[lounge music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Narrator] "On Story" is brought to you in part by the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, a Texas family providing innovative funding since 1979.

"On Story" is also brought to you in part by the Bogle Family Vineyards, six generation farmers and third generation winemakers based in Clarksburg, California.

Makers of sustainably grown wines that are a reflection of the their family values since 1968.

[waves] [kids screaming] [wind] [witch cackling] [sirens wail] [gunshots] [dripping] [suspenseful music] [telegraph beeping, typing] [piano gliss] From Austin Film Festival, this is "On Story," a look inside the creative process from today's leading writers, creators and filmmakers.

This week on "On Story," screenwriter, Mark L. Smith discusses writing "Twisters," the summer thriller film that took audiences by storm.

- How does the science of a tornado and all of that, how do we do that in a somewhat interesting way?

It was a way to get that info across, but also connect them, even though they're not in the same car.

And also show that they're very much alike, the way they think, the way they process stuff, and that they're both really good.

It'll be different things that send them on different paths, possibly, but they both really know what they're doing.

[paper crumples] [typing] [carriage returns, ding] [typewriter ding] - What was the intent?

Was it a serial?

- No, it wasn't like a sequel or like anything like that.

It was just kind of its own, standalone thing.

Now, I did, the first draft I wrote, I had Kate go through everything, and when she finally returned home, she got to her house, pulls up, and you see someone working out in the field behind.

And she walks around the back of the house, and she goes, "Hey mom," and then it turns, and it was Helen Hunt's character.

And so I was gonna have her be their child that did it, but when I tried it, and then Joe and I talked about it for a while, there were so many different relationships that we were trying to make sure landed in the story.

So we needed Kate and the loss of her boyfriend, the loss of Jeb at the beginning, you know, that that was going to weigh on her.

And Bill Paxton, obviously that was gonna be something, 'cause I'd played around with what she'd learned from her dad and everything.

And so, that was going to be a lot, and then to bring Tyler in and have that relationship, it just became muddled.

And so it was just a cleaner thing to go the other route.

And so I think it was, yeah, nice, the way it worked out.

- Ride velocity is 200 miles per hour.

- That's impossible.

- Then this is an EF5.

[tense music] - Guys, guys, whatever's in there is big.

It's big and it's moving fast.

Drive!

You gotta get the hell out of there.

- Go, go, go, go, go!

- How did it become an EF5?

- It's coming closer!

[Passenger] No!

Look out!

[driver yelling] [tense music] [people gasping] - Everybody okay?

- It's a really long setup.

I wanted to spend time with them, so for two reasons.

One, so that might be a little surprise that you think this is gonna be the group that we're gonna be spending the movie with.

Also, the idea that if we spend that extra time with them, when they're taken away, hopefully, the audience gets a sense that maybe no one is safe.

That's also an example of like, they were gonna run to the underpass and one of the producers, or maybe it was somebody at Universal said, "But that's the wrong move."

And I said, "Yeah, no."

I said, "But we need 'em to go somewhere.

And we've got this and Joe and I kind of all laid it out.

And they go, "You know, people are gonna think this is the right thing to do, and then we're gonna get people killed."

So they threw in that line, which I just hate.

"Underpass is the worst place to do" in this thing.

And it's like, oh my god.

But that's why that's there.

Don't blame me.

- That's kind of a cliffhanger open, right?

Like, I mean, it's a heartbreak right in the beginning of the movie, right?

So it did give you a good sense of what might be deterring her.

- So Isaac made the right call on this.

It was too long, for a film.

It worked on the page.

But for a film, people would've got started, it's like, "Okay, let's go.

It's an action movie.

Let's get going."

- The one thing that I also think is so great about this opening, and I don't know how you kept it up all the way through, but the pace never stops.

You know, it's just moving so fast.

And when you're writing scenes like that, that are that long, I mean, are you ever thinking about that?

Like, you're in this.

- It's just a way to try to let everything build kind of to a certain way and have a few jumps.

You just try to mix things up so that you have a little bit of humor mixed in there, you have a little bit of everything, a little bit of character.

And so hopefully it speeds along.

If it was just relentlessly one thing, I think it would've gotten older, fast.

But that's credit to Isaac, who, he just did a great job of directing it.

- So I have to start out saying that, I just think it's interesting that the person who did "The Revenant" did this.

I also think that's kind of interesting, though, that he came from, because the movie he did prior to that is so different.

- Yeah, no.

- So different than this film.

- Yeah.

- He's gonna get a tornado.

- It's a whole different deal.

- Yeah.

- You can write any genre.

And so I remember, right after "The Revenant," I'd never met Ryan Reynolds, and he called me out of the blue and he said, "I've got this movie.

We're shooting in 10 days.

The script's not gonna work, and can you come to London and write it?

And we'll just write it together."

And I said, "Sure."

And he said, "'Cause I loved 'The Revenant.'"

I said, "Okay, sure.

What is it about?"

He goes, "Well, it's a buddy cop movie and it's in London and it's all these jokes and it's just gonna be these pranks and stuff."

And I said, "Are you sure you saw 'The Revenant?'"

Because it's like, I haven't done that.

But I got over there and it was so fun.

And it was just, he and I, like in his dressing room, we were just writing and we would write the scenes, shoot them the next day.

And it was like, it was just a conveyor belt.

And when I told my wife I was writing in Ryan Reynolds' dressing room, she immediately signed up for a screenwriting class, so.

- Hang on.

You didn't say which way we were going, yet.

Now from what I gather, west, we double our chances.

East, well, it's high risk, high reward.

- Well, go for the reward.

No one, then, will think you're boring.

- Well, boring is not usually a problem for me, Kate.

- Two cells to the west are fighting over the same inflow.

They'll choke each other out.

This one to the east has the sky all to herself.

Moisture, wind shear, instability, all the things you need to give Ben a good show.

- City girl knows her stuff.

Ben.

I said, city girl knows her stuff, Ben.

- Thanks.

Maybe if I work real hard, I could be a tornado wrangler, too.

[Barbara] Okay, that is your sort of meet cue.

- That's the meet cue.

Yeah, that's what that is.

- We've now reset your movie from this pure action to a romantic comedy.

There's a bit of mashup here, you know?

- This was just about establishing characters and relationships and the dynamics between them so that you could see that Kate wasn't really impressed by Tyler, like everyone else.

But Tyler was a little, you know, it was unusual for him.

This was somebody that's kind of mysterious and isn't impressed.

Why not?

Why isn't she, you know?

So just to kind of set that up and then also show, you know, that they both had knowledge.

They were both gonna, you know, be good at this.

And so, yeah, it's just a stepping stone to the relationship.

- But building that relationship around, again, all that action, I mean, they're in some of it together and some of it not.

So, you know.

- Yeah.

I think one of these scenes that we're doing today was actually kind of, it's my favorite one in the film, that combines them.

We had to try to get the science across.

And so it was like, how does the science of a tornado and all of that, how do we do that in a somewhat interesting way?

So it was a way to get that info across, but also connect them even though they're not in the same car.

And also show that they're very much alike, the way they think, the way they process stuff, and that they're both really good.

It'll be different things that send them down different paths possibly, like, you know, but they both really know what they're doing.

- Why is it important to get all that science out there?

Like, how much of it becomes part of something important to the way people are gonna consume the rest of your film?

- It was showing the love, how much they know, but how much they love this.

You know, how much that they, you know, the way they describe it, it wasn't just super technical terms.

It was just, you know.

And so, that was a way, and I guess we always felt like there was, you know, if we could get in there quickly and people wouldn't get bored, somebody might have some interest in, you know, how these things kind of happen.

- Did you spend a lot of time on your own, trying to figure out or avoiding writing the script by trying to figure out how much weather information you needed to know?

- I did.

I actually went storm chasing.

- Oh, you did?

- With a guy in Oklahoma, and, Reed Timmer, who is so good.

And you can see him online.

He is crazy.

I learned a lot, just them.

And Reed, he was kind of who I based Tyler on.

[Barbara] Oh, okay.

- Because we would drive, stop for gas and we had a little, like three vehicles, the drone driver, kind of similar to that.

And we'd get out and our car was just beat to [bleep].

And it was, 'cause the hail and the stuff, all the storms he'd gone through and people would just swarm him.

And, you know, at the gas stations, there's just a community.

And so it's like, and he is so well known and they would just ask where he is going, what he's seeing.

But no, he would drive, more than the storms he took me into, was him driving a hundred miles an hour across these side rows in Oklahoma with his phone in one hand with radar, a radar thing here.

He's looking out at the things and he's kinda steering with his knee.

And it was just like, "My god, just take me home."

You know?

But no, but I did, I learned a lot from that.

And just from the group, 'cause they're quirky.

There's, you know, yeah, it's an interesting group.

- At what point were you doing that, where you were driving, before you wrote the script or?

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah.

- Before I ever started the script, I had to know how they developed because we had to come up with a way to stop them.

So it was like, okay, I had to learn everything to know how to make them go away.

So, and that was part of the reason for the explanation too.

Like the little things you get, and maybe they don't stick with everybody and 90% of people might not, but putting it in there is then the stuff that they're gonna work to take away from it later, when they try to stop it.

- But I mean, as far as character development and stuff like that, was some of that coming from that experience, too?

Like just from hanging out with all those guys?

- Oh yeah, for sure.

- And seeing how they integrate with each other on something like this?

- Yeah, no, absolutely.

Just the kind of the wise-cracking, the, you know, just kind of, yeah, giving each other [bleep] all the time, but having fun.

It's just like a really, you know, a very carefree group.

- How did they feel about you directing people to an underpass?

- Oh yeah, I haven't talked to 'em about that.

[laughing] [typewriter dings] [suspenseful music] [grunting] [suspenseful music] - It'll be okay, it'll be okay.

I got you.

It'll be okay.

I got you.

It'll be okay.

- Yeah, so there, that's kind of the thing where we're trying to mimic a little bit of what we saw the first time, all the way down to hearing someone say, "It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay."

And so we didn't want Tyler to say it, but just to kind of give the same feel like, and then you feel like there was some jeopardy there, that, oh, wait a second, is this gonna happen all over again, you know?

- And even though we know these two people are leads, you can even know what's gonna happen and the tension can still be there.

- I got the idea from one of the people, the experts I spoke to, that he went on a, I think it was in Georgia or something, a night.

They were chasing a storm and everything got really quiet and stuff start to kind of, and the leaves just started kind of falling, but they couldn't hear anything or see anything.

And so then we put it in the rodeo where stuff starts falling there.

And then we just carried it on and that was actually, so when they go to the motel and there's the young couple complaining and the one girl, so the young girl, that's my daughter.

But her boyfriend in it is Bill Paxton's son.

[Barbara] Oh really?

- Yeah.

[Barbara] Oh my God.

- And so, yeah, so we wanted to get them kind of there, yeah.

- Before we go to the next one, I'm just also curious like, that pacing all the way through the movie, because it was tense for a lot of the film.

How were you, were you laying that out strategically on some kind of document about where you're gonna let people breathe a little bit?

- I'm a ridiculously structured, structural kind of creature.

Everything has its place for me.

That's the only way I can kind of tell a story.

And so, yeah.

So all of that was purposeful and felt like, this is where this had to happen, this is where this needs to happen.

And the script, there was more air between the action.

There was more downtime.

As much as I love the character stuff and I would fight to try to hold onto it, it's like, it's an action film.

- So a lot of that, actually, that pacing changed in the edit.

- Yeah.

Spielberg came in late and pulled like an extra seven minutes out of different places.

- Curious, where?

Like where?

- Just little different moments between Tyler and Kate, just a little bit, a little bit here, a little bit there, a minute here, a minute there.

Not like a huge chunk in one spot, but it was just to find that, you know, I mean, no one has a better feel for like, what audiences I think like in those kind of films than him.

- You know, EF1 or EF5 tornado rating, it's not based on size and wind speed.

The power we ascribe to it, it's based on damage.

It's only after the fact we can really define it.

But it destroys, it takes from us.

I am sorry for what happened, but how much more are you gonna let this thing take from you?

[somber music] - You know, you should get some sleep.

- Going off of my structure thing, so end of act two is kind of the, you know, when everything was destroyed and she's there and she kind realizes that what Mason has been doing, you know, her friend, and she leaves.

And so this is kind of the beginning of, as we're gonna come back 'cause she's gonna like, you know, re-enter the battle kind of thing.

And sorry, I did not write the Glen Powell in the wet T-shirt scene.

That was decided on the moment, I guess.

- The way I look at that scene is, it's the moment where we're all supposed to finally fall in love with Glen Powell.

- Yeah.

- Right?

- Yeah, just the fact that he came to the farm, came and found her.

It's like, wait a second, this guy's different.

And so that was a sequence that was much longer in the script, not just in the barn, but the time that they spent together, there was a little bit more growth, a little bit more interaction.

[Barbara] So you lost some of that character opportunity.

- Yeah.

[Barbara] But I will say, 'cause I think that's a tough juggle, I mean to juggle an action movie, like this big action movie and a love story because the love story tends to need some quiet time, right?

And that's a lot.

Those are two distinct genres, really.

- We had spent so much time with Jeb, her boyfriend, in the beginning, and it wasn't that long ago in movie time.

So I knew from the moment I wrote it, they were never going to be a couple by the end of it.

Not a true-- we weren't gonna have them, you know, completely fall in love.

She wasn't gonna be ready to do that yet.

And so, I didn't have to lean into the thing, and actually what made it hard, along with all of the action, we don't meet him until 20-some minutes into the movie.

And then at the beginning, they're not together a lot.

And it's really contentious when they are.

So it was hard, you know.

It was like if it was gonna be a true, kind of romantic comedy kind of thing, you know, we would've had to play it differently.

- I took my teenage daughter and her girlfriend, and they were very upset that no kiss happened at the end.

- I had people say that so many times.

It's crazy.

Okay, in the script, there was another scene.

There was actually another little mini storm, a mini accident.

But before that happened, they were talking and he leaned in and they kissed briefly and then she pulled away, said, "I can't, I just can't yet."

And so that was it.

So we got that.

And that was before kind of the final two chases, I guess, yeah.

- Well when you get that director's cut back out-- - Yeah, I actually don't know.

- Lemme know.

- I don't know if Isaac filmed it or not, 'cause I know he's taken a lot of heat for the no kiss too.

- Oh really?

[laughs] [typewriter dings] [dramatic music] - Lily, no!

♪ ♪ - Don't let go, don't let go, don't let go!

- I got you!

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [Mark] So that one I knew, from the beginning, I was always gonna put him in a movie theater.

And so, and I always wanted the wall to come out behind the screen.

And so it was like, we were kind of like watching it.

It was kind of a little bit of homage to the, was it "The Shining," I think in the original, the drive-in and the storm came through?

But I just thought it would be fun to actually like watch a storm, like you're watching a movie, you know, through the thing.

Yeah, so that's why we put it there.

And again, it was a repeat where, and maybe it would've worked the same either way, but the fact that we lost those people at the beginning and we kind of invested in them and spent that time with them, that Lily right there probably kind of thought maybe she's gonna go, too.

You know, it gives a little bit more like, oh god, could that happen.

- That whole sequence that started before that, took you through the movie theater and then back out into the field, that, you know, we do live in tornado alley here.

The destruction in this film was, I think, sort of what took me in emotionally.

[Mark] We shot it in Reno, Oklahoma, outside Oklahoma City, which has had a bad history of, you know, and stuff.

So it was a little bit, you know, it was kind of strange.

They were excited that we were there, doing it, and we were trying to be, you know, very respectful of it.

But it was also kind of like, tough too, 'cause they have lived it, yeah.

- There's so many pieces in here that are clear, you know, obviously, and we know these are CGI.

Were you brought into any of that at all?

- No.

No, no, no.

By the time they finish shooting, they forgot who wrote it.

I mean, no, and that's the truth.

And it's just because they go months and months of all the hard work of the production.

- But are those set pieces usually known before?

You are still, especially in a film like this, was the development process one where they're telling you, "We're gonna have at least four tornadoes," and you just gotta ride around them where you're creating that still?

- Once we established the first huge one at the beginning, then it was like, okay, we need the slow build.

And so people can kind of learn, get a feel for the world, learn about these storms, kind of watch them have an adventure with them first.

So it was going to be, I actually had in the script, it was another thing that was cut early on and Isaac may not have even filmed it, it was more of a buildup one, getting to a smaller one.

And so that we were kind of dipping our toe in.

Each one, you're right, it was tricky to make them different.

It's like, okay god, it's just another storm.

And so part of it was, okay, I'll do this, then, I'll have Isaac, I mean, I'm sorry, that's another show.

I'll have Tyler think he's smarter, you know, it's a competition.

So when they're talking about it, then, you know, she screws up, he's going on 'cause he's, you know.

And so you kinda have to have fun with it, then, you know, and just do it different ways.

So it's just trying to add something to each one to make them feel a little different, but they're kind of the same.

They built it off the script.

Nobody knew what was coming, whenever I turned the draft in.

They had no idea.

They weren't even sure they were gonna make the movie.

It was like not even a thing that was really that exciting.

But then Spielberg really liked the draft.

And so that's kind of what got the momentum for it to happen so fast.

- Where did "Boys in the Boat" fit into?

- "Boys in the Boat" was my favorite thing, I've ever written, by far.

Not even close.

That is one where you do lose a lot from the script.

That one kind of hurt and certain things because, and it's just a thing, it was a long story.

I think I gave George, it was like 170 pages or something.

So it was gonna be a two and a half, three hour movie.

And so, but there was so much story there and there was so much.

Every one of those boys, every character had so much backstory and so much, thing.

And I really wanted it to be more than just one, focus on one and a couple.

But it worked, for what it was.

It's hard for me to watch, at least the first time, 'cause all I see in a movie is everything that isn't there.

Everything that was changed or everything that was taken out.

And so then it's like the next time, it's like, "Okay, I can appreciate now, why they did it and why the things," and so then it's good.

And so, it would've been a long movie.

It would've been a slower movie if they had done all the character stuff.

- So from start to finish, how long did it take to do this?

- A year.

[Barbara] No way.

Really?

- I think.

[Barbara] Wow.

That's amazing.

- Something like that, yeah.

And I write fast.

I lock myself away and I just write.

And so it was, I think the draft was, it's like a month and then I just hand it over and then they do their thing.

You know, I think I had one studio rewrite on it.

- Was it more fun writing an action film like this?

- In some ways, it might be easier, because you know where the beats are gonna kind of be, you know where the scenes are gonna need to fall, kind of when things are gonna have to happen.

I mean, you're kinda locked in on an action film.

You know, these things have to happen and you try to squeeze in as much character stuff as you can.

- Do you have to understand your characters before you're sitting down to write them?

- I don't know my characters until I've written it, no.

So I discover the characters as I'm writing.

And so I'll know where I wanted them to start, like I said.

And then I'll write 15, 20 pages and then I'll go back and it's like, okay, now I know who you are.

- Moisture levels are just right, and lots of cape.

- What else are you seeing?

[Kate] Flow is clean.

Pulling tons of warm, moist air from the south.

[Tyler] And when that warm air and moisture busts through the cap, it explodes in the atmosphere, creating an anvil.

The vertical wind shear begins to rotate the updraft, forming 'em as a cyclone.

- And here's the mystery.

- We don't know how a tornado forms.

We see the hook on the radar, but-- - What are all the invisible factors coming together?

Every little detail that has to be perfect.

- Has to be perfect.

And it's a mix of what we know, and everything we can't understand.

It's part science, part religion.

[bright music] - Come on, baby.

[typewriter dings] [Narrator] You've been watching, "Script to Screen: Twisters," on "On Story."

"On Story" is part of a growing number of programs in Austin Film Festival's On Story Project that also includes the "On Story" radio program, podcast, book series, and the On Story archive accessible through the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University.

To find out more about "On Story" and Austin Film Festival, visit onstory.tv or austinfilmfestival.com.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [projector clicking] [typing] [typewriter ding] [projector dies]