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Script Apart with Al Horner

Script Apart

A podcast about the first-draft secrets behind great movies and TV shows. Each episode, the screenwriter behind a beloved film shares with us their initial screenplay for that movie. We then talk through what changed, what didn’t and why on its journey to the big screen. Hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek.

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  • 23 episodes
  • Avg 53 min
  • English

Episodes 23

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  • Nov 14, 2025 · 1 hr 14 min

    Ballad of a Small Player with Rowan Joffé and Edward Berger

    The Festival of Hungry Ghosts is upon us – and today on Script Apart, we’re betting it all on black. Ballad Of A Small Player is the casino-set new drama from director Edward Berger and writer Rowan Joffe, adapted from the novel of the same name by author Lawrence Osborne. It follows Colin Farrell as a character who introduces himself as Lord Boyle – an aristocratic charmer, who we soon come to learn is seriously, existentially adrift amid the slot machines and baccarat tables of Macau’s gambling houses. As Boyle’s true self – and name – is revealed, we tumble with him down a neon-splashed, teal-and-red rabbit hole of addiction and emptiness. And it was this emptiness I was particularly eager to discuss when I sat down recently with Edward and Rowan, across two separate conversations. Rowan is the creator of the TV show Tin Star, and the writer of films like 28 Weeks Later and Before I Go To Sleep, which he also directed. He’s also, as tells me in this conversation, a recovering alcoholic, sober for many years. Edward, meanwhile – well, if you’ve followed the Oscars and indeed this show over the last few years, Edward needs little introduction. Conclave, his 2024 drama about the election of a new pope, and All Quiet On The Western Front, his 2022 Best International Picture-winning war epic, have seen him rocket to modern cinema’s top table in terms of respected auteurs. In the midst of that success, though, Edward has described finding himself plagued by an empty feeling. And in this episode, he tells me how that informed this latest story. We get into the curiosity that drives his storytelling and also clear up something I read long ago about Ed’s love of rollerskating – and I also hear from Rowan about what it is that he thinks casinos represent in our culture; the capitalist tendencies they act as temples to. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Get coverage on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

  • Oct 30, 2025 · 1 hr 16 min

    Play Dirty with Shane Black

    Today, Shane Black is back, returning to Script Apart four years since his last appearance on the show! His new film Play Dirty is a heist movie that in some ways he’s been waiting his whole life to make. Fans of his will know that Shane often centres stories around flawed male characters who are informed by the pulpy novels he grew up reading. After decades creating his own spins on the literary tough guys in those books – such as Riggs in Lethal Weapon and Harry Lockhart in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – this new film goes straight to the source, directly adapting one of the novelists who inspired him at an early age: Donald E. Westlake, or Richard Stark as he was sometimes known. Westlake wrote 28 books in total about a career criminal named Parker – a cold, calculating loner who lives by a code: thou shalt not double-cross. Unless of course, he’s double-crossed first… In this spoiler conversation, Shane tells Al about what Parker means to him as a lonely bookworm adolescent, and how he threaded the needle between this quiet character and the quippy dialogue both he and star Mark Wahlberg specialise in when it came to telling his own Parker story. We get into how he constructs his action scenes, how his writing has and hasn’t changed as a result of CGI – and why there was only one outcome possible in this story for a certain character who doesn’t make it to the end credits. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Get coverage on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

  • Oct 17, 2025 · 53 min

    Good Fortune with Aziz Ansari

    Aziz Ansari is a comedian who seems to always have been intrigued by the idea of status, and the stranglehold it can put people in. You might not immediately think of it when you think of his work, but the 42-year-old seems drawn to dreamers and strivers and people who yearn to transcend their station in life, finding comedy and drama in the gap between what they have and what they covet. In Parks & Recreation, the hit sitcom that made him a household name, Aziz played Tom Haverford, a small-town entrepreneur obsessed with expensive colognes, designer clothes and living a luxury existence; this despite working in the not exactly glamorous world of local government. His acclaimed stand-up work has also touched on materialism. And who can forget Master Of None, the Netflix series he wrote and directed, from 2015 to 2021. That Emmy Award-winning show frequently discussed social mobility. As a child of Indian immigrants, Aziz’s character Dev found himself on more than one occasion reflecting on the life that he gets to live compared to the one his parents sacrificed to give him. Which brings us to Good Fortune – the comedian’s hilarious feature directorial debut. It’s a movie that could only exist in our depressing era of gig work and Amazon so-called fulfilment centres. Aziz plays Arj – a Task Rabbit employee trying and failing to make ends meet. At his wits end after a series of setbacks, he’s visited by an angel named Gabriel, played by Keanu Reeves, who swaps him into the shoes of his ultra-rich boss, Jeff, played by Seth Rogen. He’s meant to learn that actually, money isn’t the solution to all your problems. True happiness comes from within. Just one problem – in our cost-of-living crisis era, money does at the very least make people’s lives much easier. Arj doesn’t want to swap back. Cue a ridiculous and ridiculously funny romp through LA’s glitziest parties and seediest shadow spaces. In the spoiler conversation you’re about to hear, Aziz tells me about actually becoming a Door Dash worker in real life, delivering food to people’s doors, as a window into the impossible economics of jobs like that. We break down the funniest moments and the most powerful truths in this tale. And you’ll also hear Aziz reflect on his own relationship with luck and so-called good fortune. Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com. To get ad-free episodes and exclusive content, join us on Patreon. Get coverage on your screenplay by visiting ScriptApart.com/coverage. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Showing 21–23 of 23 episodes