Go Into The Story Interview: Daniel Hanna

My interview with the 2021 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Daniel Hanna wrote the original screenplay “Shelter Animal” which won a 2021 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Daniel about his creative background, his award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to him.

Here are links to the entire 6-part which has run this week.

Part 1: “I wrote a novel when I was a kid. I thought it was the most fun thing in the world to just create my own stories.”

Part 2: It was a perfect synergy of a person who had been discarded from society, interacting with all of these animals that have been discarded from society.”

Part 3: “It’s like both of them opening up, becoming more open, an organic process where they become comfortable with each other and feel safe with each other.”

Part 4: “It was just a weird world for that to play out in that no one had really seen before, and that was something that really interested me.”

Part 5: “At one point, very early draft, I had a different ending. I had a much more tragic ending.”

Part 6: “Accountability in a writers’ group goes a long way because you have to turn in pages. So long you stay true to what you want and not what other people want.”

Twitter: @rjdanielhanna.

For a MovieMaker podcast interview with each of the 2021 Nicholl winners, go here.

To learn more about the Nicholl screenwriting competition, go here.

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.

For my interviews with Black List writers, go here.