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One of the tips I give in my book about working with writers is that I like to sail into the eye of the hurricane whenever a screenwriter and I encounter a problem. Rather than try to sweep some unwieldy or untoward situation under the rug, I try to make sure we deal with it and at least acknowledge it in dialogue. I learned the technique from the multi-talented Joe Mankiewicz, Academy Award winning producer-writer-director (All About Eve), who worked under the strict Hays Office moral code, yet managed to insert strong sexual content in his films. He succeeded in doing so by having another character say, "It's wrong what you're doing. Don't you know that it's wrong!" |
