Interview (Part 4): Kevin Sheridan

My interview with 2023 Black List writer for his script Backcountry.

Kevin Sheridan wrote the screenplay Colors of Authority which landed on the 2022 Black List. Then his screenplay Backcountry was named to the 2023 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Kevin about his creative background, writing two Black List scripts, and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 4 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Kevin digs deep into his research about avalanches and how they are not only action events in the script, but also carry metaphorical meaning.

Scott: Being a member of the elder set, I’m familiar with the whole Irwin Allen disaster movie phenomenon, Poseidon Adventure…

Kevin: Oh, yeah.

Scott: Towering Inferno. There was a Rock Hudson movie called Avalanche…

Kevin: I never watched it. I didn’t watch anything in the realm of skiing just because I didn’t want anything to be planted in my head.

Scott: You were aware of it?

Kevin: I was aware of it, yeah.

Scott: From a standpoint, putting producers hat on, you go: Avalanche! That’s just like, “Boom.” you could market that, right? It takes on so much more meaning. Well, first of all, your description of this thing, it’s like the snow becomes this nemesis character, the way you describe it. In fact, there’s a line here: “It sounds like a hundred thousand lost souls calling out from beyond the grave.” It takes on a personality, and the description you have of what the damage it does in that sequence. How did you get into that mindset where you were just like inhabiting this character, the avalanche as a character in the story.

Kevin: I dug in as hard as I could. I got Avalanche certified level one…

The last time we chatted we talked about how important community is… and the myth of the writer going away in this cave and coming back with this screenplay four months later that’s perfect and “Ah, isn’t he or she such a genius?” Like, that’s not me. I had so much help with this.

Don Wilson from the Colorado Alpine Rescue Team was the first person I called. I am this writer that nobody knows, and I’m calling her, and she’s like, “Who are you?” And I’m like, “I’m going to write this movie about skiing. It’s going to be meaningful and help the world understand the dangers of avalanches.”

Then I called Dale Atkins, who is a guru of avalanches at the National Avalanche Foundation. KC Dean, who is an extreme skier I got to know really well, just a wonderful human being, he helped immensely.

All these people informed how I wrote every single line. Listening to them tell me about what an avalanche really is, that’s what went on the page. Hearing their stories, the violence of these slides is hard to fathom. And it happens just like that. A split second. All of a sudden, here’s this whole mountain face that’s just coming down at 80 miles per hour. Making the mountain its own character really was a goal from the beginning. And we set it up in the first page of the script.

I wanted to make Alder Creek this godlike thing. Not so much a monster, but like a Tibetan goddess.

Scott: The way you describe it, as I said, I lived in Colorado for two years. You lived in the shadow of Ajax Mountain every day when I was in Aspen. Your description brought to mind the effect of like an atom bomb. That propulsive destructive power, the way you describe it.

Kevin: It really is. And all these experts who donated their time, they helped me flush it out. Andy Nassetta is another guy who helped. He works at the Utah Avalanche Center. They sent me so many just incredible documents and reports to help portray it as accurately as possible.

I got to sit in these Zooms with all of these heavy‑hitters in the avalanche community. Here I am, this screenwriter nobody knows about, and they were all so generous.

Scott: There’s a whole metaphorical level, right? Buried feelings. Danger, obviously.

Kevin: Yeah, a thousand percent.

Scott: The main thing is that you’ve got this…again, if you’re planting this idea that, “Oh, OK, he’s going to do the run, and that’ll be that.” That’s not, that’s like a preamble. It really is about this rescue mission in the last 60 pages of the script.

It’s in Brooks efforts to save the lives of these people he cares about, Teddy, and Annie, and Zach is involved in that, too, Rick. There is that ad hoc family on the mountain … then, of course, his wife and his daughter.

You got all these cross‑cut storylines, helicopters, snowmobiles, and whatnot. It takes on its own action thing, but that the avalanche awakens these deeper, submerged feelings and his need.

You mentioned this earlier, this is what he needs to have happen in order to go through the transformation process he needs to go through. That’s metaphorical, yes?

Kevin: Just talking about it, Brooks is a character that would never ask for help. He would never ask for anyone to do anything for him. He lives this very solitary, quiet life. He has his family.

Th real change that happens for him is that he gets help. He comes to understand how much he is valued by his community. That’s what saves him. It’s the act of love that’s really profound.

Not to spoil the ending, but when he gets rescued and he gets a sense of how many people contributed to his rescue — it’s an incredibly powerful moment for him. It’s shows that his life has value and meaning. It destroys his prior belief structure. Does that make sense?

Scott: Yeah, absolutely.

Kevin: Everyone banded together to save him, and in the end — that’s what really changes him.

Scott: I think that’s a great analysis because it starts off like, “OK, if I can just do this. If I can go and do this right, then…”

Kevin: Then I will fix myself, and I will fix my life. And that changes, the goal post now becomes, “If I can just get all these people out of here alive…” And then that goal post changes. Ultimately, he gets saved in the end. Brooks does a lot of incredibly heroic things to get that moment, but in the end, if the community didn’t come for him, he would have never made it off that mountain.

Scott: Never would have.

Kevin: That moment changes the fabric of who he is. Then, at the end of the movie, you see him doing the thing that you would never expect him to do — teach ski school.

Scott: Yeah, he’s giving of himself to others. There’s a song you featured “Feelin’ Alright,” the Joe Cocker version. There’s a line in there, a line of lyrics. I think even Zach is singing at some point: “Seems I’ve got to have a change of scene. Every night I have the strangest dream.”

Kevin: Yeah. I remember thinking who are those singers that just have soul, that are singing from some place that is so fucking spiritual? Joe Cocker popped in my head. Then I was looking through his songs, and I’m like, “That’s the lyric.” That fits for the movie.

It was one of those serendipitous things. The song, it’s the spirit of Joe Cocker that I think reflects how Brooks skis. He’s not thinking about how he skis, he’s skiing from his gut and soul.

Scott: You write this script, a terrific read. How long was that process from inception to sending the script out into the world?

Kevin: It was about a year. I probably spent three months just researching. I really just dug my heels in, and I’m like, “If I’m going to do this story, I want to show the ski community as they really are. I really want to show this avalanche as it really is.” Again, I think the more real I made everything feel, the more audiences will empathize and care about the characters who were in this predicament — because they feel tangible and like people we know.

Scott: That’s reminds me of that “TEDTalk” Andrew Stanton did. He basically said the golden rule of screenwriting, the number one thing, “Make me care, make the audience care.” That’s the characters, and I thought that that’s one of the wonderful things about your script is that by the time we hit the avalanche, we’re all in with these characters.

Kevin: I really appreciate you saying that. And I hope there are some thrills and the heart‑pumping moments before we get to the avalanche.

Scott: Well, you got a second avalanche. [laughs] You got that plant that seed there too, like, “OK.”

Kevin: When I was interviewing Dale Atkins, he was the one who told me about second avalanches that can happen. When he told me that I was like, “Bingo. We got a movie.”

Scott: Like an aftershock.

Kevin: Absolutely.

Scott: Yeah. That’s great.

Kevin: It was a specific incident. Rescuers had come to a certain location, I think it was in Utah. They were digging out people, and then a second avalanche hit, and then they all got buried.

Tomorrow in Part 5, Kevin answers some screenwriting craft questions.

For Part 1 of the interview series, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Kevin is repped by WME and Bellevue Productions.

Twitter: @Sheridankevin

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