Interview (Written): Matt Lieberman

A Q&A with the screenwriter of the current hit movie Free Guy.

Aaron Couch from The Hollywood Reporter conducted a recent interview with screenwriter Matt Lieberman, credited as co-writer of the movie Free Guy which opened with a strong $28M in box office revenues. Given the impact of the COVID pandemic on theater attendance, that is an impressive number, so much so that 20th Century Fox is already talking sequel.

Interesting to note: Liberman wrote Free Guy as a spec script. Here are excerpts from the interview.

What was life like when you started writing Free Guy as a spec in 2016?

I’d been a professional screenwriter for a while. I’d sold Christmas Chronicles. I’d worked in the Disney writer’s program for a couple of years, which was great. I’d gotten open writing assignments like Short Circuit and Scoob! Even Addams Family by then. I was definitely feeling a little stuck in a place. It is more an autobiography than I’d be willing to admit. I felt stuck and I had this idea, I’d been kicking it around for a while and I knew it was a good idea. Five years ago this month, I sat down and knocked it out, really quickly.

How long did draft No. 1 take for Free Guy?

I wrote the first draft in less than three weeks. A lot of that stuff is very much still in the movie. It’s crazy. I’d been kicking around the idea for a while. I knew what it was. There were pieces of talent that were interested in talking about it as an idea, as a pitch maybe. I had a good sense of what it needed to be when I started out.

What was your earliest idea on this?

I started the idea as, “What if you have the cheat codes to life? What if you could walk around and see powerups? Oh, then you would be in Grand Theft Auto.” I backed into it that way. Once I had that, it all started falling together really quickly. I relate to NPCs in a lot of ways. Like a lot of writers are, I’m a habitual guy. I’m very much in my lane. My wife says I’m a cartoon character. I wear the same three sets of clothes all the time. The Blue Shirt Guy was me for a while.

How quickly did you come up with the ideas for the real world and the game company?

I was thinking a lot about Truman Show and Cabin in the Woods. I’m a high-concept guy. I love great, high-concept movies. I don’t know what they are called in [Cabin in the Woods] — the executive guys. I set it up the same way. Who are these guys? Are the two worlds related? I wanted them to have a scene or two of that where you weren’t even sure if these were part of the same world or not. It just naturally evolved from there.

The movie asks, “What does it mean to be human? How much of ourselves is our programming?” The romance definitely evolved, especially once Ryan and Shawn got involved. Shawn was really big on making the emotional impact and earning that moment at the end where they have a Ghost moment. In the original script they were together still at the end, which I realized was not a practical way to end the movie. “You are just going to have a continuous relationship with a made-up piece of A.I.” Zak Penn came on and did a pass and he really drew out a lot of that romance stuff in a great way.

Here is a trailer for the movie:

Here is Deadpool critiquing the movie trailer:

Takeaway: It is SO HARD to get original material made as a movie nowadays, perhaps the single biggest key is to work with a STRONG STORY CONCEPT. Witness this interview excerpt with Lieberman:

There aren’t too many screenwriters who are able to sell big, original high-concept pitches. What’s the secret to doing that?

It definitely has to do with having a good team. My manager, Adam Kolbrenner, has helped me navigate. Every time I have a good idea, I run it by him and he’s like, “Oh, there’s something,” or [not]. He has a good idea of what is selling out there and what people are looking for. That’s essential. For me, if you have a high concept with a good, ironic hook or a big wish fulfillment element in it that has a good theme baked into its DNA, that’s how I like to build out ideas. Once you have that, they usually turn out well.

So you talk to your manager, “Here’s an idea I have, is this worth my time to write this script?”

A hundred percent. If it’s like, “Maybe,” then maybe I’ll write 20 pages. For Free Guy I wrote 40 pages. I sent it to him, and he called me back. “This one is special.” I knew I was on the right track.

For the rest of the interview, go here.

For 100s more interviews with screenwriters and filmmakers, go here.