My conversation with the writing duo behind the 2024 Black List script Three Hitmen and a Baby.

Action Comedy is my favorite cross-genre, so I’m always happy to see a script represented on the annual Black List. Thanks to Dave Matalon and Matt Altman, Three Hitmen and a Baby made the 2024 List which led to our hour-long interview.

Today in Part 5 of a 5-part series to run each day this week through Saturday, Dave and Matt answer some craft questions and provide advice to aspiring screenwriters.

: Well, congratulations again on making the Black List. Let’s get into some craft questions. It seems like a natural segue when you talk about outlining. What is that process like?

: Once we have concept, we generally just start doing structure beats. Like, cold open, whatever the opening scene is, inciting incident. Then we talk about acts, where act turns are, midpoints, and they’re always character driven. They’re never plot driven.

: And then basically, we’ll usually beat out the first act very detailed, and we’ll try to get the big beats for the second act. And we know where our ending that we’re shooting for.

: We always know our ending before that.

: But we don’t always get the second act…