quite small. If you read six biographies you really see six different people. That really gave me a lot of freedom to look for the Alexander that I thought was the most interesting. As I read about Alexander, before I met with Oliver, I really got a sense of who he was and what his position in history was.
DRE: What do you think was in the script for K-19: The Widowmaker that made Oliver think you were the one for Alexander?
CK: Oliver said he was very intrigued by the way the main character in that film seemed extremely harsh but the movie also evolved into a story of humanity through the ordeal that his men went through.
DRE: Have you written a lot of screenplays we havent seen?
CK: Everyone who writes screenplays writes ones you havent seen [laughs]. If I sat down I could probably calculate that one out of five have made it to the screen.
DRE: Does it boggle your mind or did you know thats what you were getting into?
CK: I learned pretty fast that it works that way. There are pretty understandable economics behind it. It costs a few hundred thousand dollars to get a script but it costs tens of millions to actually make the movie. It seems to make sense to pay for lots of scripts but to make just the ones that have potential. Ive heard screenwriters say that they would take a lot less money if the movie were guaranteed to get made just because it can seem like a waste.
DRE: Was Weight of Water your first screenplay?
CK: It was the first one to get produced. I actually wrote K-19 before that but it took longer to get made.
DRE: Are any of your screenplays based on your plays?
CK: I did make a deal once to adapt The Monogamist as a film. I wouldnt say its dead but at the moment its not in preproduction.
DRE: Was K-19 your original idea?
CK: No its based on a historical incident so it was based on a Russian documentary film. There was another writer who wrote a first version of the film but I took the incident itself and wrote a very different approach. So I feel the movie represents my conception of the story.
DRE: Is it a coincidence that Kathryn Bigelow directed both Weight of Water and K-19?
CK: No we get along very well and we are working together on another project called The Devil in the White City which is based on the book by Erik Larson.
DRE: Oh, about the serial killer H.H. Holmes. I read about him in Rick Gearys book The Beast of Chicago.
So far the three movies youve been credited with havent done very well commercially, what does that mean for you?
CK: In the movie business the reviews of critics mean far less than the box office. I would say that for a writer first starting out the first hurdle is to write something that make people feel confident enough to make the movie like attracting a movie star or director to the project. But of course after that the better a movie does the more in demand youll be.
DRE: But has anyone said to you something like K-19 didnt make a lot of money, get out?
CK: No I havent had that [laughs]. I would say that of all the people who work on a film, in terms of blame and credit, generally the writer is not held as responsible as the stars or director for better or for worse.
DRE: Do you have any plays going up soon?
CK: I have a new play called The Safety Net going up this month. Its going to be with the Broken Watch Theatre Company.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site of Alexander
Daniel Robert Epstein: How did the gig on Alexander come to you?
Christopher Kyle: I wrote a film called K-19: The Widowmaker and when that movie was in production Oliver [Stone] read the script. Then he asked me to meet with him and then he asked me to write Alexander.
DRE: Oliver and Laeta Kalogridis are also credited with the script. Did you work with them or just write a draft?
CK: Laeta wrote a draft several years before I did for a different production company. Due to various complicated contractual rules they didnt show me or even tell me about that script. As I knew when I started the film, I would do several drafts then Oliver would do his own script to shoot. Thats always his MO. So when he created his final draft he used some scenes from Laetas draft and thats why she shares the credit.
DRE: Could you tell me one specific scene you wrote?
CK: That always gets into a contentious issue with writers. There are several scenes in the film that are quite similar to the way I had them in my script but every scene has been tweaked and adjusted. There are scenes that are largely someone else but might have some elements that are mine and vice versa.
DRE: What did you think of the final picture?
CK: I was very pleased with it overall. Its a challenging picture because its not just the spectacle and the action. It requires you to think and I found it quite engaging.
DRE: How did the bad reviews affect you?
CK: You cant do anything about the critics. I think to a certain extent Oliver has been so provocative over his career and thereby has made himself a target for the critics. I felt there was some vitriol behind some of these that had little to do with the movie and a lot to do with the critics personal feelings towards Oliver. There have been some really good reviews as well as some not so nice ones.
DRE: How was it working with Oliver?
CK: It was great. As a screenwriter there are two things you hope to get when you are paired with a director. One is that they are available so that you could get ahold of them when you have questions and Oliver was very available and even gave me his home number. The other is that the project is one that the director really wants to do. Some directors will develop 10 to 15 things and then pick one to do so you never know if you are on the one they care about. But Oliver was completely focused on Alexander the whole time I was on it. That was great.
DRE: Did he tell you the Gore Vidal story?
CK: I had heard he talked to Gore Vidal about writing the script.
DRE: Supposedly Gore freaked out on him.
CK: [laughs] I didnt hear that.
DRE: Did you get to go to the set of Alexander at all?
CK: No I didnt which isnt unusual. Ive only been to the sets of movies Ive worked on a few times.
DRE: Obviously writing movies is much different from writing theatre, have you gotten used to it yet?
CK: Ive gotten used to it but I prefer the autonomy you have working on a play. Ive been fortunate that Ive been able to work on films with people I really respect and on projects I find interesting and worthwhile.
DRE: Is your writing process for movies different from when you write plays?
CK: Its absolutely different. The main difference is that when you are working on film there are all these people involved before you even write that first word. So you generally have to lay out where you are going in the form of a treatment or an oral discussion. With a play I prefer to have a rough sense of where its going then explore it as I write. When I am working on a play I wont even tell my wife what it is about. But with film they wont even hire you unless they know what you are going to do.
DRE: Do you use scriptwriting software?
CK: Yeah I use Final Draft.
DRE: What about software for writing theatre?
CK: Final Draft has a theatre script template but since I developed my own idiosyncratic format on Microsoft Word I continue to use that.
DRE: When you are writing a biopic like you did with Alexander if you get stuck at some point do you go back to the research?
CK: Ive worked on some plays which have historical research. I wrote one play based on a relatives diary who was in the Civil War. Other plays start from personal experience, sometimes current events but with plays the characters begin to dictate where its going. Sometimes I start just by the sound of the way someone talks which suggests who they are. Its much more of an organic process for me to write a play.
DRE: For your draft of Alexander were you able to make it personal?
CK: Yeah Alexander is a good one because although there are many books about him, the number of facts about him are quite small. If you read six biographies you really see six different people. That really gave me a lot of freedom to look for the Alexander that I thought was the most interesting. As I read about Alexander, before I met with Oliver, I really got a sense of who he was and what his position in history was.
DRE: What do you think was in the script for K-19: The Widowmaker that made Oliver think you were the one for Alexander?
CK: Oliver said he was very intrigued by the way the main character in that film seemed extremely harsh but the movie also evolved into a story of humanity through the ordeal that his men went through.
DRE: Have you written a lot of screenplays we havent seen?
CK: Everyone who writes screenplays writes ones you havent seen [laughs]. If I sat down I could probably calculate that one out of five have made it to the screen.
DRE: Does it boggle your mind or did you know thats what you were getting into?
CK: I learned pretty fast that it works that way. There are pretty understandable economics behind it. It costs a few hundred thousand dollars to get a script but it costs tens of millions to actually make the movie. It seems to make sense to pay for lots of scripts but to make just the ones that have potential. Ive heard screenwriters say that they would take a lot less money if the movie were guaranteed to get made just because it can seem like a waste.
DRE: Was Weight of Water your first screenplay?
CK: It was the first one to get produced. I actually wrote K-19 before that but it took longer to get made.
DRE: Are any of your screenplays based on your plays?
CK: I did make a deal once to adapt The Monogamist as a film. I wouldnt say its dead but at the moment its not in preproduction.
DRE: Was K-19 your original idea?
CK: No its based on a historical incident so it was based on a Russian documentary film. There was another writer who wrote a first version of the film but I took the incident itself and wrote a very different approach. So I feel the movie represents my conception of the story.
DRE: Is it a coincidence that Kathryn Bigelow directed both Weight of Water and K-19?
CK: No we get along very well and we are working together on another project called The Devil in the White City which is based on the book by Erik Larson.
DRE: Oh, about the serial killer H.H. Holmes. I read about him in Rick Gearys book The Beast of Chicago.
So far the three movies youve been credited with havent done very well commercially, what does that mean for you?
CK: In the movie business the reviews of critics mean far less than the box office. I would say that for a writer first starting out the first hurdle is to write something that make people feel confident enough to make the movie like attracting a movie star or director to the project. But of course after that the better a movie does the more in demand youll be.
DRE: But has anyone said to you something like K-19 didnt make a lot of money, get out?
CK: No I havent had that [laughs]. I would say that of all the people who work on a film, in terms of blame and credit, generally the writer is not held as responsible as the stars or director for better or for worse.
DRE: Do you have any plays going up soon?
CK: I have a new play called The Safety Net going up this month. Its going to be with the Broken Watch Theatre Company.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
missy:
Christopher Kyle is the well respected playwright of The Monogamist and The Plunge. He is also a sought after screenwriter who has worked on The Weight of Water and K-19: The Widowmaker. Most recently he has fulfilled nearly every screenwriters dream by working with Oliver Stone on the film Alexander....