Interview (Part 2): Kieran Turner

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for his script Black Dogs.

Kieran wrote the original screenplay Black Dogs which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Kieran about his creative background, writing a Black List script, and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 2 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Kieran describes some film projects which laid the groundwork for him to write Black Dogs.

Scott: It sounds like a lot of learn by doing, right?

Kieran: Definitely. NYU was very much learn by doing.

Scott: This feature film, this thesis, it was 24 Nights? Is that the one?

Kieran: Yeah, that was 24 Nights.

Scott: Let’s talk a bit about that. I think the premise is a gay‑themed romantic comedy about a grown man who still believes in Santa Claus, right?

Kieran: Correct.

Scott: Maybe unpack a little bit about that story and the process of getting the film produced. It eventually got distribution, if I’m not mistaken.

Kieran: It did. I don’t remember how I came up with the story. It was something that I was just noodling on. It’s so funny because so many people asked me when I was on the festival circuit and after the movie came out, “Was this an autobiographical story?”

Not so much about the Santa Claus thing but because the main character’s parents die when he’s very young in an accident. His mother has instilled in him this belief in Santa Claus. It’s a way of both keeping them alive for him and keeping him a child and not having to mature and become an adult and take on responsibilities.

I would have people come up to me. They would say, “Oh, I lost my parents at a young age,” or, “My parents are both dead. I really got what you were trying to say here. That must’ve been awful for you.” I felt terrible having to say, “It has nothing to do with me. I just made it up.”

People always want to seem to attach whatever it is that you write and assume that everything that you write is autobiographical. That was a weird lesson to learn. People expect that kind of thing from you.

I just saw the kind of money that people were pouring into their shorts. They weren’t really doing anything with them. I thought, “If I’m going to take the time and the money to make this, I want to have something that I might be able to sell.”

I wanted to do a feature, and I did. Yes, it did sell. I wasn’t particularly proud of the end result for several reasons. The biggest one has to do with sort of trashing another member of the crew. I don’t want to do too much of that. I’ve spoken about it before.

Ultimately, it was my responsibility. I was the person who was in charge. The fact that I didn’t stop it when I could have and was forced to continue on with it and finish it ultimately falls on me.

People seem to have loved it. It did really well on the festival circuit. I sold it. I made quite a bit of money from it for what it was, I should say. The minute that my contract ended with the distributor, I took it out of print. It will never, ever go back in print again.

Scott: Wow.

Kieran: Yeah, just because I don’t want to people to think that that’s all I can do. In terms of the way that it looks, it just doesn’t look good. It’s not a good‑looking film.

Scott: You did a documentary, Jobriath AD.

Kieran: Yeah. I never thought about making documentaries. I actually had sold a project to a company, I don’t know, in mid‑to late aughts. It was another gay‑themed film. It was a time‑travel comedy. I had been financed. Everything was great.

We were about four weeks away from me going to New York to start casting. The money fell through. All of a sudden, I had nothing to do because I had sublet my apartment out here, out in LA. I had to quickly be able to undo that because I had nowhere to be.

Jobriath was this glam rock musician from the ’70s, who was the first openly gay rock star. He was supposed to be the American version of Bowie. I had always heard about him, even though he was a little bit before my time, because I’m very into gay history and music history, and ’70s history.

His music had been out of print for a long time. I’d never heard any of it. I just always saw the photos of him and thought he was a joke.

Morrissey was a big fan of his. Morrissey had put out a compilation CD of some of Jobriath’s music out on his own label. I found it on Amazon. I thought, “I’m going to order this. I’m going to make fun of this. I need to hear it. It’s going to be really horrible. I’m going to have a good laugh.”

I played it. I thought, “Holy shit, this is amazing music. I have to know what happened, why this guy didn’t succeed.” The more research that I did, the more that I realized that the story needed to be told and that this person was quite amazing and was a groundbreaker in a lot of ways. No one knew who he was. Those who did thought he was a joke.

I was like, “OK. I’m going to do this. I’m going to make a documentary.” It turned out to be quite a success. All of his music got back in print, thanks to the documentary. A lot of people have discovered him. He’s still being written about and discovered 10 years after the movie was on the festival circuit.

We did about a year and a half on the festival circuit. Then Factory 25 picked it up, released it theatrically in early 2014, put it out on DVD and digital. We did a special release for Record Store Day, where we did a combo vinyl LP of tracks that someone had given me, that no one had ever heard before or been released anywhere.

Now I’m working on a screenplay for a biopic for his story. People are actually interested, which is amazing. I feel very protective of him and of his story.

I want to make sure that it’s told correctly with the reverence but also with the razzle‑dazzle that it deserves as well because it’s a really great story. Not only is the music terrific, but even if you don’t like the music, the story is pretty phenomenal.

Scott: That must be inspiring. In a sense, you resurrected this musician.

Kieran: It is. It’s weird. You don’t want to take credit for it. It’s weird because I never knew Jobriath. I wasn’t a long‑time fan of his, yet I’ve now found myself in the position of being the keeper of his legacy. It’s a really weird thing to think about it like, “Wow, why me? How did I become the person that has that responsibility? Am I worthy of it? Should I be the one that’s doing it?”

Then I think to myself, “Well, you know what? Nobody else gave a shit.” Nobody stood up, walked up to the plate, and decided, “OK, I’m going to be the one to do it.”

That’s always how I’ve looked at the work that I’ve done. If you wait for the permission of somebody else to do something, you may never get anything done. That’s how I’ve always approached everything I’ve written and everything that I’ve produced.

Scott: That probably is the same spirit and attitude for the project, Ghost Lights?

Kieran: Yes. Ghost Lights is a four‑episode docuseries about how the AIDS crisis altered the landscape of theater. It’s about how the theater community rose up at the beginning of the AIDS crisis, when no one else was doing anything, and said, “Oh my god, we have to get the word out. We have to write pieces that talk about the AIDS crisis, like plays, and put them on.

We have to figure out how to raise money for the people in our community who don’t have any health care and aren’t able to take care of themselves and are so sick that they can no longer work. We have to figure out how to build this network of support.”

They were the first community that did it. Other people followed by example. I really truly, honestly believe that if it wasn’t for the theater community, alongside the gay community, doing this, it would have taken a lot longer for AIDS awareness to really have reached the peak that it did.

Also, there were close to a thousand theater artists who died before their time and whose work, because it was in the theater, because it was so ephemeral and it gets performed and then it disappears, so many people don’t know about. There’s this legacy of this amazing art and these artists, who should have been handed down to the next generation and the next generation.

Those generations are not aware of these people and the work that actually is accessible to them if they know how to find it and where to find it. I’ve been working on that. I can’t talk too much about it because it hasn’t been publicly announced.

We signed with a company to finish it and to take it out for sale. We’re hooked up with an agency to help us take it out for sale. Things are moving along really well with it. I’m really excited about it and thrilled that we were able to make it happen, especially with COVID shut us down for a year now.

Tomorrow in Part 3, Kieran describes discovering the true story he used as inspiration for his Black List script: How in 1973, Led Zeppelin was robbed of nearly a quarter million dollars in cash while playing a series of concerts in New York City, a case that was never solved.

For Part 1, go here.

Kieran is repped by Bellevue Productions.

Twitter: @jobriathdoc

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