‘THE STAIRCASE,’ ‘UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN’ AND MORE LIMITED SERIES SCRIBES TALK ‘TIGHTROPE’ OF WRITING ABOUT REAL PEOPLE
First Published on Variety.com
WHAT’S HARDER TO WORK WITH WHEN IT COMES TO WRITING A LIMITED SERIES — TRUE STORIES TAKEN FROM REAL LIFE, OR THE STUFF OF FICTION? A PANEL OF TOP WRITERS DEBATED THE CHALLENGES OF WORKING WITH HEADLINE-DRIVEN AND HISTORICAL MATERIAL DURING THE FINAL HOUR OF VARIETY‘S NIGHT IN THE WRITERS’ ROOM ON JUNE 9 AT 1 HOTEL IN WEST HOLLYWOOD.
The conversation also turned to the question of how the scribes feel about tackling characters who commit heinous crimes, such as the subjects of “Dr. Death,” “Maid” and “Under the Banner of Heaven.”
Starz drama “Gaslit” revolves around a less-explored aspect of the Watergate scandal — namely the role that Martha Mitchell, wife of attorney general John Mitchell, played in making it public. Writer Robbie Pickering outed himself as having been a “Nixon geek” since age 11, saying: “The fun in looking at all these people is part of finding your truth. You find people from your life that you recognize or you find traits of yourself in them.”
Peacock’s “Dr. Death” follows the now-convicted Dallas surgeon, Christopher Duntsch, who left 31 patients maimed and two dead after operating on them. Even with a sociopath like Duntsch, creator Patrick MacManus said it’s important to make the character a person and not a caricature.
“It’s vitally important when you’re writing anything like this to completely cancel judgment and find little bits of yourself in these things. That’s how you build a three-dimensional character,” MacManus said.