James Schamus | Screenwriting Lecture

Prolific screenwriter James Schamus has collaborated extensively with filmmaker Ang Lee, penning scripts for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Ice Storm, Lust, Caution and many more. He is also a successful producer, and during his time as CEO of Focus Features, helped bring The Constant Gardener, Lost In Translation and Dallas Buyers club to global audiences.

In the first lecture of the 2014 series, the 'renowned autodidact and multihyphenate' talked about being cynical of the screenwriter as artist, why Hollywood isn't making American movies any more, and why screenplays are '124 pages of begging for money and attention'. He then spoke to producer Tanya Seghatchian and answered questions from the audience.

Recorded at BFI Southbank on Thursday 18 September 2014.