4th SCREENPLAY SHOOTOUT – WINNER

Interview with Gregg Greenberg

::Congratulations on being selected as the Grand Prize Winner of the Screenplay Shootout tell us how you felt when you saw the news.

I was elated when I saw that I won the grand prize. It was also quite a relief. I had been a finalist or runner up in a number of film festivals prior to the Screenplay Shootout and I was starting to think I would never win the big one. It was especially gratifying to win this particular competition because it is highly regarded and some of the past winners have gone on to do great things.

::What motivated you to write this particular story?

I wrote, directed and produced a play called Clemenza & Tessio Are Dead, which had a sold out run in last summer’s NYC Fringe Festival. In that particular play, I tell the story of the movie The Godfather from the perspective of the two main characters in the same way that Tom Stoppard tackled Hamlet in Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead. During the auditions, I came into contact with a number of Italian-American actors who were extras or had bit parts in some classic mob movies, as well as The Sopranos. I began to wonder what these guys would do now that fewer mafia movies are being made and The Sopranos is off the air. That was the genesis of my screenplay Friends And Romans.

::How long have you been a writer? How many scripts have you written?

I have been a financial writer for TheStreet.com for the past 7 years. I write a fun column called “The Five Dumbest Things On Wall Street This Week” which is quite popular. Writing about stocks and bonds can be quite dull and formulaic, but the Five Dumbest column gives me a chance to write comedy on a weekly basis.

Friends And Romans is my first original screenplay effort. The success I had with C&T Are Dead gave me the confidence to try something bigger and Friends And Romans was the result.

::Tell us about your writing habits. Any advice or lessons you'd like to share with other aspiring writers?

Writing dialogue has always been the easiest part of the process for me. It comes naturally. I struggle, however, with structure and plot. One trick I found helpful while writing this script was to approach it like a crossword puzzle. If I ever got stuck and was unable to move a character or plot-line forward, I would simply put it down, do something else entirely to clear my head and then pick it up again later. You would be surprised as to how well a walk around the block works to solve a problem.

Otherwise, the normal rules to creative writing apply. Most importantly, get a lot of feedback from people you trust and be prepared to throw out your favorite lines if they don’t fit. And conversely, have the conviction to ignore the best advice of the people you trust the most and if you have a great line that won’t fit in a particular scene, then find another place for it.

::What are some of your influences? Favorite films? Writers/Directors?

Obviously I could not have written Friends And Romans without being fluent in the works of Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Robert DeNiro and especially Joe Pesci. At its heart, Friends And Romans is a buddy comedy similar Joe Pesci’s classics Easy Money and My Cousin Vinny. I think Joe Pesci often gets overlooked considering how brilliant his performances were.

As for my favorite writers, my heroes include P.G. Wodehouse, Mordecai Richler, Dan Jenkins and P.J. O’Rourke. The problem with reading these guys, however, is that they are so brilliant it sometimes makes me want to quit altogether because I could never approach their genius.

::What are your immediate and long-term writing goals?

My immediate goal is to see Friends And Romans jump from screenplay to screen. And I am confident the boost and notoriety I get from winning the Screenplay Shootout will bring me closer to that goal.

I just completed a play called Richard Benjamin which I will likely produce in the Fall. It’s a comedy and I have a lot of confidence in it. As for my next screenplay, I am outlining a Wall Street themed idea and should start typing something in the next few months.

SEE: http://www.screenplayshootout.com/