Video interview: Dan Futterman (Capote)

Here is another Written By interview, this one with actor-screenwriter Dan Futterman. His only official writing credit is Capote (2005), but it's a hell of a credit.

In the interview, Futterman is asked about some scenes they had to add to the movie after principal production was finished. As shot, the movie began with Capote going to and exploring Kansas, his experience basically as a 'stranger in a strange land.' What they felt they needed to add upfront was a scene or sequence establishing Capote on his home turf -- the literary scene in New York city. This anecdote underscores an important point about writing a screenplay: Establish the Protagonist in their Ordinary World before you set them off into their 'adventure' in the New World. Otherwise there is no context against which to measure the Protagonist's experience of the New World.



As a bonus, here is some rare footage of Capote from Kansas in 1966 from the CBC.