The 21st Rewrite

‘The Lost City of Z’ is a screenplay about the now little-known British explorer Percy Fawcett, who led a remarkable life, searching the Amazon rainforest for the ruins of the lost city at a time when most who ventured into the jungle never returned alive. But the screenplay covers so much more than that, and is primarily concerned with the monumental changes that occurred in the concepts of ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’ in the early years of the last century, as well as the impact a life like Fawcett’s can have on the family back home. We discuss the important themes that the screenplay addresses, and our personal experiences that shape our view of the story.

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Set in post-war Germany, ‘Ruin’ led The 21st Rewrite to discuss the nature of hatred and redemption, the power of weaponized technology to cause mass suffering, Kurt Vonnegut’s testimony from that time, how the generations of the future will perceive the Holocaust in the absence of living memory, and the responsibilities of the screenwriter when dealing with the truth and fiction of these topics. Selected as the most-liked unproduced screenplay of 2017 by the Black List, ‘Ruin’ is the inspiration for another fascinating conversation.

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‘Silence’ is a story that is meant to be pondered over and talked about with your friends. With a profound understanding of the meaning of faith, suffering and the struggle to choose the right path in life, ‘Silence’ is a masterpiece that led to The 21st Rewrite's most detailed and engaging analysis yet. We compare the screenplay to the original novel by the Catholic Japanese novelist Shusaku Endo, and consider Scorsese and Cocks' process of adaptation that took over two decades to do service to the source material.

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The 21st Rewrite (William Coldwell and Alan Vazquez) are back to discuss the screenplay for ‘Manchester by the Sea’, which was written by Kenneth Lonergan. He then directed this film set in the Bay State seaside town of the same name, which started Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams and won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 2016. Our conversation covers how the screenplay conveys the sense of character and relationships that are built up over the course of the narrative and how personal tragedies can be written in a realistic way.

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After a trip to Oaxaca, there was only one story that the 21st Rewrite (William Coldwell and Alan Vazquez) wanted to talk about, and that was 'Coco'! An inspirational tale for young people following their dreams, and a celebration of the culture, music and traditions of Mexico, there was plenty to talk about with this screenplay. This episode covers some of the historical and current events that helped shape the portrayal of the Rivera family and the Day of the Dead celebrations in the town of Santa Cecilia, as well as the mythological motifs that are apparent throughout the film.

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‘Slumdog Millionaire’ makes for a fascinating case study of a writer working with the spirit of a rich novel and adapting it into a screenplay that tells a much-changed but still familiar story - which made it a perfect candidate for The 21st Rewrite (William Coldwell and Alan Vazquez) to analyse this week. We consider the original source material (‘Q&A’ by Vikas Swarup) and compare it to Simon Beaufoy's script and the final version of the story as presented in Danny Boyle's film. It is ultimately a tale of triumph, set against the background of modernising India, starring Dev Patel as Jamal Malik, the boy who dares to dream that he can win the love of his childhood sweetheart against all odds.

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We were so excited to talk about Alfonso Cuarón’s new film, we put our other episodes and research on hold to focus entirely on this one. This is the first Spanish-language screenplay that we have evaluated (don’t worry, the episode is entirely in English) hopefully with more to come for those that wish to learn more about Spanish and Latin American films. The protagonist is a young indigenous woman working as a maid for a middle class family in the Colonia Roma in Mexico City in the turbulent 1970s — the story written by Alfonso Cuarón is a unique combination of memory, magic and the tragedy of life itself. Filmed entirely in black and white and featuring exceptional performances by Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira, it is a triumph of artistic cinema.

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Want to comment, get news and join episode discussions? Join the community on Syncify: https://syncify.fm/podcast/the-21st-rewrite. Instagram: @the21strewrite. Website contact page: https://www.the21strewrite.com/contact