John Logan: Learn from the literary masters ... then start screenwriting
John Logan is hugely successful and versatile screenwriter. When it comes to learning the craft of screenwriting, he offers a different starting point from most: Dive into literature first!
John Logan is behind such films as Gladiator, Hugo, Coriolanus, Any Given Sunday, Rango and The Last Samurai. If that isn’t bloody versatile enough for you, he also wrote the Skyfall and Spectre Bond movies, as well as the wonderfully dark and strange Penny Dreadful series. Before all of his screenwriting glory he started out, at the age of eighteen, as a playwright. Theater was his world and still is his passion - it had been one of the main reasons why he got together with Ralph Fiennes to do Coriolanus.
Most in the business suggest the usual path to get into screenwriting - watch and analyze movies, learn from the pros and always write. Logan says:
“Focus on literature first, through the centuries, read it and read it all ... and then watch some movies.”
Logan loves language, the playwright in him fights to balance language and visuals in film. He understands film but sees a danger of language being devalued. He doesn’t shy away from words, monologues, big lines - in fact, he looks for the epic lines like Maximus’
“On my signal, unleash hell.”
He was fortunate to start his screenwriting journey in the company of Oliver Stone on Any Given Sunday where he learned a great deal about the craft. He developed the 2004 drama Aviator (directed by Martin Scorsese) together with Michael Mann, not exactly bad company either. And while working on Gladiator, Ridley Scott added invaluable screenwriting advice when he told Logan:
“Write less words.”
If you’d like to read instead of watching the above, here’s the transcript from the actual lecture. John Logan shared lots of nuggets. Personally, this BAFTA lecture wasn’t as inspiring as some of the others - still - worth watching. It should at the very least make you want to pick up some of the classics!
