Literary legend Somerset Maugham once wrote, “There are three rules for writing the screenplay. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

Now, thanks to John Gaspard, the mysterious task of screenwriting should seem less so for those who read Fast, Cheap & Written That Way, his helpful book of intriguing interviews with a variety of screenwriters who have written screenplays for successful low-budget films. What a treat to read inside stories like the one from Tom DiCillo about why and how he wrote Living in Oblivion  -- or from Ali Selim concerning his process in adapting a short story into the feature film Sweet Land!

According to DiCillo, the screenplay in question grew out of his immense frustration over the difficulty in obtaining money for Box of Moonlight, another movie script he wrote. “It wasn’t born out of ‘Hey, I want to make a funny movie,’” he explains. “It really came out of the most intense periods of anger and frustration in my career. And, ironically, it turned out to be the funniest movie I’ve ever made.”

I agree wholeheartedly with DiCillo. Living in Oblivion is one of the most amusing movies I’ve ever seen concerning the disruptions a filmmaker faces while trying to complete a movie.

Selim, who had never written a screenplay before, spent thirteen years working on Sweet Land, his adaptation of Will Weaver’s short story Gravestones Made of Wheat. “I worked on it every year,” Selim says. “It would be six weeks, then I’d get back to commercials, then I’d coach Little League, and then I’d read it and then I’d sit on it for a while, then back to commercials and Little League.”

Selim claims he’s still mystified about the screenwriting process, but whatever he did worked for me. Boasting a beautiful and poignant story of a mail-order bride who finds herself in a strange and rather unwelcoming 1920 Minnesota Norwegian-American community, Sweet Land impressed me with its charming simplicity and convincing sense of place.      

Interviews in Gaspard’s splendid book contain a wealth of advice from screenwriters of other successful low-budget films including Capote, Hester Street, You Can Count on Me, Roger Dodger, Personal Velocity, Eve’s Bayou, Metropolitan and Venice/Venice. The author asks pertinent questions eliciting sometimes very different reactions about screenwriting courses, reading actual screenplays, receiving feedback, writing with a limited budget in mind, and many other important topics.

Fast, Cheap & Written That Way, published by Michael Wiese Productions and available beginning June 1 (2007), may be aimed primarily at wannabe screenwriters, but it’s also a great read for anyone who loves the cinema.  

(Please click here to order from Amazon.com.)