Interview (Part 4): Adam Best

My interview with 2023 Black List writer for his script The Wolf in Chiefs Clothing.

Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Adam Best about his creative background, the craft of screenwriting, and his Black List script The Wolf in Chiefs Clothing.

Today in Part 4 of a 6-part series to run each day this week, Adam responds to some screenwriting craft questions.

Scott: From a pragmatic standpoint, you have a series of football games. I was thinking that’s helpful in terms of the structure of the story.

Adam: Yeah, I thought the 2019 Chiefs schedule would give me a backbone to set this up structurally. Then weave in the local bank robberies close to places where they have road games. The challenge there was how much football versus how many bank robberies versus how much personal stuff. I made the decision to join the season in progress. That was a real balancing act because I think people definitely want the football. If he’s a superfan, you have to include that.

Again, I wanted to capture the experience of being a Chiefs fan, being a die-hard fan. I felt like the audience had to become intoxicated too. That thing that Scorsese does with the Wolf of Wall Street or Goodfellas, where you almost get caught up in it. That’s why Kelce is a supporting character and Mahomes shows up a few times too. To sell getting dazzled by star power.

You can see how someone could lose themselves in this thing that’s detestable, because the lifestyle has so much allure. That’s what I was trying to accomplish. Football is such a big cultural force and it’s so exciting, that was my mechanism. I stuck to that season and everything sort of fell into place.

Scott: You have Mahomes as the voice-over character. He is at the beginning and the end. What was that choice about?

Adam: It simply felt right. From day one. I wanted to very quickly, in two pages in the opening, capture the golden age of this franchise. What it’s like to be a superfan. I thought he’s got such an interesting voice too. I say in the script, he sounds like Kermit the Frog.

Mahomes is the most talented football player I’ve ever seen. He seems like a great person, but he does have a very interesting voice. A funny voice at times. I just thought he would be a great gateway into this Chiefs fan character. He’s also pretty funny in his State Farm commercials. Has a good sense of humor.

Scott: This must be crazy for you, having watched the Chiefs progress, I mean the actual Kansas City Chiefs progress through the playoffs, mirroring what you’ve got in the script.

Adam: When we were setting up this interview, I remember that somewhat skeptically, I said, “Well, I better not book it on the day of the AFC Conference Championship because they’re there every year.” They seem like they’re having a down year, but maybe they’ll make it.

Lo and behold, they’re back in the Super Bowl for what, the fourth time in five years. I could never have imagined this as a kid in my wildest dreams. I only wanted us to get one Super Bowl in my lifetime, another Super Bowl while my dad was still around. Honestly, it’s surreal.

It’s also surreal how these big developments in my life are spawned by the Chiefs. My company that I was at for 10 years started with the Chiefs. Me getting my manager and making the Black List started with the Chiefs. What that tells me is passion in terms of creating content, whether it’s a website or a screenplay, that really shines through and can be a force in your writing.

Scott: Of course, if the Chiefs win, I would imagine everybody in Hollywood would be sitting around, going, “Hey, we need to do a football movie…”

[laughter]

Adam: Yeah, I hope so. I am praying that they win. I always want them to win, but this year it’s a little different because it’d be very helpful to the project. Going back to back would be a big deal. There are producers circling. There has been interest from talent. I’m taking meetings. My brilliant manager Nadya has been awesome in engineering buzz. Very thankful to her. There’s also been an organic quality to the spread that is simply good fortune.

We’re feeling super optimistic about it. At a time when, is it fair to say franchises are failing a little bit in Hollywood? Some of the superhero stuff and some of the IP stuff that was so bankable in the past fell apart.

My hope, our hope, is that this is de facto IP between how hot the Chiefs are, the Swifties and everything. That this would get butts in seats and do numbers. The NFL, we see that they dominate TV ratings. We’re pumped, and we’re going to keep taking meetings and pushing until this thing happens.

Scott: Good luck to you on that. It’s a terrific script. Really enjoyed reading it. Let’s check out a few craft questions starting with: How do you come up with story ideas?

Adam: There’s no consistent method. Sometimes I am going through my days, throwing index cards with ideas on them into a shoe box. I have this idea shoe box thing that I try to fill up as the year goes along. I learned that from Woody Allen. I heard about him doing that around 20 years ago and it stuck.

Most are junk, but when an idea sticks with me I know it’s worth exploring. Sometimes I’ll have a kernel of a concept and believe it’s not good enough. I’ll just let it go, and it’ll come back later.

Sometimes I’m watching a movie and inspiration hits. Like my most recent idea that I liked. I was watching a movie, and there was a character I really dig in that movie. There aren’t very many characters like her. I was asking myself, why don’t we have a movie about a character like her? I’ve never seen that before. It’s a scene-stealing supporting character in this great flick.

How could I explore that and make it something fresh and fun? I’m just always throwing ideas out there. I feel like I’m an idea person. Having formerly been in a business where we were constantly trying to spin up new websites, new products, etc.

Also, being a blogger helped. I feel like sometimes, as screenwriters, we get a little too dependent on the magic arriving and giving us a gift. The Chiefs script I wrote definitely was a gift that landed in my lap. But I had been trying to figure out a Chiefs script for 3–4 years. Brainstorming is a habit. You have to exercise those muscles so they don’t atrophy.

Scott: By the way, bringing up Shane Black again, I remember reading an interview with him. He has a shoe box.

Adam: Does he?

Scott: Yeah, same thing. Let’s talk about prep writing. What’s your process for it like? Do you card? How do you break your story?

Adam: You hear the phrase, “Writing is rewriting.” For me, it’s “Writing is pre-writing.” I do exhaustive work beforehand. It often starts with a little bit of discovery pages. Which is simply me exploring how I would open into this world, and trying to find characters and tone.

Like the project I’m working on now, I did the first half of Act One a bunch of different times and completely threw it all out. But it was a process of elimination. Usually my treatments are around 15 to 25 pages. Sometimes longer. I’ll have many drafts. I’m constantly iterating my outlines.

I try to do as much major surgery there as I can, because when I get into the draft, I like to have fun. I like to focus on making it an engaging literary piece, making it cinematic. Executing my vision. I don’t want to be too logical while it all comes to life.

I find that if I do as much on the front-end as I can, that when I do get to the rewrite phase — which I also feel is important — that those efforts can be targeted. I can get out the scalpel instead of a chainsaw. I know not everyone’s like this, but the thought of a vomit draft, which I have tried, gives me the heebie-jeebies. I’m pretty OCD when it comes to figuring things out in advance.

Tomorrow in Part 5, Adam provides advice to aspiring screenwriters and adds a coda to our chat: What it was like to witness this year’s Super Bowl where the Kansas City Chiefs prevailed again.

For Part 1 of the interview series, go here.

Part 2, go here.

Part 3, go here.

Adam is repped by Writ Large.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3CdquRsu60VZcbGMfr1WgQ\
https://arrowheadaddict.com/
https://twitter.com/adamcbest

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