Script Apart with Al Horner

Praise Kier, it’s a Severance Script Apart special! In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Dan Erickson – the dystopian workplace drama’s creator and showrunner – spills all the secrets that Lumon Industries will allow, about the season two finale that aired last week, and our real-world relationships with work, corporations and personal pain that the show offers a meditation on.

The series, starring Adam Scott, Britt Lower, John Tuturro and Zach Cherry, debuted on Apple TV+ in 2022 at the exact right time: post-pandemic, a new Zoom-aided groundswell of people found themselves now “working from home” in a way that might be better described as “living at work.” Studies showed Brits and Americans were working longer than hours than ever and tethered to their desks in this round the clock way that made Severance’s story – of characters trapped in an endless hellscape of never-ending work – hit in this deeply relatable way. All work and no play... you know the rest.

It was a three year wait for season two, but the payoff was worth it. This latest batch of episodes delved deeper into the lives and psyches of Mark S, Helly R and their “Outies” – the versions of themselves who have no recollection of their job once they leave; it’s like they’re never there. And in doing so, new questions and philosophical dilemmas were thrown at us in the audience about personhood under capitalism, who deserves what rights and what constitutes a soul.

Listen out for Dan’s revelations about his drastically different original pilot for the show, and his breakdown of every twist and turn in this final episode including that ambiguous line of Helly’s – “I’m her.” We also get into the hardship from Dan’s life that he’s glad he didn’t sever from: a period of depression in which he learned there’s “power in clawing your way out of a dark place.” It made him the writer he is today – the writer responsible for Severance.

Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on [email protected].

Support for this episode comes from Final Draft.

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How will romance adapt to the age of A.I that lies ahead? What bleak (and beautiful) impulses might the technology bring out in us? And have you ever seen a Black Mirror episode inside a Coens Brothers thriller, inside a Barbarian-esque horror? These are the questions posed by Companion, the new movie by writer-director Drew Hancock. Today on the show, we talk devotion, dating and androids with Drew, whose directorial debut kept its cards close when it came to its marketing – and understandably so, because there are some really fun twists and turns in this script that are best experienced fresh. (Stop reading if you haven’t yet seen Companion and want to experience fresh, as recommended).

Companion is about a young woman named Iris, played by Sophie Thatcher. Iris arrives at a weekend away with her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid) to glares of suspicion from his friends, who she’s meeting for the first time. As an audience, we experience her hurt at these friends’ strange microaggressions – and at Josh’s dismissive behaviour, callously, abruptly commanding her to “go to sleep” immediately after sex. Then – a murder. A murder and a reveal. Arguably the most humane character amongst this assortment of friends, is not human at all, but a machine. From there, a crime thriller unfolds with a large stash of cash at its blackly comic centre. It’s bold, original and manages to find new things to say about the intersection between technology and relationships. I had a blast watching it – and Drew from the sounds of things, had a blast writing it.

On this episode of Script Apart, you’ll hear about the current real-world advances in technology like Iris that informed his vision of where we might be fifteen years or so into the future. We get into the hints at how A.I companions like Iris have altered the world beyond what we see in the film – and some early ideas for the movie that were completely different to what ended up on screen. And we break down every detail of the film’s emotionally satisfying ending.

Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.

Support the show

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alienation, abandonment and dislocated shoulders: not really your usual ingredients for a tender festive heart-warmer. But then again, The Holdovers – unequivocally one of our favourite films of the last twelve months – isn’t your average Christmas movie. Directed by Alexander Payne and written by our guest today, the brilliant David Hemingson, it's a drama steeped in the pain of reaching the so-called “most wonderful time of the year” and feeling nothing but loneliness.
The film tells the story of three loners thrown together by circumstance over the Christmas break at a New England boarding school, each disillusioned with a world that doesn't seem to want them. They have their differences. One – Paul, played by Paul Giamatti – is a miserly middle-aged academic with an odour problem. Another – Angus, played by newcomer Dominic Sessa – is a brash student of his, on the brink of being sent to military school. The third and possible heartbeat of the movie, Da'Vine Joy Randolph's Mary Lamb, is their school cook – a woman who recently lost everything. These characters find a richness in each other that's uplifting without ever feeling schmaltzy or sentimental. It's a staggeringly beautiful film.
In the spoiler conversation you're about to hear, David tells us about Uncle Earl, the real-life family member he based the character Paul on. You'll hear how his first draft involved a woman Paul used to date with porcelain fingers, after injuring her hand in a car accident. We also spend some time debating the words "not for ourselves alone are we born" – the lesson, if there is one, of The Holdovers, and a mantra we could all doing with reminding ourselves of more in our fragmented 2024.
Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, MUBI, Magic Mind, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest today is a Palme d’Or-winning writer-director whose films centre characters “chasing the American dream but who don’t have easy access to that dream.” You might know Sean Baker from exhilaratingly raw dramas like Tangerine, Red Rocket and The Florida Project – each a compassionate and captivating dispatch from life on society’s margins, and each lavished with critical acclaim. His latest movie, Anora, has seen new levels of recognition for the 53-year-old, though. Next month, the film – about this tale of a sex worker named Ani, played by Mikey Madison, who falls for the son of a Russian oligarch – will compete for four awards including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay at the 97th Academy Awards, with internet discussion about the movie, its characters and their motives refusing to dissipate.

In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Sean tells Al about how his own experience of heroin addiction in his twenties has influenced his storytelling. We talk about why this film is not a Cinderella story but a tale about shattered dreams, discuss a hopeful epilogue to the movie that Sean wrote but has so far refused to share with the world about what happens to Ani next, and break down the film’s devastating ending. A huge thanks to Sean for being a fantastic guest.

Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on [email protected].

To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.

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Great Scott, it’s been 35 years since the second instalment in one of the most beloved trilogies of all time – Back To The Future Part II, directed by the great Robert Zemeckis and co-written by our guest today, Bob Gale! Bob first guested on Script Apart in 2021, breaking down his first draft of 1985’s iconic debut outing for Marty McFly and eccentric scientist Doc Brown. You may remember that episode detailing how Bob’s original vision for that film was quite wildly different – Doc Brown had a pet chimp and the movie featured a huge nuclear explosion. Part II similarly went through multiple iterations, with the film initially expected to include a third act set in the 1960s. Instead, Bob landed on a story full of darkness that broke from the optimism of the first film to depict a dark future – one that in many ways, we’ve actually come to inherit.

In the conversation you’re about to hear, you’ll discover what drew Bob to that darkness, the secret to Back To The Future’s longevity and which of Part II’s predictions he’s surprised have come to pass in real life. Thanks to Bob for being a brilliant guest once again.

Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on [email protected].
Support for this episode comes from ScreenCraft, Final Draft and WeScreenplay.
To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon.

Support the show

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.