MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Joseph Nienalt

An interview with screenwriter Joseph Nienalt regarding the Set in Philadelphia Writing Competition.

A: The title is SMILE.

It's a drama about a paraplegic woman that falls in love with a self-destructive Philly thug secretly aligned with the hit and run driver that put her in the wheelchair. Monster's Ball meets The Notebook.

A: I grew up in Philly. All my family is still in Philly. I read the Philly papers online every day. Philly is very much a part of my being and in my consciousness so of course I was aware of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office competition.

This was the first contest I entered SMILE into.

A: Sharon Pinkenson, Joan Bressler and the rest of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office staff are awesome. From day one, they've gone out of their way to accomodate me and make me feel like part of the GPFO family. I received every award that was promised and then some. I'm still in contact with them regularly and they're doing all they can to champion SMILE.

I am really glad they came into my life.

A: I was shown all of the judges anonymous comments. They were very helpful. I also had the opportunity to speak in depth about the script with many of the judges at the awards dinner and all of them were very insightful.

Probably one of the best experiences as far as feedback was hearing my words read by the group of professional actors GPFO and Mike Lemon Casting put together to do a reading of SMILE.

I was very humbled by the experience.

A: I already had a manager when I won the Grand Prize but, yes, the Set in Philly win has helped me tremendously.

One of the judges is a producer who's worked with a really interesting up and coming actress in the past. We're currently exploring the possibility of bringing SMILE to her to play one of the leads.

JC Spink of Benderspink was one of the judges as well. I got the chance to meet JC and his family and we've kept in touch. He's a cool dude.

A tremendously talented Philly bred actor is currently reading the script as well to consider playing the male lead.

The Set in Philly people made all of this possible and are continuously working to promote me and the script.

A: I grew up in Philly, in a working class neighborhood called Kensington. I currently live in Tacoma, WA and work for the City of Tacoma. I kind of crash landed in the Pacific Northwest after being discharged from the US Army just before September 11th, 2001.

SMILE is my fourth screenplay.

A: I'll move to LA as soon as I make a sale. I have a family...a wife and three children...so I won't move them down there until we can afford it. I'll certainly be down there as much as possible, though, for meetings and things like that. My wife is very supportive and understanding when it comes to my pursuit of screenwriting as a career.

A: I've just completed a crime drama.

It's also Set in Philly :)

Posted Thursday, July 26, 2007