“The problem with romantic comedy is really—what keeps two people apart? What insurmountable problem keeps two people apart? And in the modern times it’s very hard to know what that could possibly be since there’s no rules about manners, and if people are married they can get divorced. There’s no class problems the way that there used to be that fueled endless numbers of movies like Stella Dallas all these kinds of films that turned on things that you can’t turn a movie on anymore. And [Sleepless in Seattle] is a movie in which the two people don’t know each other and that’s how that problem is solved. And it’s actually a very funny way to solve that problem. In You’ve Got Mail they can’t be together because he owns a bookstore that is going to put her out of business— that is a big problem. In many movies people are just engaged to other people, which I always think is a very easy way out of this problem. But Sleepless is kind of amazing, it just assumes that these two people live on other ends of the county and don’t know who the other person is and that’s why they can’t be together. I like that. I think that’s simple & fun. “
Writer/Directr Nora Ephron Sleepless in Seattle director’s commentary
P.S. Nora Ephon also mentioned a reference film she watched before directing Sleepless in Seattle and how it inspired her to link the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan characters before they even met. “One of the movies I looked at before we shot this was a movie called And Now My Love by Claude Lelouch. Which is about two people who also don’t meet until the very end of the movie. And what he knows in that movie is that’s he’s going to fall in love with someone who takes three lumps of sugar in her coffee. And what we were trying to come up with was a way that you would know—because of some thing that linked them— how destined they were for each other. And this apple is it as you’ll see later.”
Here’s the first apple scene. (Note the simplicity of this two-minute scene. One actress and one take.)
That scene later connects with a scene where Tom Hanks’ young son says of his dead mother, “I’m starting to forget her.” Hanks hugs him and says, “She could peel an apple in one long curly strip. The whole apple.” I think that would qualify as what T.S. Eliot called an objective correlative. (And when that scene ends with the Joe Cocker version of Bye, Bye Blackbird it’s one powerfully emotional scene.)
No one seems to love or understand me And all the hard luck stories they keep handing me Where somebody shines the light I’m coming on home tonight 1926 song Bye, Bye Blackbird
Composer Ray Henderson/ lyricist Mort Dixon
“The odds are stacked against everyone. Beat the odds and write a great script.” Writer/director Jeff Arch
This afternoon at I’m going to be doing a filmmaking workshop for high school teenagers at Wartburg College. They’d probably rather talk about the upcoming release The Dark Knight Rises rather than a movie like Sleepless in Seattle that was released almost 20 years ago. But I’m in a Sleepless state of mind these days.
Of course none of those students were born when the movie Sleepless in Seattle came out in 1993. Most of them I bet have never seen Sleepless in Seattle or heard the name Nora Ephron who directed and was co-writer of the film. And I doubt any of them will recognize the name Jeff Arch—the original screenwriter of Sleepless in Seattle. But the reason I’m going to talk more about Jeff Arch than Batman is Arch is a great example of someone who wrote a script while living outside of Los Angeles and hit a home run. So at least for today put it down as Screenwriter 1—Superhero 0.
When Arch was in his early 20s he was living in Los Angeles and actually worked as an assistant for the great Oscar-winning director of photography Conrad Hall (Road to Perdition, American Beauty, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid). When he was thirty he wrote an off-Broadway play that sold out three weeks of preview shows before critics hammered the show and it ended with such a disappointment that he gave up writing for three years. On an interview on the Dr. Laura Ciel Show Arch said what prepared him to succeed is,”I had already failed in every way you can.” He moved to Virginia and took up Karate where he learned about “Desire. Enthusiasm. Stamina.” He became a black belt and opened a martial arts studio.
If you came across Arch at that point in his life there isn’t much chance that you bet on him writing a screenplay that a few years later would gross over $250 million and earn him an Oscar nomination. But that’s what happened.
I found an interview of Arch where he was asked, “Did you have any idea that Sleepless in Seattle would be such a major hit?”:
“This is going to sound arrogant, or something like arrogant if not exactly that – but the night I got the idea, the story sort of all dropped down into place piece by piece. And then, the minute I thought of the title, I knew it. I remember thinking to myself, if I pull this off it’s going to be a monster. I just had this really strong sense that the right people were going to come along and steer it, and that also the wrong people were going to show up too, but the thing would be strong enough to shake them off. And that if any negative elements remained, they’d be like barnacles on a ship – a hassle, and something that needs to be dealt with, but nothing that can stop the momentum. “
How about that? This guys had short runs in LA and New York and then walked away from writing when the title Sleepless in Seattle pops into his head. And it’s a great title. A memorable one. A rare one with built-in conflict. It made me take a look at the AFI list of 100 great movies and see how many of those had titles that had built-in conflict. Only 15% of the titles had what I qualified as inherent conflict.
Raging Bull (4) Psycho (14) The Grapes of Wrath (23) High Noon (27) To Kill a Mockingbird (25) Apocalypse Now (30) Intolerance (49) Jaws (56) Raiders of the Lost Ark (66) Who’s Afraid of Virgina Wolf? (75) Saving Private Ryan (71) The Silence of the Lambs (74) In the Heat of the Night (75) Twelve Angry Men (87) The Last Picture Show (95)
And I’m not even sure Jaws qualifies because without the poster of the shark is it really conflict? An interesting sidenote about the above list—and toss in Sleepless in Seattle—is that the conflict is implied in negative terms. Years ago an author told me that a writer would sell more books if he wrote “What’s Wrong with America?” rather than “How to Make America Better.” The old journalism axiom (stated in the movie Up Close & Personal) “If it bleeds, it leads.” Something to think about when you’re coming up with a title.
But let’s go back to that night and hear how Arch says he had his cinematic epiphany;
“This all happened in the space of about an hour or two, on a freezing cold January night. I was living in Virginia at the time, and I was looking up through a skylight and the stars were just amazing that night. And I told myself, ‘for every star in the sky there’s a good idea.’ And then, I am not kidding, it was like one at a time, these shooting stars would come right down through that skylight and land in another part of the story. I have never had a single experience as exciting as whatever was going on that night. ‘Exciting’ can’t even begin to describe it. And then later on, for the entire time I was writing the movie, that same feeling was there – something was going on that was way bigger than I was. I know I’m making this sound like I had discovered the Theory of Relativity or something, and obviously this was a lot less world-shaking than that. But I’m not Einstein, and for me this was just as big. I felt so lucky to be the one that got that idea – I felt like anybody else that had been up that night might have gotten it instead if I hadn’t been there – but as it was, I had this sense that I was being trusted with something, and that I had better not mess it up. Where my head was at the time, I wanted to send a valentine out to the whole world.”
He wrote the first draft of Sleepless in Seattle in four or five weeks. And he was right, it became a monster hit.
Currently Arch is working on the musical version of Sleepless in Seattle—The Musical which is set to debut in June of 2013 at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Looking at the locations where people just yesterday read this blog, my guess is tonight that there will be sleepless writers in Singapore, UK, USA, Canada, India, Austraila, Brazil, Thailand, France, Norway, Russia, Germany, Israel, Turkey, Fineland, Japan, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Poland, Palistan, Belgium, Jamacia, Uruguay, Ireland, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Cameroon and the Isle of Man (need to look that last one up and see where that is)— writers who perphaps like Arch have “failed in every way you can” who still have the courage to write.
Even if you don’t take up karate, memorize these three words: “Desire. Enthusiasm. Stamina.”
P.S. According to Wikipedia, “the Isle of Man is a self-goverining British Crown Dependency, located on the Irish Sea between the island of Great Britian and Ireland, within the British Isles.” Check out how cool their flag is:
“A word that was very important to me when I was making the movie was timeless.”
Director Nora Ephron on making Sleepless in Seattle
“While my informal and unscientific Twitter poll revealed that When Harry Met Sally might be Nora’s most beloved film, I think Sleepless in Seattle is my favorite. I often think about it as a reminder that we can be creative and clever with structure.” Script reader Amanda Pendolino Writing Advice from Nora Ephron
Even if you don’t like mainstream Hollywood romantic comedies, there is much to appreciate about Sleepless in Seattle. Afterall it not only made more than $250 million back when it was released in 1993, but it’s listed as one of AFI’s top ten romantic comedy of all-time. A list that includes City Lights, Annie Hall, The Philadelphia Story and When Harry Met Sally. (That last film was co-written by Nora Ephron, the director/co-writer of Sleepless in Seattle, reminding us of how talented she was.)
After her recent death, I revisited the director’s commentary of Sleepless in Seattle and it’s a great example of the collaborative filmmaking process. So in just under 1,500 words here are some take aways from Nora that I hope will make you a better writer and/or filmmaker.
Screenplay
Nora is very open on the Sleepless in Seattle commentary that she was “one of several screenwriters who worked on it.” The original script written by Jeff Arch, then an English teacher in Virginia, was a romantic drama. That script found its way to producer Gary Foster, who in a 1993 LA Times article said, “I got choked up a few times and was real touched by it. I took it to TriStar and we were lucky enough to get it optioned.”
Oscar-winning screenwriter David S. Ward (The Sting) was brought on to do a version and the third credited writer on the script was Nora. But according the commentary, after the film was greenlit Nora brought her sister Delia (credited as Associate Producer) in to punch up the comedy in the script, the kids roles, and improve the Tom Hanks character.
And even that isn’t the end of it as Nora mentions how Hanks himself, and actors Victor Garber and Rob Reiner, all used improv to add more humor. Nora even credits the producer Foster with writing the baseball/Baltimore bit about, “Everyone thinks Brooks Robinson is the greatest.” (A nice subtle touch of credibility for those who remember the Baltimore Orioles third baseman whose nickname was “The Human Vacuum Cleaner.”)
Cinematography
A standard practice in Hollywood is to team a new director with a seasoned director of photography (DP). This was Nora’s second feature, but her first bigger Hollywood-budgeted film. The DP for Sleepless in Seattle was Sven Nykvist. He was born in Sweden in 1922 making him 70-years-old when he shot the film. By then he had long been considered one of the greatest cinematographers of all time. (In his 2006 obituary in the New York Times it stated that Nykvist, “became the first European cinematographer accepted into the American Society of Cinematographers.)
He had won a couple of Oscars for his work on two Ingmar Bergman films, Fanny and Alexander (1982) and Cries & Whisper (1972). But he also shot Crimes and Misdemeanors (directed by Woody Allen), Chaplin (directed by Richard Attenborough), Pretty Baby (directed by Louis Malle) Star 80 (directed by Bob Fossee), The Tenant (directed by Roman Polanski) and Bergman’s Persona. Again even if you’re not a fan of romantic comedies you can appreciate what Nykvist brought to the party. (Watch the film with the audio off to help you appreciate the cinematography.)
The very first thing that signaled to me that there was some weight to Sleepless in Seattle was the opening shot at the cemetery when a standard funeral scene turns visually stunning when the camera cranes up and exposes the skyline of Chicago. (Nora said that that shot was an attempt to do a version of Saul Steinberg’s famous cover of The New Yorker where New York City dwarfs the rest of the world.)
Nora points out one scene that was shot at Tiffany’s, “Sven amazingly took about half an hour to light the whole thing with two big 10Ks. It was kind of amazing.” (Heck, I’ve taken an hour to light a simple interview.)
Actors
Tom Hanks. Meg Ryan. As one critic said about them together they, “should win a Nobel Prize for chemistry.” But it wasn’t just chemistry, it was talent. Talent often acted out in non-verbal subtext by just the expression in their eyes.
Keep in mind that Hanks’ next two roles after Sleepless in Seattle won him back to back Oscars for best actor (Philadelphia, Forrest Gump). And his next two after those (Apollo 13, Toy Story) weren’t too bad either. Nora points out one scene where Hanks’ is juggling a small stack of mail:
“That little thing of letters that falls off the pile of Tom’s is something that the first time it happened I thought, ‘Oh, he dropped the letters,” the second and third time he did it I realized that he did it on purpose. And one of the reasons he did it is Tom knew better than I did that the scene needed something to end it. Even if it was a little noise. And that little package of envelopes that drops gives the scene what you call a button and helps tremendously where the writing fails.”
Nora Ephron
Music Nat King Cole, Jimmy Durante, Carly Simon, Gene Audrey, Tammy Wynette, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker, Harry Connick Jr, Celine Dion and Louis Armstrong. Something for everyone. But with a twist. As Nora put it, “Standards sung by unlikely people.”
Editing Editor Robert M. Reitano helped shape the film after it was shot. (The opening and the close of film had to be restructured in post. In the first act the Meg Ryan character actually had a long backstory that included her also living in Chicago at the same time the Tom Hanks character did. It wasn’t only written into the script, it was shot. Nora simply said, “That little idea of mine didn’t work.” ) There are other things Nora picked up from the Emmy-winning Reitano including a big argument between Hanks and his son (Ross Malinger) at a key turning point at the end of the second act:
“My first movie (This is My Life) had a big fight in it and my editor Bob Reitano was cutting it and very gently pointed out to me that the next time I had a fight scene I ought to move people around a little bit. So this was the next time to shoot a fight scene and I really paid attention to what he said. People just bounce all over the place in this fight.” Nora Ephron
Locations Shot in Seattle, Baltimore, Chicago, New York. The story is dialogue driven, but those four cities in one film make for a visually interesting backdrop.
There’s a lot more depth to this film that I won’t go into beyond saying there are some solid supporting actors, graphics (Milton Glaser/Walter Bernard) and production design. In fact, in wanting to connect Hanks and Ryan together early in the film they have a shot of Ryan walking out a door in Baltimore and do a match cut to Hanks walking out the door in Seattle. According to Nora they didn’t just find a similar door in each city but they shipped the door to both cities. That wasn’t a happy accident, that’s production design at its best showing attention to detail in pre-production.
There are films I’ve seen just this month that I’ve already forgotten the titles of, who’s in them, or what they were even about. But Sleepless in Seattle is a title that rolls easily off the tongue and is a movie that has stayed in the hearts of many for the past almost 20 years now. I don’t think Nora Ephron set out to make a modern day classic in her second film out of the gate, but sometimes the right elements come together in a film and create magic.
Update: Just after I posted this I learned that today just happens to be Tom Hanks’ birthday. A fitting ending to a post about a movie about fate. Happy Birthday Tom Hanks.
P.S. And because I doubt I’ll ever have a reason to mention Brooks Robinson again on this blog about screenwriting—and to preserve my man card— here’s a fine 3-minute tribute to Robinson by Roy Firestone :
Screenwriting from Iowa 