Interview (Part 1): Lindsay Michel

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for her script Caravan.

Lindsay Michel wrote the screenplay Caravan which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Lindsay about her 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, Lindsay talks about lifelong interest in writing and how she went straight from film school to getting repped in Hollywood.

Scott: Lindsay, congratulations on making the 2022 Black List. I guess that’s the second time for you.

Lindsay Michel: Yes, 2021 as well.

Scott: Probably doesn’t get old for you.

Lindsay: No, not yet at least.

[laughter]

Scott: Let’s start off with some background and how you got into writing. You’re from the Philadelphia area.

Lindsay: Yeah, I’m from the Philly suburbs, a town called Malvern.

Scott: How did you develop an interest in screenwriting?

Lindsay: I was raised on a steady diet of “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” from a young age. My dad is a huge movie buff. Action movies in particular have always been my bread and butter. Growing up I just watched anything I could get my hands on, in the action space. I have always had a love of genre films.

Scott: Were you always interested in writing?

Lindsay: Always. I wanted to do everything when I was little. I wanted to be an archaeologist because of Indiana Jones, and I wanted to be a linguist because of Daniel Jackson from “Stargate,” I wanted to be an FBI agent because of one million FBI movies.

Writing is a very cool way to get to do everything, to spend six months doing a deep dive into what’s it like to be a saturation diver or something, to learn about these professions and these worlds that you wouldn’t get to experience, if you chose one thing to do for the rest of your life.

Scott: When you went to college, what were your areas of focus?

Lindsay: I went to college just for screenwriting.

Scott: Where did you go to school?

Lindsay: I went to Drexel in Philly. They have a great little screenwriting program.

Scott: How did you go from Drexel to then getting representation in Hollywood?

Lindsay: I owe it to the Black List website. I rewrote my senior project over the summer after I graduated and put it up on the website to try and get some attention from producers, I guess. Kate…

Scott: That’s Kate Sharp at Bellevue?

Lindsay: Yes, Kate Sharp. She read it and contacted me and was interested in representing me as a female writer in the genre space, so I just got really lucky early on, I guess.

Scott: How great is that? You didn’t have to move to L.A. and do the whole intern to assistant to writer’s assistant path

Lindsay: Yeah, I never did the PA jobs or the scuttle butt work that I think a lot of people used to have to do. That’s what’s great about the Black List site, that you can put your work out there for people who are already looking for it, that you don’t have to go out in the world and force someone to read.

Scott: Before we get to “Caravan,” I’d like to touch on your 2021 Black List script called “Sandpiper.”

“Follows Viola Crier, a master thief who signs onto a last‑minute job aside a man‑made time loop. As the number of loops increases, the job starts to spiral out of control.”

Can you talk a little bit about that script?

Lindsay: Yeah. It was a fun script to write. My manager had come to me and said that she wanted to do a female-led heist movie.

I’d had in my head the idea to do a heist movie inside a time loop, but I was daunted by the number of moving parts that were going to come into play, trying to write something like that. But it felt like the right time to attempt it and it ended up being a really cool script.

I wanted to write a movie with an almost fully female cast that wasn’t about the fact that the heist crew were women. I feel like a lot of heist movies or action movies where the whole cast is female, it’s treated as a gimmick, where the fact that they are women has to come into play in the plot, as opposed to just, these are the best people for the job. That was my philosophy going into writing it.

Scott: So like you say, you’re drawn to genre writing.

Lindsay: Yes, definitely. I write pretty much action and sci-fi. “Caravan” was actually the first horror script that I wrote. I’m new to the horror genre.

Scott: I think it definitely qualifies as a horror script.

[laughter]

Scott: Your manager Kate, do you think she found you particularly intriguing as a potential client because you’re a female writing in genres that are typically associated with male writers?

Lindsay: Yeah, I think she had been looking for female action writers because there’s not a ton of us. I guess that’s what she was basing her search on when she found me.

Scott: Well, good for you. I’m a proponent of blowing open the status quo and Hollywood’s conventional wisdom which my friend Franklin Leonard often says is more about convention than wisdom.

Let’s talk about your 2022 Black List script “Caravan” and I have to say, I’m excited to discuss with you because I have a background studying theology. Your script has a kind of Old Testament feel to it, a bigger than life story with spectacle thrown in for good measure. So let me ask, do you come from a religious background?

Lindsay: I went to catholic school.

Scott: I might have guessed. Let’s jump into this. Here’s a plot summary of “Caravan”:

“During the Tang Dynasty, a young Persian woman joins a Silk Road Caravan to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance but must fight for survival when her fellow travelers realize there’s a shape‑shifting demon hiding in their midst.”

What was the original, the kernel of an idea that started this whole thing?

Lindsay: When I’m coming up with ideas, I’m always thinking what movie would I like to watch, and what would excite me to go see in the theater. I’m obviously a huge fan of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” and I’ve always thought historical settings are just inherently very terrifying, even without the horror element.

I’ve wanted to do a horror movie in a historical setting and I just had that idea to do “The Thing” in a Silk Road Caravan and that was the initial kernel of an idea that I was working with.

Scott: What drew you to the Silk Road environment?

Lindsay: It’s an interesting nexus where you get all of these cultures coming together. Where a lot of historical films you’re working with one culture or one person, whereas the Silk Road is this mish‑mosh of identities and faiths.

You get these conflicts just based on who people are, where they come from, and how that influences their reactions that you wouldn’t necessarily get if the movie was set on a British sailing ship or something like that.

Also, I liked the juxtaposition of, you’re trapped, you can’t leave the caravan, but you’re in this wide‑open space, so it feels like you should be able to run away. It’s almost a bottle movie, but it’s not actually in a bottle. I thought that was a neat way to approach it.

Scott: The story is set in seventh century in China, right? How much did you know about that region and era before starting the project?

Lindsay: Beyond what they teach you about the Silk Road in middle school, I didn’t really know anything going into it. I hunkered down and read a bunch of books.

Scott: You must like research.

Lindsay: I do. I really do. Especially historical research, and I don’t get to do it very often, since college.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Lindsay explores some of the challenges writing a period piece and how the Protagonist of the story emerged into being.

Lindsay is repped by Bellevue Productions.

Twitter: @mintymichel

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