My interview with one of Hollywood’s hottest screenwriters.

I regard this 2013 interview with Eric Heisserer as one of the best in the Go Into The Story series. Eric’s writing credits include The Thing, Lights Out, Birdbox, the TV series Shadow and Bone, and Arrival for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Eric’s scripts have also made the Black List twice: 2012 and 2014.

In our hour-plus conversation, Eric and I discussed his unusual path into screenwriting, his writing across genres, and reflections on the craft.

: What are some of the movies that most influenced you when you were growing up?

: I was a child of the ’80s, so I was addicted to movies like “Aliens” and “The Hunt for Red October” and early Carpenter movies like “The Thing” and “Big Trouble in Little China.” That was my candy.

: And when did you discover that there were these people known as screenwriters who actually wrote the stories?

: Probably much later than I should have. It was along about the time that I got addicted to some of the later works of [James] Cameron. I discovered I could get a hold of the screenplays of his movies. I was curious to see…