Anthony McCarten: The theory of screenwriting...

Anthony McCarten is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and novelist, who has directed two of his own movie scripts. His screenplay credits include Bohemian Rhapsody, Winston Churchill film Darkest Hour, and Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything, which won him a BAFTA award in 2015 for Best Adapted Screenplay. McCarten was interviewed for NZ On Screen when he was in Auckland in 2015, for Script to Screen's Big Screen Symposium.

In this ScreenTalk, McCarten talks about:

• Getting some negative feedback from a former Dr Who on Worzel Gummidge Down Under
• Making his screen directing debut with suicide tale Nocturne in a Room
• Exploring sibling rivalry on comedy drama Via Satellite 
• The challenges of being a first time director on the film 
• Feeling disappointed with the British TV adaptation of novel The English Harem 
• Touching on "the great western myth" of happiness with his second feature, Show of Hands
• Disagreeing with the director on the vision for film Death of a Superhero 
• Being excited by the story behind The Theory of Everything, based on the romance between scientist Stephen Hawking and first wife Jane
• A sudden reversal of fortune in financing the film
• Witnessing Hawking's emotional reaction to the movie
• How writing films is an antidote to the solitude of writing novels

This video was first uploaded on 27 October 2015, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside