Book Doug to speak at your event.

A dynamic speaker, Doug has given talks and participated in panel discussions at: the American Film Institute, Central Coast Writers Conference, Columbia College Hollywood, Columbia University, the Dallas Screenwriters’ Association, Drexel University, the New School, NYU, Pepperdine University, Pitchfest, the Writers Guild of America, and the Writers Guild Foundation.

Topics include:

Do you have what it takes to script a blockbuster Hollywood feature? Screenwriter and novelist Doug Richardson does. He’ll share with you some of the tricks of the trade he’s gleaned from writing on three Die Hard films, Bad Boys, and more than thirty years in the biz.

Why do the talented and skilled fail in Hollywood? Because there’s waaaayyyyy more a writer needs to know than how to pen a hot screenplay. From managing the managers to working around movie star egos, hit screenwriter Doug Richardson talks how to swim and succeed with the sharks.

Here’s the good news. You’ve written your novel. So what’s the next big hurdle? If you imagine your book becoming a movie, Hollywood wants you to reduce it to a screenplay with a three-act structure. Before you panic, lend an ear and Doug will help you. First of all, it’s not as hard as you think. If you didn’t know, your story probably contains a three-act structure to begin with. Doug can help you find it and show you how to see the forest through your own fictional trees. Adapting your novel into a feature film can be illuminating, liberating, profitable, and the first step toward having your story filmed in a way closer to your vision than that of some studio executive who hasn’t committed his name to anything since his college admission essay.

Hollywood is deadly serious about making things exciting. Their bottom line depends on keeping the thrills coming and coming. Your problem is how to adapt your own novel into something movie stars and production companies want to both buy and produce into a box office winner. Turning what makes your readers thrilled and chilled isn’t as simple as buying the latest screenwriting software. In addition to turning Walter Wager’s novel 58 Minutes into Die Hard 2 and Robert Crais’ novel Hostage into a movie, Doug has sold and adapted his novels, Dark Horse and True Believers, and written screenplays based on the works of Elmore Leonard, Carsten Stroud, and others.

Let’s put our heads together and come up with some ideas that fit your organization’s or event’s needs. My blog is a good starting point to see some of the topics I’ve already discussed.