Patrick McGilligan continues his celebrated interviews with exceptional screenwriters with Backstory 5, focusing on the 1990s. The thirteen featured writers are not confined to the
1990s, but their engrossing, detailed, and richly personal stories create, in McGilligan's words, "a snapshot of a profession in motion." Emphasizing the craft of writing and the process of
collaboration, this new volume looks at how Hollywood is changing to meet new economic and creative challenges. Backstory 5 probes the working methods of a diverse range of screenwriters
to explore how they come up with their ideas, how they go about adapting a stage play or work of fiction, whether their variegated life experiences contribute to the success of their writing,
how they organize and structure their work, the extent of their collaboration with the director, the up- and downside of writing on spec, and whether theater, journalism, or film school is more
helpful to a screenwriting career. The spectrum of experiences and practices presented in Backstory 5 makes this volume, like the previous four, an indispensable resource for film
students, aspiring screenwriters, and scholars. Backstory 5 features interviews with Albert Brooks, Jean-Claude Carri矇re, Nora Ephron, Ronald Harwood, John Hughes, David Koepp, Richard
LaGravenese, Barry Levinson, Eric Roth, John Sayles, Tom Stoppard, Barbara Turner, and Rudy Wurlitzer.
