MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Stuart Creque

An interview with screenwriter Stuart Creque regarding the Indie Gathering Writing Competition.

A: The script is Time and Again and it won first place in the Sci-Fi category. It's a character-driven sci-fi thriller about a woman who is both a ruthlessly ambitious politician and a jealously possessive mother. Her position in Congress puts her in charge of a science program related to time travel. She soon learns that she can use the time machine to spy on her political opponents as well as her estranged husband. She learns that this power does nothing but destroy the people she loves, but she's tempted into using the machine one last time to save her family.

A: The Indie Gathering's separate categories by genre attracted my attention. I felt the script would stand out best in direct competition with other sci-fi scripts.

Time and Again has also placed highly in other screenplay competitions.

A: I felt that the Indie Gathering competition was run professionally. Everything proceeded in a timely manner and there was adequate communication from the organizers.

A: I didn't receive any formal feedback, but none had been promised.

A: Too soon to tell. I hope to find out more after the Indie Gathering festival weekend.

A: I have a writing background in business writing. My first venture outside business writing was writing op-ed articles on political topics, and I've had those published in such outlets as the Wall Street Journal and National Review.

I started screenwriting as a hobby perhaps 10 years ago, learning through writing groups (both online and in person). I had had a number of stories I wanted to tell in screenplay format, and so I did. At present, I've completed six feature-length screenplays and numerous short scripts. One of my short scripts won the 2006 An Abbreviated Screenplay Contest and was made into a short film in July 2006, and the producers plan to enter it into several film festivals.

A: I don't live in Los Angeles. I tried living in Costa Mesa (in Orange County) once and I missed the San Francisco Bay Area. Living in the Bay Area means I can fly to L.A. and be in Hollywood faster than I could drive from, say, Irvine to Hollywood.

A: I'm working on several new feature-length screenplays -- making a little progress regularly on each until one catches fire in my imagination and sucks me into finishing it. The ones I'm most excited about are an animated fairy tale in the classic Disney mold, a sci-fi/horror script meant for low-budget production, and an action thriller that pits a ruthless terrorist against aging military retirees (on the notion that old age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill).

I also have a couple of book projects percolating in the same fashion.

Posted Thursday, July 27, 2006