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'Gosford Park' Screenwriter Julian Fellowes on the Power of the Unproduced Screenplay

10.11.12 @ 4:45PM Tags : bafta, downtonabbey, gosfordpark, julianfellowes, lecture, screenwriting

Many screenwriters don’t take the most direct path to their eventual position of writing for the screen. Some may strive to become directors, but realize they can’t find the right material to shoot, so they have to write it themselves. Others may write for different media and get sucked into this strange economical style of storytelling in the screenplay format. And others still may have pursued a career in acting, run up against too many obstacles to launch their careers, and found themselves writing content for the screen instead of acting it out on the screen. Hailing from this latter category, British screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Academy Award winner for Gosford Park, Downton Abbey writer/creator) practically stumbled into the role of screenwriter when his acting career didn’t take off. In his recent British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Screenwriting Lecture, he tells the tale of how he started his screenwriting career and how he found “overnight success” on his road to winning the Oscar for writing Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman. More »