Interview (Part 2): Max Taxe

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

Max Taxe wrote the screenplay Ripple which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Max 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, Max talks about some previous projects, then background on his 2022 Black List script Ripple.

Scott: Wilder talks about how a really good screenplay will hide those structural points.

Max: I’m a sports obsessive and I talk about sports in the same way. When I was a kid watching Kobe or Tony Hawk or any athlete, they always made it so easy and — seamless — and you know it’s not, because you’d go try to shoot a fadeaway or a kickflip or whatever and it wouldn’t quite work, not like them. Because they drilled the basics, the footwork, the balance, for so long first. That’s — the long way of saying that I feel the same way about structure. It’s the unseen work that lets you do all the flashier stuff.

It’s also the same thing when you watch Spielberg’s camera movements. They’re so effortless, but — well, his might actually just be genius, but — he’s done it so many times, he’s put in the work, that it feels simpler than it is. Like, you just hope to get your reps in so you can pull it off that level of expertise once. Just once, that’s all I ask. [laughs]

Scott: I don’t know, Max. Your writing is pretty damn good. In fact, you made the Black List before in 2012 with “Goodbye, Felix Chester.” Here’s a plot summary.

After finding out he has a month left to live, high school junior Felix Chester focuses all his time and energy on one goal, losing his virginity to his dream girl.

What can you tell us about that project, the inspiration for it…?

Max: That was one where I came from just the simple question of if I was… I may be too obsessed with my own death in Harold & Maude kind of way. I wrote this towards the end of college and kept refining it after. If I were to find out I had a month left to live when I was a teenager, honestly, what would my goals be? [laughs]

It became where, obviously, it’s not really about him trying to lose his virginity. It’s about wanting to find love, and learning to appreciate the love that he has already in his life. I was trying to hit some real emotional beats that, especially at the time of my writing, I hadn’t really risked enough to go to some places that were a lot more nakedly emotional, and seeing if I could pull that off, and still keep up the comedy.

It was one where I went in hoping to make those, around the time of Juno and those kind of movies, my version of that. It was the first time that I felt like my voice was in a script. I had written other scripts before that, but it was the first time I felt like this is a glimpse at to the writer I wanted to be.

I think that’s why that became my first script that, like, that’s the one that got me my first managers and agents and got on the Black List, thanks to a couple people that responded to my voice and really, really fought for it.

We almost got it made it in 2016. We were days out from production with indie financing that, in retrospect, had a lot of red flags. It just fell apart. It’s free now, but… I still have a lot of love for that script, I’ll keep fighting for it to get made.

Scott: You also had another project, I think, which did get produced. Moonshot, is that right?

Max: Yeah. Moonshot came out last year. Last year? Yeah. Messing up my years. It was with Berlanti Productions, and Entertainment 360, my managers. It came out on HBO Max, and then — they took it off HBO Max. It was one of those ones that got… It’s still available on iTunes and on every Delta flight, so I’ve been told.

It started as a spec that I wrote when I went and got new managers. I wanted to hit the reset button a bit when I went over to them and get back to writing what I loved. And that was the first script we worked on together.

And my manager, Jill, had this whole game plan for it when we decided that would be my next project. She was like “you’re gonna write the spec, then we’re going to give it to Berlanti, they’re going to love it, and then you’ll use that as an opportunity to pitch them this TV idea of yours,” which is…exactly what happened. They came on board for Moonshot, and we worked on this other pilot for a while too. It was all my manager’s master plan, so she gets all the credit.

And then, you know, they took it a step further and got Moonshot made. Chris Winterbauer directed it. They were in production right as the Delta variant kicked into gear. I don’t think they’ll ever get enough credit for how they handled that whole situation. They did a great job.

Scott: It’s got a romance story at the heart of it, right?

Max: Yeah, I love that movie, The Sure Thing, that John Cusack, Rob Reiner movie. That very simple, It Happened One Night structure. So Moonshot was in that kind of tradition, but…if the love of your life was one of the early inhabitants of a newly terraformed Mars, and you were still on Earth.

When I wrote it, I was coming off of so many projects in a row that centered on death and dying or subjects that definitely had some real…emotional gravity. Even if they weren’t straight up dramas. So I wanted, consciously or not, I’m still not entirely sure, I just wanted something that was pure fun. There are still serious moments in the movie, in all versions, all the drafts, but the goal was a pleasant, good time the whole way through.

I started the first draft in 2018, so we were in the thick of the Trump years. So I think I needed that genuine escapism. Then, obviously, we got into the COVID years, and it felt even more important, beyond just me personally, to do somewhere where we’re like “let’s just be happy for a minute, let’s just pretend.”

Scott: Well, that leads us to “Ripple,” which is the script that made the 2022 Black List. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed reading it.

Max: Thank you!

Scott: For a person who loves movies like I do, it’s like an homage. I mean this in the best way. I kept saying, “God, this reminds me of… this reminds me of… this reminds me of.”

Frankly, everything’s come before. All stories have been told before. Hollywood has operated in that similar, but different mindset forever. I do want to talk to you about several films that came to mind as I was reading this. Here’s a plot summary.

“When a time traveler starts meddling with the past, just as Miles finally meets the love of his life, he must battle ever‑shifting timelines to find her again.”

As I understand it, I think this started as a short story, is that right?

Max: Yeah, I wrote this as a short story in 2019. It was one of these ideas that I loved and really felt like it was punching above my weight in terms of — I couldn’t go out and pitch this movie because no one would have bought it from me. It was a little too complicated. And I was in the process of pitching a show around and then, later, writing it for ABC, so it didn’t feel like the right time to spec it either, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it and talking about it.

My managers were smart enough to be like, “We know that you’re not going to shut up about this. We respect that you love it. You have two options: wait until you have the power or the relationships to will this into being, or…just get it out of your head, write it as a short story and we’ll put it in a drawer.’”

I think on some level they were being like, “maybe this will get him to just stop talking and move on to the next thing that’s easier to sell.” I wrote it, just to write it and make it a thing that stood out on its own merits, not as a means to anything else, and really enjoyed it and then we…put it in a drawer. They didn’t send it out. I didn’t send it out. I was circling certain producers to maybe bring it up to if the opportunity arose.

When I met with 21 Laps. I love their work in general, but also Arrival felt like totally the right thing, you know. Also adapted from a short story. I really connected with their execs and brought this up, kind of on a wish and a prayer, and they jumped on it. They’ve been incredible partners beginning to end. Or not end, we’re not done yet, but beginning to…wherever we are now.

We sold it to Netflix originally. We have it back now, and we’re getting all the attachments and what not to then bring it back out. We’re in the middle of something fun.

Scott: Netflix going through their whole whatever business trauma…

Max: That’s the benefit of working with producers like 21 Laps. They have such a good relationship there because Stranger Things and Adam Project and a million other things that they were able to have an honest conversation and it cleared the way for us to get the project back.

It could still go back there. There’s a lot of nuance to us getting it back, but, you know, we’ll see. It’s exciting when there’s open road again on a project, the possibilities feel endless for a second.

My one thing has become every time I start a project, I think, “am I going to be happy with this when I’m talking about it 10 years from now, still working on it?” Because that’s just how it feels in movies. They take so long, they have so many lives. And this is one where I’ll gladly take as long as it takes.

Tomorrow in Part 3, Max gets philosophical talking about the dynamic of time-travel in Ripple and the importance of moments in an individual’s life.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Max is repped by Entertainment 360.

Twitter: @taxe

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