Interview (Part 2): Cameron Fay

My interview with the 2024 Black List writer for his script Until You.

Cameron Fay wrote the screenplay Until You which landed on the 2024 Black List. Recently, I had the opportunity to do a deep dive with Cameron into his filmmaking background, writing his Black List script, and his approach to the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 2 of a 6-part series to run each day this week, Cameron discusses some of his directing projects and the inspiration for his screenplay Until You.

Scott: Now some of your credits. You got “Brother Nature,” “Life‑Size 2.” You’re directing projects, “Maybe It’s You.” Talk a bit about how you transitioned from the gig you set up at Universal and just how that you’ve navigated that out there.

Cameron: The Universal one was a preemptive buy, so that was really nice to get my career going. My agents at the time basically told Universal, “If you don’t pay a premium from this, we’re going to turn it into a bidding war.” So Universal upped their offer by a lot. I was a nanny at the time. I was like, “I’ll take anything,” but my reps were smart, that’s why you have reps, because I would’ve taken the first offer.

That led to me selling a pitch to Universal as well. Then, it’s snowballed into rewrite jobs and a few jobs that I don’t have my name on, but I got to do some work on them and they got made. Then, Brother Nature was a script I wrote on spec that Paramount bought for Lorne Michaels to produce.

I’d always wanted to be a writer‑director, but I got into this cycle of being a paid writer. I got away from directing. The Brother Nature experience, I was rewritten by the lead actor and his friend, who is a writer/actor, and they’re both super talented people, but I didn’t really end up loving that experience. I felt pushed aside. That experience was valuable though cause it got me back into focusing on being a director.

Life‑Size 2, I had never seen the original Life‑Size. I was building my first daughter’s crib and I got a call from an unknown number, and I answered it, and the person said, “Hey. This is Tyra Banks. Is this Cameron?” I was like, “Who is this?” [laughs] “Like really, who’s calling me right now pretending to be Tyra Banks?”

But it was Tyra. And she explained that she had read a script of mine and thought I was perfect to write Life‑Size 2. I honestly did not know what Life‑Size 1 was. I hadn’t seen it. I was literally about to have a baby, and I thought, “Gosh. This is a job, just falling in my lap.” So I took it. I loved working with her. I loved working with everyone there. I did my steps. I went off.

Stacey Harmen came on, did some work on it, and we shared the credit. It was just a fun paid gig, I guess. I was really still focusing on directing. I directed a short film with Jack Quaid and Nikohl Boosheri. That’s what got me the feature directing gig, “Maybe It’s You.” It was originally called Platonic, written by Sono Patel. But the studio had to change the title because of the TV show “Platonic,” which came out first.

Scott: Couple lessons there for people who are reading this or outside the business. One, features are primarily a director’s medium, so it’s not like TV where the writers rule. Two, if ever you want to land a gig where somebody just calls you on the phone, you need to be building a crib.

[laughter]

Cameron: Yes. If you’re in a place where you’re panicking about money because you’re about to bring a human into the world that costs money, then don’t sweat it. Tyra Banks will call you to give you money. That’s the moral.

Scott: Let’s talk about your script for the Black List, “Until You.” Here’s a logline:

“When a chance encounter thrusts two perpetually single people together, their undeniable connection leads to a romance unlike anything they’ve experience, while both hiding a secret that could tear it all down.”

Scott: Was this a spec?

Cameron: Yeah, it was a spec.

Scott: At the time you’re getting gigs, you’re working. You’re getting paid, writing, directing, and you’re also spec’ing at the same time?

Cameron: Yeah. I had directed “Maybe It’s You,” and I was taking meetings with people who liked it. And these people would ask me, “What do you want to do next?” I was realizing, “I don’t have the next thing I’m going to direct,” and that was kind of foolish of me.

So I started writing this on spec as a script for me to direct. By the summer of 2024, I had a draft that I gave to my manager, Josh Goldenberg at Kaplan/Perrone, and he gave me notes that really helped it get to the next level. After a few rounds with him, we sent it to my agents, Mark Ross and Ethan Neale at Paradigm, my other manager, Aaron Kaplan, and they all really liked it. They put together a strategy to send it out, and we got about, I think, five or so places interested. I got to meet with each of them. We picked a producer, Di Novi Pictures.

One of the reasons we picked them other than their passion was that they had a plan of packaging it with two lead actors before taking it to market. We spent, basically, from Labor Day to the end of the year attaching those two actors. Now we have two, in my opinion, really wonderful actors attached to the leads, and we are taking it literally, I think, right now, to financiers.

Scott: Is this Denise Di Novi?

Cameron: Yes. Denise Di Novi and Margaret French‑Isaac are producing it.

Scott: I know Margaret from way back when she worked for Wendy Finerman.

Cameron: Yeah Margaret’s wonderful. They made “Stepmom” together, I believe, right?

Scott: Yeah. This has a “Stepmom” kind of a vibe to it, right?

Cameron: Yeah. Margaret’s big pitch was, “I haven’t read a script I loved this much since Stepmom.” That’s obviously a nice thing to hear as a writer. I will say that Margaret and Denise’s passion — I’ve actually personally never experienced producers with such passion before. It’s really refreshing.

Scott: That’s wonderful. You’re still attached to direct?

Cameron: Yes. I’m directing it. We’re looking to shoot when they’re both actors are free later this year.

Scott: Well, very good. What was the inspiration for the story? Had this been an idea you’ve been noodling around for a while, or did it come out of nowhere?

Cameron: This is an idea that I had been thinking about since about 2021. My friend Megan got sick and unfortunately passed away. She was in her 30s. Had two kids. Just thinking about it now, it’s so sad.

I have two kids myself, and my wife and I are constantly talking about the idea that, “If something were to happen to us, who would take care of our kids?”

It’s not always an easy and obvious answer. That’s where the idea, the kernel of the idea for this script, came from. Obviously, everything in it is fictional, but the inspiration, that’s where it came from.

Scott: Let’s jump into it. The script right off the bat, you’re taking on this whole online screenwriting universe kerfuffle about so-called “unfilmables.” Right there on page one, you’ve got: Exterior. New York City. Night.

“Everyday life in New York City over a score will come to know quite well over the next hour and a half.” Already you’ve got this winking at the reader, “Oh, look. We’re going to go through this experience together.”

Then you say, “When I say New York City, I should be more specific, Greenwich Village, because The Village is the world’s best microcosm. Maybe The Latin Quarter in Paris, those two, but I don’t know Paris that well, so we’ll stick with The Village.”

Is this the way you’ve always written scripts, or is this a narrative voice you chose for this specific project, this air of familiarity with the scene description of the reader?

Cameron: I think it’s something that’s always been with me to an extent. If I do something like this, it’s usually in one of two places. It’s either in the first page because I’m saying “Hi.” I want to be able to connect to the reader. Or there’s a script I wrote that Paul Feig is producing and attached to direct that there’s a moment in the middle of the movie where I write, “OK. Let’s pause cause I have to explain something real quick,” in bold.

It’s like a, “Listen up. I’m going to talk to you for a second about something that’s going on here. From a production standpoint.” I’ve done that, and then little peppered moments here and there. I don’t know. I think it’s like, to me, you’re creating a relationship with the reader. It’s part of allowing them to connect with the tone and the feel of the film.

Not that you can film it, but, in this case, I know I’m directing it, and I know what I want the tone to be. I get so many more tools when I’m directing it. I don’t believe it’s cheating to give the reader a sense of that tone in the style of it because, otherwise, it’s too limiting in my opinion. I’m sure there are writers who would disagree with me. And that’s fair.

Tomorrow in Part 3, Cameron discusses some of the primary characters in his Black List script Until You.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Cameron is repped by Paradigm and Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment.

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