On this week’s episode of 3rd and Fairfax, the official podcast of the Writers Guild of America, the guest is Billy Ray who most-recently wrote and directed the two-part Showtime movie, The Comey Rule. Among his many credits, he also wrote and directed Breach and Shattered Glass, and wrote Captain Phillips, The Hunger Games State of Play, Hart’s War, Volcano and Richard Jewell, among many others.
I actually have a funny story about one of his films, the wonderful, though little-known Shattered Glass (based on the true story of journalist Stephen Glass who wrote a wide range of admired articles for The New Republic magazine – only to have it turn out that most were fictitious). During the Writers Guild strike a few years ago, I arrived for my assigned time and went to sign in. As I was eating a bagel, I overheard a few people talking about actor Peter Sarsgaard. Because he’d been Shattered Glass – as the editor, who begins to suspect his reporter – and I loved the film so much, I decided to intrude myself into their conversation. “Excuse me,” I said, “but I heard you talking about Peter Sarsgaard. Have you seen the movie Shattered Glass that he’s in? He’s so good in it, and the movie is really great.” One of the group turned to me and said, “I wrote and directed that.” It was, yes, Billy Ray! I can assure you, as a screenwriter, that is about the best praise a writer can get. And as you might imagine, he was very pleased…
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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