This week on On Story we’ll hear from Gone Girl author and screenwriter Gillian Flynn. Gillian Flynn is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Gone Girl, for which she wrote the Golden Globe-nominated screenplay. She is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Dark Places and Sharp Objects. Flynn later adapted and executive produced the Emmy-nominated SHARP OBJECTS for HBO in 2018, which starred Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson. Also in 2018, Flynn co-wrote, with director Steve McQueen, the screenplay for the heist thriller WIDOWS, starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo. Most recently, Flynn wrote and executive produced UTOPIA for Amazon. I spoke with Gillian Flynn at the 2020 Austin Film Festival about her creative process of writing across mediums and adapting her own work.  Clips of Gone Girl & Widows courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation & Regency Entertainment Clips of Sharp Objects courtesy of Warner Brothers Television & HBO Clips of Dark Places courtesy of A24 & Denver & Delilah Films

This week on On Story we’ll hear from Ed Solomon, the screenwriter behind Men in Black and the co-writer of the Bill & Ted series. Solomon has had a major film released in each of the last 5 decades starting in 1989 with his first feature Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, which he co-wrote with Chris Matheson. That film has spawned 2 sequels, both written by Solomon and Matheson, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and 2020’s Bill & Ted Face the Music. Solomon wrote Men in Black, Now You See Me, and HBO’s interactive series Mosaic. I spoke with Solomon about his writing and the process behind deciding which ideas to pursue at the 2020 Austin Film Festival.

Semi-Finalist Stories is a new series from that highlights past Script Competition Second Rounders and their experiences attending the Festival & Conference. This week, we hear from Chance Muehleck is a writer, filmmaker, and theatre artist based in Los Angeles. His work is primarily in the genre space (sci-fi, thriller, satire). He’s a two-time semifinalist at AFF and a finalist for the Warner Brothers Television Writers Workshop. He wrote and directed the award-winning short films Sponge and Advent. He’s currently creating story content for a gaming app based on his original pitch, and has a feature in development with a director and producer attached. Chance's audio drama Dreamland reached 10,000 unique downloads in its first month of release, placing it in the top 5% of all podcast debuts. He’s co-founder of The Nerve Tank, an acclaimed independent theatre company that develops new work. His plays have been commissioned and produced by Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Dixon Place, and La MaMa, etc.

On this special presentation of On Story, we’re taking a closer look at some of the incredible films chosen to screen at the 26th Annual Austin Film Festival and the filmmakers behind these films. We spoke with filmmakers whose work represents some of the most original voices in filmmaking from around the world and the challenges they faced in their creative process as well as the breakthroughs that led them to Austin Film Festival. On this week’s On Story, co-writers and directors John Langmore and Bud Force discuss their feature documentary Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait. Told in the cinematic tradition of classic westerns, the film gives viewers a first-hand account from modern working cowboys on some of America’s largest and most remote cattle ranches.  John Langmore is a former working cowboy who spent five years photographing cowboys on twelve of the country’s largest ranches, His recently published book, Open Range: America's Big-Outfit Cowboy, is the result of over six years of work photographing on fourteen of the country's largest ranches, all running full crews of horseback cowboys. Bud Force is an award-winning director and cinematographer based in Austin, Texas. He has been involved in the agriculture industry most of his life. Bud is a former rodeo cowboy who has spent the past decade producing brand films and documentaries around the world. I spoke to John Langmore and Bud Force about Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait presented by Hill Country Conservancy ahead of the film’s world premiere at the historical Paramount Theatre on Friday, October 25th.