Hot Stuff Reveals Hooking Tendencies in Screenwriting

This week Hot Fuzz the new film from the makers of Shaun of the Dead and Spaced was screening at New York's Lincoln Center. PSFK, the website that likes to keep an eye on new trends went along. PSFK's verdict is that the film is superb - go see it - but what's more interesting is the way they wrote the script and filmed it....

At the Q&A with Dan Smith afterwards, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright told the audience about how they realized that their fans of their shows would analyze the details of the films and write about them in forums and on blogs. So, Pegg and Wright created a film that can be watched many times and rewards the viewer each time they watch it (on DVD). Wright said:

"Everything in the film is connected. For everything a character says, there's a pay-off."

Pegg said,

"In the film we actually put punchlines before the set ups. If you watch the film a second time you realize all the people who get murdered actually predict their demise: The florist tells the cop 'I'm just about to pop off.' and the amateur dramatist says to his young love, 'We haven't got long now.' There's so much you're only going to get a second or third time you watch the DVD."

The DVD will also contain narrated graphic back-stories and even feature the flick-book animation PC Danny Butterman has drawn in his note book that the main character refuses to look at.

Although it's not necessaily a new strategy, it shows how film makers are changing the way they create work in order to satisfy the way their audience is consuming it.

Published in full on PSFK.com

http://www.psfk.com:80/2007/04/hot_fuzz_the_ar.html