The Dialogue: Learning From The Masters - John Hamburg

John Hamburg is a very funny guy. After starting a humor magazine called The Dalton Lampoon in high school and making a popular comedic short film about "slacker bomb defusers" while attending NYU's graduate filmmaking program, Hamburg wrote and directed the crime comedy Safe Men, which played at Sundance and spawned a devoted cult following.

A sure-thing comedy closer, the New York City native 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.

About The Dialogue Series: 

THE DIALOGUE: Learning From the Masters is a groundbreaking interview series that goes behind the scenes of the fascinating craft of screenwriting. In these extensive in-depth discussions with savvy industry interviewers, 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.

The subjects include Oscar® winners and nominees like Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby), Callie Khouri (Thelma and Louise), Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost), and Paul Attanasio (Quiz Show, Donnie Brasco); comedy masters like Peter & Bobby Farrelly (There's Something About Mary, Stuck on You) and Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel (Parenthood, City Slickers, Fever Pitch); big-budget writers like Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (The Legend of Zorro, M:i:III), Scott Rosenberg (Con Air, Beautiful Girls), and Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich, In Her Shoes); and industry mavericks like Jim Uhls (Fight Club) and David S. Goyer (Dark City, Blade, Batman Begins).

These incisive discussions are essential viewing for anyone wanting to learn the screenwriting trade, film lovers of all types, and industry professionals in other fields. The writers' insights about the screenwriting life are rare and indispensable tools for how to make your screenplays better and crack the Hollywood code: the hard-earned practical and tactical wisdom of those already thriving in the industry.

It's powerful knowledge - straight from the source.