MICHAEL LUCKER is a writer, director and producer with twenty years’ experience creating film and television. He began his career writing and directing television commercials while earning his undergraduate degree in broadcasting and film at Boston University’s College of Communication. He worked in Los Angeles for ABC, NBC and CBS before taking a job as assistant to Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment on feature films Always, Arachnophobia and Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade. He went onto serve in creative affairs on feature films at Hollywood Pictures before embarking on a career as a screenwriter, helping pen screenplays for Paramount, Disney, DreamWorks, Fox and Universal. We spoke recently about what separates good from less-than-stellar action films, McGuffins, and combining elements in the genre.
You can order Michael's book from Michael Wiese Productions here.
Dave Watson: Congratulations on the book. Action films have been around for over a century, thinking Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and we finally have a book that distinguishes the ones with a successful story versus those that don’t. Your first chapter is about killer concepts, urging people to write what they know and want to know. Are action films where reality meets fantasy?
Michael Lucker: I think action films can be whatever you want them to be. Grounding them in reality is a great way for the audience to triumph vicariously over the slings and arrows we face every day. Fantasy, of course, allows us to escape those same trappings. Combining them allows us to try to make sense out of our small lives by relating it to big unknowns. But the idea of writing what you know and want to know is about bringing a piece of you to your stories for authenticity, while immersing yourself in content you long to learn. If you’re going to spend weeks or months writing a screenplay, why not play in a space you want to be? That alone will keep you coming back to it.
DW: Your second chapter is about heroes. Any similarities of heroes across many action films?
ML: All good heroes are broken. The more broken the better. Ultimately, it’s their repair that makes their journey worthwhile, for them and the audience. I think the best heroes overcome challenges the audience can relate to. We may not all know what it’s like to lose a child. But we know what’s it’s like to lose someone. And seeing the hero overcome flaws associated with that loss gives us hope for overcoming them ourselves.
DW: Your book reaches back to mythology: ethos, pathos, and logos. Does this inherently deal with connecting with the audience on many levels? The best action films seem to do that.
ML: Absolutely. The tenets of myth work because they correlate with our own journeys. Along our twisting turning roads, we gravitate toward people we like, and we like those whose ethics, emotions and logic are congruent with our own. It’s like a three-legged stool, and the writer who tries to sit their hero on one missing a leg will find they tip over.
DW: You also discuss storytelling principles such as McGuffins, Red Herrings, and how they really amp up the action. How crucial are these aspects?
ML: McGuffins and Red Herrings are tools for screenwriters to use. But there are many tricks of the trade. The important thing is to make them work for you, and not for you to fall servant to them. Too often scribes find themselves ensnared by storytelling devices that corner them in places from which they cannot escape. Start with story. Think of who best serves that story. Put them on a mission to achieve a sole goal. And let everything else follow suit.
DW: Dialogue also plays a role, to the point where spoofs are a millimeter apart from serious action films. Why is what characters say in an action film so important?
ML: There is no quicker way into a character’s mind than through their mouth. What they say reveals who they are, what they believe in and what they’re willing to die for. In good action movies, dialogue comes from character. In bad action movies, dialogue comes from writers trying to come up with great lines, which often forsake character, story and tone. Writing real always works best.
DW: Editing also plays a role, especially when writing. Inefficient action films stand out and bore an audience. Are action scenes just as important as non-action ones?
ML: Movies are like rollercoasters rides. There are thrills and chills, for sure. But there are also moments of reservation and reflection for the hero to recover and plan. The healthy juxtaposition of these is what makes movies resonant and rewarding. Any of them carrying on too long will weigh the film down. In fact, many films could be made much better by simply tightening them. On the page. Or in the editing room.
DW: You also profile sequels, such as The Bourne Ultimatum. What makes these sequels successful, at least at the box office?
ML: Good stories beget good stories. May we all be so fortunate to create such memorable likable characters that audiences want to see more of them. The problem is, once studios find something that’s successful, they beat that poor horse to death. Until audiences are just sick of it. Ideally, they can find some middle ground, which also allows them funding to create new stories with new memorable likable characters.
DW: Who are the best action writers and directors working today? What sets them apart from others?
ML: I’ll always be a fan of Shane Black. Not only for what he puts on the screen, but what he puts on the page. His writing has an uncanny way of drawing you in, to character, to scenes, to story. And not letting you go until the very last page. There are also, of course, James Cameron, J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon, Tony Gilroy, Stephen Sommers, Quentin Tarantino, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, all masters of their craft, because they know, not only how to take their audiences on wild rides, but how to get them to care for the heroes that lead them on it. That said, it seems every day there’s another great new action scribe with his or her name on a one sheet in the multiplex. Which, frankly, should give every aspiring screenwriter confidence that they can have their name on one too.
DW: What is your favorite cinematic moment? One that inspires you to this day?
ML: The moment Maximus confronts Commodus in the Colosseum in Gladiator is kind of burned into my soul. “Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my revenge, in this life or the next.” How do you get better than that? It’s the collision of so much, strife, ambition, emotion… and anticipation. The road that led those two men to that monumental time in that monumental place in front of all of the Roman Empire was so deftly crafted, it’s beguiling. And the fact that it’s not the climax of the film, but the set up for the climax to come, is just extraordinary. Watching great moments in great movies like that one is what reminds me I still have so much to learn.
Clip: Gladiator
Founder and editor of Movies Matter, Dave Watson is a writer and educator in Madison, WI.
Dave Watson: Congratulations on the book. Action films have been around for over a century, thinking Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and we finally have a book that distinguishes the ones with a successful story versus those that don’t. Your first chapter is about killer concepts, urging people to write what they know and want to know. Are action films where reality meets fantasy?
Michael Lucker: I think action films can be whatever you want them to be. Grounding them in reality is a great way for the audience to triumph vicariously over the slings and arrows we face every day. Fantasy, of course, allows us to escape those same trappings. Combining them allows us to try to make sense out of our small lives by relating it to big unknowns. But the idea of writing what you know and want to know is about bringing a piece of you to your stories for authenticity, while immersing yourself in content you long to learn. If you’re going to spend weeks or months writing a screenplay, why not play in a space you want to be? That alone will keep you coming back to it.
DW: Your second chapter is about heroes. Any similarities of heroes across many action films?
ML: All good heroes are broken. The more broken the better. Ultimately, it’s their repair that makes their journey worthwhile, for them and the audience. I think the best heroes overcome challenges the audience can relate to. We may not all know what it’s like to lose a child. But we know what’s it’s like to lose someone. And seeing the hero overcome flaws associated with that loss gives us hope for overcoming them ourselves.
DW: Your book reaches back to mythology: ethos, pathos, and logos. Does this inherently deal with connecting with the audience on many levels? The best action films seem to do that.
ML: Absolutely. The tenets of myth work because they correlate with our own journeys. Along our twisting turning roads, we gravitate toward people we like, and we like those whose ethics, emotions and logic are congruent with our own. It’s like a three-legged stool, and the writer who tries to sit their hero on one missing a leg will find they tip over.
DW: You also discuss storytelling principles such as McGuffins, Red Herrings, and how they really amp up the action. How crucial are these aspects?
ML: McGuffins and Red Herrings are tools for screenwriters to use. But there are many tricks of the trade. The important thing is to make them work for you, and not for you to fall servant to them. Too often scribes find themselves ensnared by storytelling devices that corner them in places from which they cannot escape. Start with story. Think of who best serves that story. Put them on a mission to achieve a sole goal. And let everything else follow suit.
DW: Dialogue also plays a role, to the point where spoofs are a millimeter apart from serious action films. Why is what characters say in an action film so important?
ML: There is no quicker way into a character’s mind than through their mouth. What they say reveals who they are, what they believe in and what they’re willing to die for. In good action movies, dialogue comes from character. In bad action movies, dialogue comes from writers trying to come up with great lines, which often forsake character, story and tone. Writing real always works best.
DW: Editing also plays a role, especially when writing. Inefficient action films stand out and bore an audience. Are action scenes just as important as non-action ones?
ML: Movies are like rollercoasters rides. There are thrills and chills, for sure. But there are also moments of reservation and reflection for the hero to recover and plan. The healthy juxtaposition of these is what makes movies resonant and rewarding. Any of them carrying on too long will weigh the film down. In fact, many films could be made much better by simply tightening them. On the page. Or in the editing room.
DW: You also profile sequels, such as The Bourne Ultimatum. What makes these sequels successful, at least at the box office?
ML: Good stories beget good stories. May we all be so fortunate to create such memorable likable characters that audiences want to see more of them. The problem is, once studios find something that’s successful, they beat that poor horse to death. Until audiences are just sick of it. Ideally, they can find some middle ground, which also allows them funding to create new stories with new memorable likable characters.
DW: Who are the best action writers and directors working today? What sets them apart from others?
ML: I’ll always be a fan of Shane Black. Not only for what he puts on the screen, but what he puts on the page. His writing has an uncanny way of drawing you in, to character, to scenes, to story. And not letting you go until the very last page. There are also, of course, James Cameron, J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon, Tony Gilroy, Stephen Sommers, Quentin Tarantino, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, all masters of their craft, because they know, not only how to take their audiences on wild rides, but how to get them to care for the heroes that lead them on it. That said, it seems every day there’s another great new action scribe with his or her name on a one sheet in the multiplex. Which, frankly, should give every aspiring screenwriter confidence that they can have their name on one too.
DW: What is your favorite cinematic moment? One that inspires you to this day?
ML: The moment Maximus confronts Commodus in the Colosseum in Gladiator is kind of burned into my soul. “Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my revenge, in this life or the next.” How do you get better than that? It’s the collision of so much, strife, ambition, emotion… and anticipation. The road that led those two men to that monumental time in that monumental place in front of all of the Roman Empire was so deftly crafted, it’s beguiling. And the fact that it’s not the climax of the film, but the set up for the climax to come, is just extraordinary. Watching great moments in great movies like that one is what reminds me I still have so much to learn.
Clip: Gladiator
Founder and editor of Movies Matter, Dave Watson is a writer and educator in Madison, WI.
