DZ-03: Making Unlikeable Protagonists Compelling

Listen if you want to understand how filmmakers make audiences care about deeply flawed protagonists

Stu and Chas delve into unlikable protagonists in comedy. How do filmmakers keep us watching characters who should alienate us? To answer this question, Stu and Chas look at the first 20 pages of HOT FUZZ, AS GOOD AS IT GETS and - of course - GROUNDHOG DAY.

PS: In ANCHORMAN (which we also talk about)... um... they renamed the character of Alicia Corningstone to Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) in the shooting script. We keep on referring to her as Alicia as that is what she is referred to in the screenplay. Wups.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

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FILMS

• HOT FUZZ (2007) — (w) Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg (d) Edgar Wright
• AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997) — (w) James L Brooks, Mark Andrus, Mark Andrus (d) James L Brooks
• GROUNDHOG DAY (1993) — (w) Danny Rubin, Harold Ramis, Danny Rubin (d) Harold Ramis

SCRIPTS

• Study the script: HOT FUZZ (2007) — Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg
• Study the script: AS GOOD AS IT GETS (1997) — James L Brooks, Mark Andrus, Mark Andrus
• Study the script: GROUNDHOG DAY (1993) — Danny Rubin, Harold Ramis, Danny Rubin

LINKS

• Script: GROUNDHOG DAY by Danny Rubin, 2nd Revisions by Harold Ramis* - First 20 pages. For educational purposes only
• Script: ROUNDHOG DAY by Danny Rubin, 3rd Revisions by Harold Ramis - First 20 pages. For educational purposes only
• Script: AS GOOD AS IT GETS by Mark Aldrus and James L. Brooks - First 20 pages. For educational purposes only
• Read: ANCHORMAN by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay - First 20 pages. For educational purposes only
• Script: HOT FUZZ by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright - First 20 pages. For educational purposes only
• Website: Steve Kaplan's Comedy Intensive
• YouTube: Hot Fuzz - Opening Montage - Angel is Awesome! (YouTube)
• YouTube: Hot Fuzz - Angel is promoted to the country (YouTube)
• YouTube: As Good As It Gets-1.avi
• Read: 'Groundhog Day' Live Read Combines Revelation, Familiarity And Discovery
• YouTube: Opening of Goundhog day
• Read: Scriptnotes: Podcast on Groundhog Day

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We are @stuwillis, @mehlsbells and @chasffisher on Twitter. You can find @draft_zero and @_shotzero on Instagram and Twitter.

Full show notes at: https://draft-zero.com/2014/dz-03/