Bustle Book Club
TheSay Nothingauthor had abandoned his screenwriting dreams until producers expressed interest in adapting his books.
I wrote a movie for [famed producer]Jerry Bruckheimer.
I wrote a pilot for HBO about the role of guns in American life.
I adapted aJo Nesbonovel for Warner Bros., Keefe says.
While none of these projects ever made it to the big screen, the experience proved invaluable.
The structure of a screenplay really did influence my writing.
Like, When do you get into a scene and when do you get out of it?
How do you intercut between different stories?
the journalist, who has reported on everyone from Anthony Bourdain to El Chapo, tells Bustle.
Those kinds of things were really helpful for me in thinking about how to structure a nonfiction story.
A drama is not a documentary.
A drama is not a nonfiction book.
The rules are different.
But for Keefe, its all of a piece.
Below Keefe reflects on sweat equity, Hollywood memoirs, and toggling between projects.
On the Old Hollywood books that inspire him:
I grew up on Peter Biskinds books.
The best of them is about Hollywood in the 70s, and its calledEasy Riders, Raging Bulls.
The sense that your own sweat equity is some basis for including something.
Ive found that its like an X-ray that can pick up the infirmities in whatever youve just composed.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
source: www.bustle.com
