That’s what I always feel like answering when people ask me what I do. Given that these days, one should rather put forward one’s brand and genre, I usually settle for “I’m a screenwriter, I write action-adventure and short films.” And yet...
... the point for me really is to tell stories. Films long or short, novels, short stories, staging a play – it’s all about that ancient yearning of humankind to be whisked away for a while, to discover strange worlds, be drawn into an adventure, fall in love again.
And there you have it, my brand of storytelling: new worlds, adventure, love. A cloak-and-dagger romp through 15th century Venice; facing the end of humanity in 22nd century London; battling tar sands pipelines in Minnesota in 2019: welcome to my storyworlds!
How did I get here?
I have always been a voracious reader, starting with Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking (the strongest girl in the world!), Treasure Island and Huckleberry Finn, and politically entirely incorrect stories about cowboys and Indians, which I then acted out with my friends in our garden.
Later, I moved on to classics such as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Christo and in my teenage years read many a fantasy trilogy. Around the same time I fell in love with movies – a swashbuckling Red Corsair a.k.a Burt Lancaster was probably my first crush, and then there was Star Wars, need I say more?
Then I discovered theatre and eventually Shakespeare, which added the character and relationship factors, and I was properly addicted to storytelling.
So what with these diverse storytelling loves, I don’t really want to be pinned down to one particular format or genre. Where there’s an adventure to be had, count me in! And the (so far) most exciting of these adventures recently happened to me, when I made my first short film, Blue Widow.
But that’s a story for the next post.