March 11 – Poor Things

Meet ONLINE from 7:00-10:00 PM Pacific Time on March 11th for an in-depth analysis and discussion of the Oscar-nominated screenplay POOR THINGS.

LOGLINE: A dead woman, reanimated with a fresh brain by a mad scientist, embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery and sexual liberation in Victorian London.

ABOUT THE WRITERS: Poor Things was adapted from the award-winning 1992 novel by writer and artist ALASDAIR GRAY, who has been called “the father figure of the renaissance in Scottish literature and art.” Director Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth, The Lobster) first approached Gray in 2009 to acquire the rights to the book but was unable to get the film greenlit until his 2018 comedy, The Favourite, had become a major commercial success. Australian playwright and TV writer TONY McNAMARA co-wrote The Favourite, which won the BAFTA award for Best Original Screenplay and was also nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe in the same category. McNamara then co-wrote the Disney hit Cruella and created the series The Great for Hulu before adapting Poor Things for Lanthimos, earning him his second Academy Award nomination.

(registration deadline: Friday, March 8)

Registration in advance is required to attend the discussion, and includes a copy of the script sent to you in advance.

Single Meeting Fee: $45
SPECIAL OFFER – ONLY $150 FOR A 6-MONTH MEMBERSHIP OR RENEWAL!

Click the Register Now button for instructions.
(Email StoryBoardDG@gmail.com if you have any questions.)

Released last year by Searchlight Pictures on December 8, Poor Things is nominated for eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, and eleven BAFTA awards, including Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film also won two Golden Globe awards, including Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) and more than 90 other industry awards (out of nearly 400 total nominations) so far!

Poor Things stars Emma Stone (La La Land, The Amazing Spider-Man), Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man, Aquaman), and Ramy Youssef (Ramy).

Rated R. 97 pages. 141 minutes. Comedy. Science Fiction.

STEVE KAPLAN will provide in-depth analysis and lead our discussion. The industry’s most sought-after expert on comedy, Steve has taught at UCLA, NYU, Yale, and other top universities, and created the HBO Workspace and the HBO New Writers Program. As co-founder and Artistic Director of Manhattan Punch Line Theatre he developed writers such as Peter Tolan (Analyze This), David Crane (Friends), Tracy Poust (Ugly Betty), Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea), and Mark O’Donnel (Hairspray). Steve teaches a number of different workshops all over the globe, including The Comedy Intensive, a 2-day workshop that covers the fundamental principles of comedy. His new five-part interactive online class, “Write Your Comedy Screenplay,” starts on March 23, 2024. Look for his books The Hidden Tools of Comedy and The Comic Hero’s Journey, learn more about Steve and his workshops at kaplancomedy.com, and follow him on Twitter at @skcomedy where you can tweet quick comedy questions at him with the #AskKaplan hashtag.