You Asked ... Simon Kinberg, "Sherlock Holmes"

Simon Kinberg is back - answering questions about writing in general and his latest feature Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role and Jude Law as Watson. The film, a re-envisioning of the classic story, has already grossed nearly $300 million worldwide.

Kinberg wrote Mr. and Mrs. Smith, X-Men: The Last Stand,and Jumper, among others. He is producing the prequel X-Men: First Class, and is writing an original script for Nicole Kidman at 20th Century Fox, Hardy Men starring Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller, and an untitled movie with Aline Brosh McKenna for producer JJ Abrams at Paramount.

Those whose questions for Simon Kinberg were chosen will receive The Dialogue: Learning from the Masters DVD (Winner's Choice) from The Writers Store.

When writing action sequences, what's your philosophy on the amount of detail a screenwriter should provide? Just enough so that people can "see" the scene? Or do you think writers should be more specifically choreographing the action? – Michael

People ask me this a lot. I think it’s a subjective, stylistic thing. Personally, I tend to write a lot of description, but not a step-by-step shot-by-shot description of physical action. More a sense of the tone and style and attitude of the sequence, always told from the perspective of the characters. Great action sequences are really all about the characters – people we care about doing extraordinary things in extraordinary circumstances. Great action writers – people like Shane Black, Tony Gilroy, and William Goldman come to mind – make you feel what the characters are feeling, they give you a sense of what it’s like to really be there. Bad action writers tend to walk you through every blink, without a lot of color or emotion. If you want to read great action, read Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid or Gilroy’s Bourne scripts or Long Kiss Goodnight (trust me, the script is better than the movie).

Really good work. And who could argue with casting Robert Downey, Jr. in anything? My question is, what theme, if any, did you have in mind when writing the screenplay? For instance, the theme that seemed to run throughout Mr. and Mrs. Smith was "How To Keep True Love Alive," with a subplot about actually staying alive. Thank you. – RoadShow

Thanks! I came onto Sherlock Holmes when they already had a very good draft of the script by a great writer, Tony Peckham. The basic themes of the movie were already laid out: how do you move on with your life when faced with losing someone you love? For Sherlock, he was facing the loss of Watson. And it was important that Watson was facing it too – the loss of a life of adventure. The core idea, and really the core narrative structure of the movie, is about the push and pull between Sherlock and Watson, how they fall apart, and how they come back together. All of the action sequences were intended to dramatize this idea, to test and ultimately solidify their partnership.

In regards to your writing process, what one "thing" have you incorporated into it that you find most valuable, be it creativity-wise or efficiency-wise? – David

In terms of efficiency, I must say the most important thing is habit. I have a friend who says writing is simple, the equation is “ass plus seat.” You’ve got to put the time in. There are millions of excuses for not writing, and a billion ways to procrastinate (which I think is a necessary and healthy part of the creative process), but you need to make sure you clock the hours. I think it’s important to create a work-space that is exclusively for writing – so your brain and body associate that space with creative work. And I try to stop writing every night when I still have something left to say. That way, I start every morning with a scene or moment that I’ve already worked out in my head. It helps to have that kind of momentum to start your day.

Firstly, congratulations on Sherlock Holmes. I saw it at a screening and loved it I've mostly written and produced TV/films that have been more character-driven. Recently, some jobs have been more genre-oriented - particularly, thriller/action. I admire your screenplays for their ability to work well with character while consistently delivering good solid action sequences. My question is... what have you found needs to be "set up" for a good set-piece action sequence to work? For example, how do you ensure that more is going on in a chase ... than just running after people? – MicMac

Firstly, thanks! As I said above, I think all great action sequences are about character. At the very least, a sequence works because it puts a character you care about in jeopardy (Indy being chased by a huge boulder, Neo being chased by Agent Smith). But at its best, an action sequence is a way to expose and explore things about the character. In Mr. and Mrs. Smith, we tried very hard to use each action sequence to advance something about their relationship or expose a marital issue. Try to imagine your action sequences like song and dance in a musical – it’s a break from the normal dialogue of the film, but it shouldn’t be a break in story and character. It should have a unifying character idea – what does your character learn from the sequence about themselves? How do they grow? How does it deepen the conflict between hero and villain? Or challenge and develop a core relationship between partners/lovers? Really try to think of the character question first, then come up with the action. If you do that, then the “running and jumping” will never feel generic or anonymous, because it will be rooted in something human and specific.

It appears from the trailers that the relationship between Holmes and Watson illustrates both characters and will probably define the central theme. What is the connection that binds this pair of characters together in your screenplay? While it's conflict that drives a screenplay forward, the connection between odd-couple pairings can be neither ignored nor denied. I'm vaguely familiar with some of the literary criticism of these characters as they relate to one another and what they may represent, but I'd be more interested in learning how and why you chose whatever binding issue it is that forces these two characters into the same space in a way that makes the whole greater than the parts. – Charlie

The dynamic between Holmes and Watson is absolutely the center of the movie. In the script and film, Holmes is very much a dysfunctional human being. He’s compulsive, manic-depressive, and socially maladjusted. But he’s brilliant and fearless and fun. Watson, on the other hand, is deeply functional and very civilized. He’s the opposite of Holmes – he’s responsible, dependable. But he also loves the life that Holmes gives him: the taste of adventure, mystery, as Holmes puts it “the thrill of the macabre.” Both men give each other something they couldn’t have alone. Watson gives Holmes a foot in the light, the real world. And Holmes gives Watson a foot in the dark, the imaginary world.

Simon, thanks for your work! Can you talk about the rewriting process on this script and how you organized the drafts, rewrites and notes? After hearing the Sherlock interviews on “Tales From The Script,” I cannot imagine how you tracked all of the changes on this project. A glimpse into your creatively brilliant process would be most appreciated. – Richard

Well, I originally came aboard to work on the action sequences. I was only going to work for a couple weeks. I was working directly from Guy Ritchie’s draft, which had come after Tony Peckham’s script. As I continued on the project, my role expanded, and I went back to read all the previous drafts, focusing especially on Tony’s scripts. It wasn’t hard to track the changes (or at least no harder than any other project, where you’re always rewriting day after day). I had Tony’s drafts and Guy’s drafts as the basis for the work in progress.

As a rewriter, it’s your job to understand the evolution of the script, to understand how and why it landed where it landed. Then you really have to try to put blinders on, and simply write the best script you’re capable of writing. You have to ultimately trust your own voice, your own instinct as a writer. That’s why you’re being hired.

A red leather-bound edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes was the first book I saved my money for as a boy. Is there something about the material you loved as a kid and your childhood experience of reading that informed your take on Sherlock Holmes or even some of the comic book/graphic novel adaptations? – Alvaro

I remember reading my first Sherlock story in junior high. I’d seen Young Sherlock Holmes when I was a kid and thoroughly enjoyed it. But it wasn’t until reading Doyle that I fully fell in love with the character. For me, Sherlock was the first literary superhero. He had all the attributes of comic book heroes (superpowers, vulnerability, emotional/romantic dysfunction), but he was something I actually had to read for school. It was the first intersection between my schoolwork and my passion for otherworldly characters. What I love about Holmes is that he’s so much better than we are (intellectually) but also so much like us, in that he’s imperfect, vulnerable, a man who struggles with the world. That combination of the human and superhuman is really unique in literature, and maybe never better than in Doyle’s stories.

You have written huge, and hugely successful, Hollywood action movies. Do you find the limits and expectations of Hollywood, of the genre, helpful and inspiring, or sometimes overly binding? If (and it's a big "if" here) profits were irrelevant to your projects, would you make different movies? How does business affect creativity (and how does creativity affect business), in your experience? Thanks for your time, and best of luck to you. – Kate

I write the kind of movies I grew up loving – big, genre movies that hopefully have real, human, memorable characters. I grew up in a golden age for action films – the 80s. Films like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Star Wars, Terminator, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run were my inspiration. They were the reason I wanted to work in movies. They’re the kind of movies I’m still most excited to see. So I don’t find the form limiting.

The only real drawback is the pressure. These films are not cheap to make, there is more riding on them for the studios, so naturally there is more pressure involved. That can be a little exhausting sometimes, but it doesn’t really impact the creative process. When I’m sitting at the computer staring at a blinking cursor, I’m not thinking about anything other than trying to write scenes that can hopefully compete with the scenes I loved when I was a kid.

How do you keep track of parallel conflicts and sub-conflicts? Do you have a formal method or time-line to ensure your various conflicts live and die at the right times? – Rocco

I don’t really have a formal method for this kind of thing. I do break my scripts down to 10-12 page sequences. Two in the first act, four in the second act, two in the third. Inside each of these sequences, I try to build arcs for the main hero, and try to build those arcs into one larger evolution over the span of the film. As for parallel stories or subplots, I trust my instinct on that. When I feel like it’s time to bounce to a secondary storyline, I’ll go there. The rhythm of a script is something that is pretty instinctual, and something that I only discover over successive drafts.

Mr. Kinberg, your repertoire has among them some of the best known characters from literature and graphic novels, most specifically Marvel's X-Men and the literary detectives Sherlock Holmes and the Hardy Boys. My question to you is how do you balance out the need to satisfy the fans of such works without alienating them and the desire to give your own interpretation to the characters without altering them beyond recognition? – James K

That’s a tough question. It’s something I struggle with. I’m a fan of these works, so I respect the fans. I know how they feel. Some of these characters are like religions for their followers, so I always want to be respectful of that. I do read a lot of fan feedback and critical literature to get a sense of what works for the fans, and what is clearly out of bounds. That’s all part of the process of brainstorming, coming up with big narrative or character decisions. But once those decisions are made and I’m inside the script, I try to keep those voices in the back of my head, and trust my own instincts. I try to write what I want to see, and hope/pray that I’m not insane. There’s a reason these characters have become iconic, and I want to service that. I think of myself like a comic-book writer – the characters are mine for an issue or two, but they belong to a larger tapestry, a deeper history. The fun of my job is taking these people I love on a new adventure.

Need more wisdom from Simon Kinberg? Read his StoryLink interview from the July eZine.