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  • 2023 "WALK OF FAME"
    • JOHN THIBAULT
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BILL WALKER
​

Picture
Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
I live in Los Angeles, California.
 
Your script stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your story and why did you write a script instead of a short story or a novel?
I’ve always been a Dillinger buff, but I was inspired to write this by an elderly woman by the name of Elizabeth Butler Klungness, a book editor who worked on a couple of my early novels. She told me a story about how her newspaper reporter father was called out to the Dillinger farm in early July 1934 to talk to John Dillinger and help plan his safe surrender. Lizzie, then ten years old, accompanied her father. She didn’t meet Dillinger, but that’s where my imagination took over. What if, I thought, she had met him and told him that he didn’t look like a bank robber—that he looked like a movie star. This in turn gets him to thinking and he surrenders outside the Biograph Theatre, rather than dying in a hail of bullets. From there, after a brief prison stint, he ends up in Hollywood. That is the premise of Starring… John Dillinger.
 
How long did it take you to write your script...and what is your writing process? Do you outline...use index cards...white board...or just start with FADE IN?
Actually, the novel came first and then a feature version, which was one of the 2019 winners of Scriptapalooza. My writing partner and I thought there was so much good material that was left out of the feature script, I suggested that we ought to develop the property as an eight-hour limited series, and that’s what we did. As for my writing process, I don’t outline. I also don’t write treatments. I literally just sit down and start writing the screenplay. While outlining serves other people well, it takes all the fun out of creating a story for me.
 
What is your ultimate ambition as a writer?
My ultimate ambition is to continue to write my novels, publish them, and then adapt them into features and television shows that are irresistibly entertaining. And to be well-paid for doing so. To me, making someone forget their troubles for an hour or two is a writer’s highest calling.
 
Was your entry at The Wiki Screenplay Contest a full script or “the first ten pages”? Why did you make that choice?
I was a freelance story analyst for seven years when I first came out to Los Angeles. I must have read over 3000 scripts and books, writing coverage for all of them. I learned how NOT to write a script. But the one thing I did as a reader was read every word of every script. I felt that someone who had put their heart and soul into writing a screenplay deserved the respect of reading it in its entirety. And while I believe a writer should grab the reader in the first ten pages, it’s not enough. A LOT happens in a script, and it’s especially important to see that a writer can handle all the vagaries of the form. Thus, I wanted the readers and the judges to get the full picture by reading my entire script.
 
What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show...and why?
My favorite movie is A Clockwork Orange. My number two film is Somewhere In Time. I have eclectic interests, so I write in a variety of genres, Thrillers, Romance, Time Travel, and Horror, to name a few.
 
What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have?
Don’t be afraid to put yourself and your work out there. After all, you’re not writing it just to place it in a drawer, are you? That would be tragic. Take a risk, it will be worth it.
 
What else are you working on that the world needs to know about?
I’m working on a feature length project called Whiskey Mountain Days that is a coming-of-age romance between a twenty-year-old man and a thirty-seven-year-old woman set against the backdrop of an independent motion picture production in 1976. It’s based on my own experiences.

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  • FEATURED "WALK OF FAME"
    • MARCIA P. SAMUELS >
      • MARCIA P. SAMUELS BIO
      • Marcia P. Samuels Projects
    • Cary Singleton >
      • Cary Singleton Bio
      • Cary Singleton Projects
    • Michael Elliott
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      • GARY DEMOSS PROJECTS
    • Caoimhín Mac an Bhreitheamhan >
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    • JOHN RICHMOND >
      • JOHN RICHMOND PROJECTS
  • 2024 "Walk of Fame"
    • CAROL HOFFMAN
    • DREW ATCHISON
    • THORSTEN SCHADE
    • ANTHONY J ANDERSEN
    • GARY DEMOSS
    • ALI HABIB
    • JOE LEONE
    • MUJLI GLASBERG
    • MEGMILLER
    • NEIL WATSON
    • MARK ROBYN
    • GARY DEMOSS
    • DAVID H. FEIN
    • BROOKE DE ROSA
    • COLLEEN AYCOCK INTERVIEW
    • MARCIA SAMUELS
    • Henry Sarwer-Foner
    • DIANE TOMASSIN
    • TRICIA TRIBBLE
    • RICHARD HUTTNER
    • MICHAEL MONTEIRO
    • SEAN ROPER
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    • JAMES C. BOYD
    • TOM WHELAN
    • ROBERTO S. OREGEL
    • NONO TAMURA-TASHA HARDY
    • BILL WELLS
    • STUART FRYER
    • MICHAEL GOSSETTE
    • KC BIBO
    • JOSH GOLDMAN
    • JASON WHITE
    • KAREN FRANKOLA
    • BILL JORDAN
    • CHRISTOPHER SCHULTZ
    • CAMERON MARTIN
    • CHARLIE SHOUP
    • JOHN ARNAU
    • PAM PRICE
    • ROB MCNEIL
    • SHANNON MCINTYRE
    • John Richmond
    • JEFF WALKER
    • DONALD MORGAN
    • LIZ MAYER
    • EMILY PELPHREY
    • DEBRA TOBIN
    • ANHTUAN DOVENTRY
    • GREGORY GEORGIOU
    • CAROL HOFFMAN
    • C.R. SHERMAN
    • JAMES FREEMAN
    • HANK ISAAC
    • ERIKA STONE
    • TODD HOLDEN
    • RAVEN PETRETTI-STAMPER
    • ANDREW EDMUNDS
    • ERIC WEBER
    • MOLLY FRANKLIN-LEARY
    • MATTHEW NICHOLSON
    • BRIAN NOLIN
    • ALGIS DANAITIS
    • HANK ISAAC
  • 2025 "Walk of Fame"
    • DARIUS WILSON
    • CHRISTOPHER WALKER
    • EDWARD ABRAHAMS
    • ERIC LOTTER
    • RITA REINECKER
    • BENJAMIN H SEHAT
    • DONOVAN CAGE
    • CHRIS LOVELAND
    • LILY SANDERS
    • RYAN CONRAN
    • MICHAEL HERRMANN
    • DANIEL R STEVENS
    • ADRIANO BELCASTRO
    • MITCHELL BOLING
    • MOHAMED MOHSEN
    • GRANT CHAUNCEY
    • JEFFREY PEMBERTON
    • LISA DUFFY
    • CATHY CIMATO
    • JULIE KOROGODON
    • STEPHANIE GOULD
    • LAWRENCE BERGMAN
    • JOSHUA CARTWRIGHT
    • KEVIN HARPER
    • LILY SANDERS
    • DARREN ANDREW NASH
    • SISI LIU
    • Henry Sarwer-Foner
    • KAREN MARGARET MURPHY
    • JANNE PULKKILA
    • RICHARD HOHENRATH
    • ANTHONY VOLLMER & CRAIG HORWITZ
    • Karen Siff Exkorn
    • GREG STELLEY
    • SUZANNE BUI LOC LUTAS
    • CHRIS CHURILLA
    • ROGER HILL
    • ROY EDMONDSON
    • ERIC LOTTER
    • JORDAN DAVENPORT
    • GREG MCCABE JR
    • TASHA HARDY
    • CATRYN BECKER
    • SEAN FOX
    • SHAUN DELLISKAVE
    • GIACOMO GIAMMATTEO
    • ROGERS WILSON
    • KAT-BYLSKA PRIMARY
    • MACK GORDON
    • Kristopher Pierce
    • Jerzy suchocki
    • DJ Alvine
    • KATE REMELIUS
    • VP BOYLE
    • Mohamed Mohsen
    • Frances Mccoy
    • Neil Goodchild
    • TERRY GEHRING
    • RUSSELL PUNTENNEY
    • TEEJAY SMALL
    • MIKE NIELSEN
    • TOM NEWMAN
    • MARIA GOMEZ
    • PEDRO CANAIS
    • MARK COHEN
    • VAL SERVINO
  • JOIN THE "Walk of Fame"
  • 2023 "WALK OF FAME"
    • JOHN THIBAULT
    • RICHARD HOHENRATH
    • BILL ALBERT
    • Dilece Connor
    • BILL WALKER
    • OZZIE LOGOZZO
    • FRANK CHARLES SCOTT
    • MOLLY VERNON
    • DIANE HALL
    • MARCIA SAMUELS
    • NILES WELICKSON
    • JULIA SAUDER
    • DEANNE GITTENS
    • J. thomas Peterson
    • RICHARD JELLERSON
    • LOUIS LEHRMAN
    • COLI B. SYLLA
    • LISA TRIANO
    • KEVEN WICKHAM
    • CLAUDIA DATO
    • STEVEN HART
    • KATREANA BELLEW
    • BARON ROTZA
    • PAUL HUENEMANN
    • JESUS GONZALEZ
    • WILL SADAROS
    • JOHN KUCZA
    • MAGGIE GRANT
    • ROB NIGHTINGALE
    • CRYSTAL STEVENS
    • LASHAWN KELLEY
    • JOHN RAVITZ
    • JIMMY PROSSER
    • SHAMIRA CLARK
    • WILLIAM LIPERA
    • CANDACE EGAN
    • RANDALL HAHN
    • Elija Maier
    • BARUH BENJAMINS
    • MORGAN RUSSELL
    • LEAH POLLOCK
    • NEIL GOODCHILD
    • Luke Duffy
    • Frank Tomasulo
    • Roy Rhodes
    • Mark Wallinger
    • Travis Levasseur
    • Dermot Davis
    • ERIC GILLIATT
    • MARGARET MORGAN
    • SAM SAMORE-MARIA MARSHALL INTERVIEW
    • THOMAS MCCONE INTERVIEW
    • JOAN BARRETT INTERVIEW
    • JASON NG INTERVIEW
    • CATHY CIMATO INTERVIEW
    • GUY PRIDY INTERVIEW
    • CANDACE EGAN INTERVIEW
    • JACK SHERRY INTERVIEW
  • KEYS TO SUCCESS
    • What Writers Say
    • Why this screenplay contest?
    • Screenwriting Inspiration
  • Judges