The International Screenwriters’ Festival at the Cheltenham Ladies College is in full swing at the moment and will finish with a bang this evening with an exclusive event with Steven Moffat, the Executive Producer of the forthcoming BBC 2010 series’ of Dr. Who.
So far the festival saw the likes of Oscar winning writer of Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy give a truly inspiring talk about the role of the screenwriter as a diplomat. He openly spoke about how he learned to control his frustration and anger with investors who try to change his scripts and admitted that they had a right to do so – after all they are the ones paying for the film!
Phyllidia Lloyd, director of Mamma Mia the highest grossing movie ever to be released in the UK, usurping Titanic’s decade-long hold on the record spoke about the challenges of bringing a stage musical to the big screen and admitted that the film world was still highly dominated by men whilst the world of theatre felt ‘genderless’.
Catherine Johnson, the writer of both the musical and the film version of Mamma Mia, talked about adapting from Theatre to Film and her great surprise to have been the main writer on the film version expecting to be replaced by ‘a proper screenwriter’ at any point.
If you are a huge Doctor Who fan or just want to find our more about the production of the upcoming BBC series, then you can attend tonight’s public event at the Cheltenham Ladies College at 7pm. To find out more about how to get tickets, click here.