Write On: 'The Iron Claw' Writer/Director Sean Durkin
12/21/23 • 34 min
“I just really encourage people to truly go to those darker places because the way forward in dealing with dark material is not to do some partial version of it. Go there so that it sparks a truth to people watching it because people want to be moved. People want to see their experiences reflected in a new way back at them. If you're drawn to it and it's meaningful to you, chances are it's going to be meaningful to others. Stick with it and be brave,” says writer/director Sean Durkin about exploring the darker side of human nature on film.
Durkin’s new film is The Iron Claw, starring Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White as brothers from the real-life wrestling family, the Von Erich Brothers, who are said to be cursed. Durkin talks about his childhood obsession with wrestling, using the structure of a Greek Tragedy to craft the screenplay and investigating American masculinity through the lens of this one Texas family.
Just a warning: This podcast discusses suicide as it relates to the characters in the film. If you or anyone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or is in crisis, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crises Lifeline.
To hear more about Durkin's journey of writing and directing The Iron Claw, click to listen to the podcast.
“I just really encourage people to truly go to those darker places because the way forward in dealing with dark material is not to do some partial version of it. Go there so that it sparks a truth to people watching it because people want to be moved. People want to see their experiences reflected in a new way back at them. If you're drawn to it and it's meaningful to you, chances are it's going to be meaningful to others. Stick with it and be brave,” says writer/director Sean Durkin about exploring the darker side of human nature on film.
Durkin’s new film is The Iron Claw, starring Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White as brothers from the real-life wrestling family, the Von Erich Brothers, who are said to be cursed. Durkin talks about his childhood obsession with wrestling, using the structure of a Greek Tragedy to craft the screenplay and investigating American masculinity through the lens of this one Texas family.
Just a warning: This podcast discusses suicide as it relates to the characters in the film. If you or anyone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or is in crisis, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crises Lifeline.
To hear more about Durkin's journey of writing and directing The Iron Claw, click to listen to the podcast.
Previous Episode
Write On: 'Air' Screenwriter Alex Convey
The film Air was released in theaters back in April – right before the WGA Writer's Strike. It tells the story of how the iconic partnership between Nike shoes and basketball player Michael Jordan came to be way back in 1984. It’s one of those partnerships that really wasn’t supposed to happen, but when it did, it changed the world of sports marketing forever.
Directed by Ben Affleck, the script is written by Alex Convery and made the Blacklist in 2021. But just like the partnership between Nike and Michael Jordan, there are a million reasons why this film shouldn’t have happened but luckily, it did!
“If you are really passionate about an idea and believe in it, you should write it. Whether it seems practical or not because that’s typically going to produce your best work. And producing your best work is ultimately the goal, right?” says Convery.
Convery also says it’s important to be patient and persevere. “I came out from Chicago in 2010 and it took until 2023 to get a movie released. It can take a long, long, long time and that’s okay...there’s no finish lines. Just invest in the work itself. Surprise yourself on the page, have fun and make yourself laugh!”
For a deeper dive into Convery’s screenplay, listen to the podcast.
Next Episode
Write On: 'Blackberry' Writers Matt Johnson and Matthew Miller
Final Draft's Write On Podcast sits down with Blackberry writers Matt Johnson and Matthew Miller to talk about how they wrote this epic story of the rise and fall of the world's first portable email machine.
Johnson and Miller loosely adapted the script from Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff's book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry. The film Blackberry is a bio-pic dramedy that follows the fictional story of the Blackberry creator Mike Lazaridis, played by Jay Baruchel and his main investor played by Glenn Howerton.
“Because we had the book, it was the blueprint for the movie. It has so many of the facts and details that we extrapolated and then sort of placed in the script," says Miller.
The production of the movie was a bit like the push to get Blackberry into the marketplace - there was a lot of hustle. “The structure of the movie as it stands came from needing to reuse the same locations over, and over again,” says Johnson.
We sat down to hear about this wild ride from true story to script to budgetary concerns and on-screen production. Click to hear more and listen to the podcast.
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