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With close to 30 years experience in the business, Nick Kazan knows a few things about screenwriting. He has mastered research skills to write scripts based on true events like Frances, At Close Range, Patty Hearst and Reversal of Fortune, which earned him an Oscar nomination. He has the knowledge of handling life after the nomination and how to manage studio notes and incorporate changes without weakening the script. He has the expertise of directing his own script, Dream Lover and writing with a partner, including a collaboration with his wife Robin Swicord on the adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic, Matilda. And on top of all that, this seasoned professional offers insight as to why he doesn’t do lunches, what it takes to develop screenwriting muscles and why life is always a comedy.

A sure-thing comedy closer, New York City native John Hamburg built hilarious set pieces and character work into Meet the Parents, Zoolander, and Meet the Fockers that not only helped lift them to huge box office but also pushed a few new catchphrases into the American lexicon. A veteran of the uncredited production rewrite, Hamburg also wrote and directed the romantic comedy Along Came Polly in 2004. In this amusing interview, Hamburg discusses how he developed his talent for writing actor-hooking dialogue in the humorous monologues he performed in college, why he’d do a thousand test screenings if he could, and what it’s like to hand a new scene to Robert De Niro and stand there waiting to see if he likes it.

Jose Rivera’s pivotal screenplay for The Motorcycle Diaries was one of the most celebrated works of 2005. It earned him Writers Guild, BAFTA and Academy Award® nominations, and was his first major screenplay. His foray into movies came after establishing himself as an award-winning playwright and a hugely accomplished writer for television, where his credits include co-creating and producing the critically-acclaimed television series “Eerie, Indiana.” In this interview, Rivera discusses how his theatre training helped pave they way to screenwriting and why he compares the writing process to building cabinets. The Puerto Rican-born writer also talks about his latest project, the adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s literary classic On the Road, which re-pairs him with Diaries director Walter Salles.

Few screenwriters can concentrate for more than a few hours, let alone sustain a career in Hollywood for over 30 years. But the blockbuster comedy writing team of Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel has been making television and film audiences laugh for decades. Starting with Happy Days, they followed actor-turned-director Ron Howard into feature films like Night Shift, Splash, Gung Ho, Parenthood, and Edtv. In total, Ganz and Mandel have written an astonishing 18 produced feature screenplays, including City Slickers, A League of Their Own, Mr. Saturday Night, Forget Paris, Where the Heart Is, Robots, and Fever Pitch, while also maintaining a “secret career” of un-credited rewrites on studio comedies. Listen in as these Bronx-born, old-school funnymen explain how to suckerpunch viewers with jokes they never see coming, why writing out loud is the best way to find your voice, how to avoid research, and when to build a scene around a housewife with an axe.

Billy Ray has written or co-written the screenplays for Color of Night, Volcano and Hart’s War and also created the sci-fi series Earth 2. In 2003, Ray wrote and directed Shattered Glass, which was based on the true story of fraudulent journalist Stephen Glass. Most recently, he found himself back in the writer/director role for Breach, a story based on real-life FBI agent-turned-Soviet spy Robert Hanssen. In this intriguing interview, listen as Ray touches on his inspiration from movie soundtracks, taking acting classes, genius by osmosis and writing for The Jetsons.

Nia Vardalos took her one-woman play about the pitfalls of interracial marriage and turned it into her noteworthy debut screenplay for My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The film was a tremendous hit, becoming the highest-grossing independent feature and made Vardalos an overnight success, earning her nominations for Best Original Screenplay WGA and Academy Awards®. The Canada native also wrote and starred in the 2004 comedy Connie and Carla and is currently penning an adaptation to the Laura Zigman novel Piece of Work. In this candid and whimsical interview, she talks about how her experiences in the Second City comedy troupe helped her as an actress and a screenwriter, and how the unofficial “tell-the-Greek” word-of-mouth program had a hand in catapulting her movie to such great heights.

Boston-born Scott Rosenberg burst onto the scene in 1995 with his hard-boiled screenplay for Things to Do in Denver When You'™re Dead. His repertoire crosses the film spectrum with indie films like Beautiful Girls to the big-budget studio pictures Gone in 60 Seconds and Con Air. His adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel High Fidelity garnered him a WGA Award nomination and he is frequently called in for his skills as a script doctor. In this interview, Rosenberg candidly reveals his tools of the trade, from the inspiration of a Metallica album to his œintoxicating recipe for overcoming writer'™s block. He explains how being a Red Sox fan prepared him for life as a screenwriter, why no one is more brilliant than Winnie the Pooh, and what happened that infamous night at a bar in North Carolina.

Callie Khouri'™s seminal, Oscar-winning® screenplay for Thelma & Louise, released in 1991, gave voice to a profound cultural moment and became one of the most provocative cinematic landmarks of the ™90s. It was the Kentucky native'™s first attempt at a screenplay. In this enlightening interview, Khouri describes how spending years doing music video production in the ™80s inspired her not only to write, but to write with a purpose. A passionate activist with a resume that includes Something to Talk About and her adaptation of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which she also directed, Khouri discusses in detail the pressure of living up to such early acclaim, what it'™s like to be a woman in the industry, and how the state of the world around you fuels and shapes your creative mindset. Also a frequent script doctor and former Writers Guild of America board member, Khouri delves into the ongoing issues facing the WGA, its membership, and its much-maligned arbitration process.

Jim Uhls is not your average screenwriter. For one thing, his nickname is "Professor Peculiar." For another, as this exclusive off-kilter discussion of his craft demonstrates, Uhls is eager to break the first rule of Fight Club: He talks about Fight Club. A lot. That seminal film, directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Panic Room), pushed every boundary possible for a studio movie, and Uhls' darkly funny script, adapted from the Chuck Palahniuk novel, is a wickedly subversive example of how to successfully adapt an "unadaptable" book. Step inside the mind of the man who figured out how to do it, as Professor Peculiar explains how to use a newspaper story approach to build a brilliant pitch, why you should interview your characters, how to know when to "stick a fork" in your screenplay, and the macabre particulars of how and why he had to murder his brother's cat. For more info, visit TheDialogueSeries.com

There's no con more satisfying and lucrative than finding a way to make a living as a screenwriter. And Ted Griffin is a man who knows a good con. Anyone who tried to follow the clever criminal head games he built into his screenplays for Ocean's Eleven and Matchstick Men knows not to trust this guy. Except when he talks about screenwriting, which he does with great humor and insight in this enlightening interview that ranges from his early work on Ravenous and Best Laid Plans through the unexpected pitfalls of trying to direct his first film, Rumor Has It...

David S. Goyer has a deliciously twisted mind. (They don't call him "The Prince of Darkness" for nothing.) And he knows how to bring comic book characters and superheroes to kicking, screaming, vengeful life, as he did in The Crow: City of Angels, the Blade series, and Batman Begins. His intense Batman screenplay, written with director Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia), resurrected the moribund Dark Knight franchise and confirmed his writing voice as a go-to source for a green light. Here, in this wry and surprising dialogue, Goyer reveals his tricks of the trade for how to intimidate a room full of studio executives, when to stand on principle, how to hook an actor's ego with killer character descriptions and dialogue, and why fear can pay the bills.

Acclaimed writer-director Paul Haggis has been a fixture of television and film for over 25 years. In this wide-ranging interview, the Oscar®-winning co-screenwriter, director, and producer of Crash (Best Picture 2005) discusses a three-decade career that led from writing for sitcoms like Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life to his breakthrough screenplay for Oscar®-winning director Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby (Best Picture 2004). Haggis's matter-of-fact stories of navigating the entertainment industry are an indelible primer for how to manage the screenwriting life, make a successful transition from TV to film, develop a strong story and characters, pitch an idea, and surmount Hollywood's more frustrating obstacles.

THE DIALOGUE: Learning From the Masters is a groundbreaking interview series that goes behind the scenes of the fascinating craft of screenwriting. In these 70-90 minute in-depth discussions, more than two-dozen of today's most successful screenwriters share their work habits, methods and inspirations, secrets of the trade, business advice, and eye-opening stories from life in the trenches of the film industry. Each screenwriter discusses his or her filmography in great detail and breaks down the mechanics of one favorite scene from their produced work.

Sheldon Turner is the prototype for the smart, brash, ambitious young screenwriter - only he's also got a law degree from NYU and has had his fiction published in the New Yorker. Turner recently broke through with his script for the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard, starring Chris Rock and Adam Sandler, and he has half a dozen other scripts in development. He's got insane discipline, writes longhand, and boycotts email. He figured out how to work the system, and he's got more witty axioms for how to play the Hollywood game than a Tropicana craps dealer at 3 am. But you'll just have to hear Turner talk to get it - what being the biggest guy in the room can do for you, how to read an audience, what to say in pitch meetings, and why you should let everyone know that you think Lost in Translation sucks.