Welcome to 5AM StoryTalk! I'm joined by screenwriter LIZ HANNAH whose script for The Post was so phenomenal it was sold and released in just 15 months - with Steven Spielberg as the director. Her credits also include the films Long Shot and Lee, TV series like "Mindhunter", and co-creating “The Girl from Plainville”.

A bonus episode, exclusive to 5AM StoryTalk’s amazing paid subscribers, is also available here. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, you’ll get more of Liz and I discussing a seminal piece of art from her life – David Bowie’s 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Subscribe to the 5AM StoryTalk newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.

Show notes. Liz and I discuss the following (amongst many other things):

• Craft, craft, and more craft

• Her current struggle over how best to use her own creative voice to confront what’s happening in the U.S. and world, which is complicating her new spec script
• Why she couldn’t have written The Post at this point in her career (or: the advantage of being young, dumb, and fearless as an artist)
• What went into writing two pivotal scenes in her career, a monologue performed by Sarah Paulson in The Post and the interrogation of Charles Manson in Season 2 of “Mindhunter”
• The unintended resonance of The Post in Trump’s America, which provokes a heartbreaking observation about how her success was achieved
• Why she can’t rewatch films or TV she’s written
• The pivotal role of journalism in democracy, highlighted in her script for The Post and work on Lee
• Whether Hollywood is up to the challenge of confronting the major challenges of our day, from fascism to climate change (or: her thoughts on Ryan Coogler’s Sinners)

Links:

• ⁠5AM StoryTalk newsletter⁠ (become a paid subscriber here to gain access to both the 5AM StoryTalk newsletter and podcast
• Listen to my bonus episode with Liz here
• Watch The Post trailer
• Read Liz’s script for The Post here
• Watch the Lee trailer
• Watch “The Girl from Plainville” trailer
• In my introduction, I reference John August’s observations about a unifying theatrical experience. You can listen to my conversation with him here
• Liz and I discuss my traumatic experience creating “Dracula” (2013), which you can read about here