Interview (Part 1): Ian Shorr

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for his script The House in the Crooked Forest.

Ian Shorr wrote the original screenplay The House in the Crooked Forest which landed on the 2022 Black List. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Ian about his creative background, writing a Black List script, and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 1 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Ian talks about how he developed an interest in movies and writing at an early age, going to film school, and his success in Hollywood’s spec script market.

Scott Myers: Where did you grow up, and how did you become interested in writing?

Ian Shorr: I grew up in Park City Utah. Started going to the Sundance Festival when I was about 10. This was back in ’92, so it was around the time that “El Mariachi” and “Reservoir Dogs” were blowing up. You couldn’t go anywhere in my hometown without hearing about those filmmakers. It was just a really exciting time in that world.

For me, Sundance was like Christmas. I would get so excited when it was that time of year because I had always loved movies, always been obsessed with filmmakers. All the LA people would flood into my hometown dressed in all black, so I’d dress up like them and go hang out on Main Street outside the Egyptian, trying to strike up conversations with writers and directors.

I’d been hearing the name “Tarantino” for years but had never seen one of his movies because I was only 10 or 11 around that time. My parents went out on a date one night. They left me alone with a satellite dish. I found a screening of “True Romance” on HBO and was just immediately blown away by this thing.

It was a transformative, transgressive, unforgettable experience an 11‑year‑old boy could have watching a movie [laughs] because it was definitely not made for me. It was the first time that it occurred to me that somebody had fun writing the words coming out of the actors’ mouth. Somebody had a real palpable sense of joy in creation there. I decided I wanted to have that fun too.

So I bought a couple of screenwriting books and some screenplays. The first actual script I ever read was the screenplay for Trainspotting and it became a major influence on me creatively. So at age 12 I wrote my first feature. [laughs] Ever wanted to know what a Trainspotting rip‑off written by a 12‑year‑old from Utah who has never seen drugs looks like? I’ve got the script for you.

After writing that first feature, I discovered I enjoyed it. It was a fun hobby. So I kept writing one movie per year every year until I got to college. They say you need to write five bad scripts before you write a good one. I think I wrote fifteen bad scripts before I wrote my first good one.

Scott: You mentioned going to college. Did you go to SC?

Ian: I went to SC for undergrad. I studied screenwriting there. My freshman year professor was this guy Peter Gamble, who I became friends with and then eventually cowriters with. We wrote the script “10‑31” that was on the 2019 Black List. He changed my life. Made me a much better writer. He’s a big reason why my time at USC was worth every penny.

Scott: There’s a lot of screenwriters in pooh‑pooh film school, just move into L.A., become an assistant, and work your way up. It was a beneficial experience for you?

Ian: Everyone’s got their own path. I know plenty of writers who never spent a day in film school who write fantastic material and found their own way in. That’s totally viable, especially considering the financial risk you take by attending college. I was lucky to get enough work early in my career that I was able to pay off my student loans.

If you’re going to go six figures into debt for a degree that’s not worth the paper it’s printed on, that’s not a decision you make lightly. For me, the thing that made it worth it was I treated USC like a trade school. I knew that once I graduated, I was probably going to have to get a job in the service industry and write scripts at night. So that meant I had 4 years where my only job was to learn screenwriting, be my own harshest critic, and make myself into an employable writer by the time I got out in the real world.

Scott: Since I launched my blog in 2008, I have tracked announced spec script deals. Your name has popped up several times. There’s “Cristo” with Warner Brothers. “Capsule” with FOX. “10‑31” you just mentioned, and then Infinite with Paramount which got produced 2020 had started Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

For TV, you’ve landed writing assignments, I’m sure you probably sold pitches too, but you’ve continued to write spec scripts at least until recently. What’s your philosophy about that? I mean, what’s the value of writing a spec if you’re already an established writer in Hollywood?

Ian: I ask myself that all the time now. [laughs] Specs are still one of the most reliable ways to break in –having a calling card script that showcases your voice, where you just put all your chips down and bet on yourself.

Once you’re already in, the question is: why keep gambling with your time? And for me, it comes down to this: if I’m doing nothing but chasing assignments, I’m just servicing other people’s visions. I don’t have something that I can call 100 percent my own thing.

When I’m writing a spec, it’s one of the few times in my life that I have total creative control over something. Don’t get me wrong. The second studio buys it, all that control goes out the window. Say you build a house and sell it to someone; they can now paint it whatever color they want. They can knock down whatever walls they see fit. But until you make that sale, you get the pleasure of creating something entirely on your own terms.

Scott: The spec market has gone downhill at least in terms of options and sales. I’m just curious what your thought is why that might be the case.

Ian: Audiences have been trained to stop showing up for original material. You had people who used to go to movies to watch original stories, and they stopped showing up. They now almost exclusively get their original storytelling from television and go to the theater for a different type of experience.

Once all the studios were bought by conglomerates, you have money-guys making decisions instead of creatives. The only thing that money-guys want is a safe bet, and the closest thing to a safe bet in this industry is something that people have bought before. Studio dollars that used to get spent on original material now get spent buying up IP, and so there’s only a tiny slice of the pie left for buying specs. It’s gotten to be a much smaller target over the years.

The one advantage that I’ve had my whole life is that the stuff that I love to write is the type of stuff that studios like to buy. Or are at least willing to take a chance on. There’s a big reason why I consistently write in action, horror, thriller, or sci‑fi. I’m a genre writer at heart, and thank God, studios will still occasionally open their wallet for a well-written genre spec.

If I was writing stuff that wasn’t genre, if I was writing more character‑driven stuff, more stuff geared towards grown‑ups, I probably would have given up the spec world entirely and gone to work in TV by now.

Scott: Certainly, the script we’re going to talk about, “The House in the Crooked Forest,” does fall into a genre. I’d say, too, that probably it’s a comfort level for potential buyers because that’s similar but different thing. There are elements to it that feel like, “Ah, this is like a successful movie that came before.” I want to talk to you about that.

Before we do that, I bumped into this thing called a BamBoom.

Ian: [laughs] Screenwriting it’s my side hustle for my DJ career! Screenwriting is merely a hobby, DJing pays all the bills. [laughs] For about the past eight years I’ve been doing a side project DJing for festivals around Southern California, Burning Man, etc. When I’m writing, I can work on something for years and never get to see the effect that it has on an audience. Might be months, it might be years, might be a decade, might never happen. But if I’m in the DJ booth playing a set, I get to see the effect on the audience immediately. It scratches that itch for me.

Scott: I think that’s important for writers particularly in a crazy business like Hollywood to have that thing, something that they can control and do and enjoy and know that they can always go and do that to balance out all the peaks and valleys of the business.

I was watching one video of you. I think it was with your little kid. The beach in the background.

Ian: I was living on Kauai during the pandemic and I did a couple of livestream shows where I’m hanging out on the deck with the ocean in the background. I’ve got my one‑year‑old in my arms, we’re dancing around to some house music. That was a fun day.

Here is the video of Ian and his adorable infant sharing the DJ floor.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Ian talks about the inspiration for his script The House in the Crooked Forest.

Ian is repped by UTA and Bellevue Productions.

Twitter: @IanShorr

Soundcloud

For my interviews with dozens of other Black List writers, go here.