Episode 65

full
Published on:

23rd Dec 2020

Writing screenplays and novels: With Rich Leder

Louise Harnby and Denise Cowle talk to Rich Leder about writing screenplays and novels. Rich has worked with some of the biggest names in the movie industry. He shares what he's learned about Hollywood, TV and novel craft.

Listen To Find Out More About

  • The differences between writing a screenplay and novel from scratch
  • Cooking for Cannibals: Being edited and receiving feedback
  • Converting film to novel, or novel to film
  • Primal, and why Nicolas Cage makes the perfect Frank Walsh
  • Stage direction during the screenplay-writing stage
  • Character descriptions, noise and environment, and writing a screenplay
  • How does the editing process differ for screenplays and novels?
  • How much is the author involved in the making of the movie?
  • How long does it take to get a movie made? From treatment to option to production
  • Impactful career moments, including how working with Sidney Poitier changed his life

Author Bio

Rich Leder Novelist - Screenwriter

Rich Leder has been a working writer for more than three decades. His credits include 19 produced movies—television films for CBS, Lifetime, and Hallmark and feature films for Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Tri-Star Pictures, Longridge Productions, and Left Bank Films—and six novels for Laugh Riot Press.

He’s been the lead singer in a Detroit rock band, a restaurateur, a Little League coach, an indie film director, a literacy tutor, a magazine editor, a screenwriting coach, a wedding guru, a PTA board member, a commercial real estate agent, and a visiting artist for the UNCW Film Studies Department, among other things, all of which, it turns out, was grist for the mill.

He resides on the North Carolina coast with his awesome wife, Lulu, and is sustained by the visits home of their three fabulous children. 

Cooking for Cannibals Blurb: 

Fountain of youth? More like murderous medication!

Carrie Cromer pushes the boundaries of science, not her social life. The brilliant behavioral gerontologist’s idea of a good time is hanging out with her beloved lab rats and taking care of her elderly mother and the other eccentric old folks at the nursing home. So no one is more surprised than Carrie when she steals the lab’s top-secret, experimental medicine for aging in reverse.

Two-time ex-con Johnny Fairfax dreams of culinary greatness. But when his corrupt parole officer tries to drag him from the nursing home kitchen, the suddenly young-again residents spring to his defense and murder the guy—and then request Johnny cook them an evidence-devouring dinner to satisfy their insatiable side-effect appetite.

As their unexpected mutual attraction gets hot, Carrie and Johnny find themselves caught up with the authorities who arrive to investigate the killing. But even more dangerous than the man-eating not-so-senior citizens could be the arrival of death-dealing pharmaceutical hitmen.

Can Carrie and Johnny find true love in all this bloody madness?

LINKS: 

Denise And Louise

  • Denise Cowle: denisecowleeditorial.com
  • Louise Harnby: harnby.co/fiction-editing

Music Credit

‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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The Editing Podcast
Make your editing and writing life easier with Denise and Louise
Join two pro editors, Louise Harnby and Denise Cowle, on The Editing Podcast for regular tips, tools and guidance on writing and editing.
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