Barbenheimer: The Art of Adaptation

This week, we're going to be talking about “Barbenheimer.” That's right, Barbie and Oppenheimer in the same podcast. And not just because you probably saw the two movies back to back.  We're going to be talking about “Barbenheimer”–Barbie and Oppenheimer–together because there is so much we can learn about screenwriting by looking at these movies in the same podcast. These are two groundbreaking political movies. These are two groundbreaking structural movies. These are two groundbreaking movies in their form and in their experimentation. And both of these groundbreaking movies were released in the middle of the summer, when we're used to seeing nothing but popcorn action movies. We're going to be looking at Barbie and Oppenheimer to understand how to write a political film. Or to say it in a more profound way, how to write a film that is really about something.  So often when we’re taught structure, we're taught about how to move a character from A to Z. How to test a character, how to change a character, how to make sure your character wants something and makes choices. All these things are really important, but they only matter within the context of what you are actually saying. We don't become screenwriters just because we like puppeting characters around. We become screenwriters because there's something we want to say. And all of our writing, whether we like it or not, is political. We are the mythmakers for our generation and for the next generation.  We write the stories that show people a way of perceiving their own identities and how to behave in the world.What does it mean to be a woman? What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a person? What does it mean to be a hero? What does it mean to be good? Or what does it mean to be bad? Or what does it mean to be morally complicated? How should we act in the world? How should we try not to act in the world? What should we believe in? What do we not believe in? This tradition of mythmaking goes way beyond Barbie and Oppenheimer. It tracks back thousands of years, all the way back to Greek mythology and even beyond. For as long as there have been stories, human beings have looked to stories for meaning.  So it's our job as screenwriters to make sure we know what meaning we are actually communicating. Because if we don't, our films and our shows actare nevertheless going to have very powerful effects. Our films and shows have profound societal effects, whether we like it or not. If you listened to my podcast about therapeutic and anti-therapeutic films, you know our movies and shows, when they work, move people to a place of catharsis, a place of change.  We're not just changing our characters: we are changing our audience.  And that means every single thing about how you build your film, how you build your TV series, how you build your play, how you build your novel, how you build your poem, how you build your song. Whatever kind of writing you're doing, every single element of a story gctinrows out of the theme. It grows out of what you are building. Understanding what you're building is also going to serve you when your film is actually in production, or pre-production, or development, or even when your film is in the editing room. It's going to help you know which notes to accept (because they're going to make your film stronger), and which notes to reject or question.