John and Craig make their triumphant return to the Austin Film Festival for a wild night full of Emmy winning writers. They welcome Shōgun co-creators Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks to look at their process for structuring a series-long adaptation, keeping translations eloquent and accurate, and writing together as a married couple.

We then welcome Susan Soon He Stanton (Succession, Dead Ringers) and Megan Amram (The Good Place, Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin) to discuss staffing on shows and crafting jokes. We also invite two audience members to play a new game: IMDB Sweeney Todd.

In our bonus segment for premium members, the panel answers audience questions on adaptations, a crossover with Succession and The Good Place, entering Hollywood from outside the U.S., and navigating Hollywood’s current contraction.

Links:

• Austin Film Festival
• Scriptnotes LIVE! December 6th at Dynasty Typewriter
• Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks
• Megan Amram
• Susan Soon He Stanton
• Decoder Ring – “The Wrongest Bird in Movie History”
• Vote Out Ted Cruz
• Brick App
• r/TVTooHigh
• Bliss Lau
• A Dream of Islands by Gavan Daws
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram
• John August on Threads, Instagram, Twitter and Mastodon
• Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt, with special help this week from Chris Csont and Megana Rao. It is edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.