Last night at the Writers Guild’s “Behind the Screen 2013”

The Writers Guild of America West outdid itself last night (October 10, 2013), throwing an intimate and distinguished shindig at the Capital Grille adjacent to the Beverly Center to honor and promote their member/screenwriters who have new films opening soon. 

Chief among them were Miles Chapman, the screenwriter of the soon-to-be-released “Escape Plan”; Michael Polish, writer/director of “Big Sur,” coming out later in October; and Karl Mueller, whose picture isn’t coming out for a while yet, and was more subdued than the other two. 

Miles Chapman has been working since 2007 to see his idea for a film about an escape artist trapped in a prison he can’t escape from (or can he?) finally come to the screen.  Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger play the leads.  Miles met his vivacious wife at the Harvard-affiliated American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Michael Polish recounted filming “Big Sur” in Big Sur, California.  His movie is a chronicle of the demise of New Age icon Jack Kerouac, who was residing in that locale during that time.  He related that Kerouac himself had once met Richard Brautigan, author of “A Confederate General in Big Sur.”    He reported that Esalen, once the epicenter of New Age exploration/hedonism and located in Big Sur, is now a spa.  Was Kerouac ever a guest at Esalen?   Did (or would) it have helped him or exposed him to even more of what eventually did him in?

Press Pass LA Founder and Head of Content Jennifer Buonantony was there, along with her congenial colleague Lauren, who helps produce a lot of the text pieces derived from long interviews with worthy Hollywood denizens that run on this information-packed website that helps its visitors “get what matters.”

The mood was convivial and the culinary opportunities were plentiful, including slices of beef, delicious tamari-tasting broccoli florets, Crème Brulee, some kind of dry and crispy flatbread/cracker, the usual shrimp, and plaster serving spoons loaded with mini-crab delicacies and kernels of corn.  Truffles and high-glycemic chocolate cookies were also available during the dessert course.

Gregg Mitchell, Communications Specialist at the Writers Guild, was there “hosting the event & running around wrangling screenwriters for on-camera interviews,”  He should be commended for organizing and running a pleasant soiree featuring some of today-and-tomorrow’s most important screenwriters in a congenial setting with a commanding view of the streets below.