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Screenwriter Interviews
MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Bonnie Maffei
An interview with screenwriter Bonnie Maffei regarding the Moondance Writing Competition.
Q: What's the title of the script you entered in this contest, and what's it about?A: I started out writing it as Horror, but my sense of humor kind of took over and it morphed into a quirky Dark Comedy/Supernatural Thriller called A RECIPE TO DIE FOR. I got the idea after reading about the little fishing village of Canneto Di Caronia where spontaneous combustion, (a strange phenomena of instantaneous fires,) devastated the place to the point of total evacuation. As far as the news reports go, scientific investigators, as well as exorcists have theories, but they've never discovered the real cause to this day.
A RECIPE TO DIE FOR, set in the small fishing village of Cannelloni amidst spontaneous combustion and bizarre phenomena, is about the local chef, who is trying to keep his trattoria afloat, but ends up saving his village from demonic visitors. How does he do that? He enters a cooking competition and creates a killer cannoli recipe, which he feeds to the unsuspecting demons, banishing them back to their dark underground kingdom.
You might describe the story as The Witches of Eastwick meets The Iron Chef in Sicily!
A: This was the main contest I wanted to enter this year. The founder and director of the Moondance International Film Festival, Elizabeth English, is an amazing artist, writer and business woman. Her original impulse was to start a woman's festival and competition, like an "American Cannes" or the woman's answer to "Sundance", but later opened it up to male writers and filmmakers. She views thousands of entries every year and only chooses the highest quality material for Moondance awards. I really felt honored to receive The Spirit of Moondance Award for Feature Screenplay this year.
Yes, A RECIPE TO DIE FOR also made the Grand Finals in the Scriptpartnerships & Pomegranate Pictures Screenplay Contest in London, England.
A: Absolutely!
Q: Were you given any feedback on your script? If so, did you find the feedback helpful?A: I chose not to receive feedback this time, although a couple of years ago I did. I requested feedback for one of my short scripts, which was a finalist. Elizabeth returned the script with notes in the margins, which were extremely insightful.
Q: Has your success in this contest helped you market your script? Were you contacted by any agents, managers or producers?A: Very much so! It's been an amazing ride. I've had dozens of requests for my script and I signed on with an agent, who I met at Moondance.
Q: What's your background? Have you written any other screenplays or television scripts?A: I've lived in California most of my life. I grew up in Los Angeles and now live in the Santa Cruz area. I have written travel articles, children's stories, poetry, shorts and feature screenplays, but I'm concentrating on features at the moment. I am also an artist. I have been a therapist and I have been a real estate agent for several years.
Q: Do you live in Los Angeles? If not, do you have any plans to move there?A: No plans to move. L.A. is a few hours drive, if I need to get there.
Q: What's next? Are you working on a new script?A: I am working on marketing A RECIPE TO DIE FOR and also a rewrite of another script, which I hope to finish soon. It's about an ancient holy artifact, which has been hidden for centuries and one woman's quest to unearth it and release its magical powers, which can either be used for good or evil.
Posted Thursday, August 11, 2005
