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Screen Magazine - Index

Screen Magazine - Screen Magazine: Vol. 29, Issue 22 - Index

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Steve Pink Dishes Out His Advice On Moving From
The Laptop To The Director’s Chair
As an acclaimed Hollywood screenwriter with credits to
his name like “High Fidelity” and “Grosse Pointe Blank,”
and more recently making his directorial debut with the
film “Accepted,” Steve Pink has garnered attention among
executives who hope to bring his name into the limelight
with the currently in-production “The Prom,” and an
upcoming remake of the film “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”
An Evanston, Ill. native, Pink is a triad of talent composed
of acting, writing and directing skills. Together with John
Cusack and D.V. DeVecentis, he owns the production
company New Crime Productions. SCREEN sat down with
Pink to discuss his work, as well as the sometimes-grueling
transition from writing to directing.
SCREEN: Could you talk a little bit about your work on the films
“High Fidelity” and “Grosse Pointe Blank?”
Steve Pink: All three of us made both
of those films. Tom Jankiewicz was the
writer on the original script [for “Grosse
Pointe”] and we optioned it from him.
“High Fidelity” was different. It was a great
process in both cases, those two films we
made as a group together and it was a
great time in our careers.
SCREEN: Was there any pressure to move
on to projects like directing “Accepted?”
SP: There’s always pressure - you’re really
living the dream and we knew what we
had and all we had to do was execute it
and it’s always difficult to execute to make
a great movie. If you know it has a real
chance of success then it’s good pressure.
You’re having a great time so then you
work on making something great. It’s
only a drag when you don’t know if you’ll
succeed. When I directed “Accepted,”
people had different visions of what the
movie should be and that put a lot of
pressure on me.
SCREEN: How was the transition from
writing to directing?
SP: It was a great transition in that it’s
challenging in all the right ways, I would
say. Because you get to take a blueprint
of a screenplay and you have to build it
- you have to create something in every
aspect. If you think of it as a blueprint of a
By Micah McCrary
house, you’re in charge of all aspects of constructing and interior
design. What’s the furniture? The style? The tone? Everything has
to be built literally and visually. It’s fantastic to get the opportunity