Script to Screen: Thirteen

  • Saturday, April 24, 2021 / 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (PDT)
  • With Catherine Hardwicke (Writer/Director)
  • Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Nikki Reed, Holly Hunter
    Screenplay: Catherine Hadrwicke, Nikki Reed

The unhinged joy and bitter angst of modern adolescence are confronted with honesty, clarity, and passion in Thirteen (2003). The story follows Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) as she grows from a pig-tailed child, still playing with teddy bears and Barbie dolls, into a young woman navigating the hyper-sexualized pressure cooker of junior high. Here, she witnesses the power and hipness of Evie Zamora (Nikki Reed, co-writer of the script), widely known as “the hottest chick in school.” Ultra-popular, gorgeous, and bewitchingly snobby, Evie represents everything Tracy suddenly wants to be.

Writer/Director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Lords of Dogtown) joined Pollock Theater Director Matt Ryan for a discussion.

Biographies

CatherineHardwicke-by-Gilles-Bensimon

Writer/Director Catherine Hardwicke

Catherine Hardwicke’s first film as a director was the critically-acclaimed Thirteen, which won numerous awards including the Director’s Award at Sundance, Golden Globe nominations for Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood, and an Academy Award nomination for Holly Hunter. Hardwicke has since then become best known as the director of Twilight, which launched the blockbuster franchise and earned nearly $400 million at the global box office. Hardwicke’s other credits include Lords of Dogtown, Miss You Already, Red Riding Hood, and Miss Bala. For television, she has directed episodes of This Is Us, Eye Witness, Low Winter Sun, and Hell on Wheels. She previously worked as a production designer on films directed by Richard Linklater, David O. Russell, Cameron Crowe, and Lisa Cholodenko. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture from UT Austin, and did graduate work in animation at UCLA Film School. Most recently, Hardwicke directed and executive produced the 14 part Quibi series Don’t Look Deeper (starring Don Cheadle, Emily Mortimer and newcomer Helena Howard), which is set “fifteen minutes in the future.”

matt-close-s

Moderator Matthew Ryan

Matthew Ryan earned his MFA in Screenwriting from Loyola Marymount University in 2008. He has been the Pollock Theater Director since the theater opened in October 2010. He created and hosts the Script to Screen series, which has welcomed prestigious guests such as writer/director/producer Jordan Peele (Get Out), writer/director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash), screenwriters Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), and writer/director/producer David Mandel, actor Tony Hale, and actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus (VEEP).

Ryan oversees the Pollock Theater Internship, which offers industry-level experience in live multi-camera television production and event planning. TV shows produced by students through this program have generated 15.1 million online views on the UCTV cable station.

This event is sponsored by the Carsey-Wolf Center, and the Department of Film & Media Studies.

Script to Screen

The Script to Screen series examines the screenplay and its transition to the screen from the perspective of writers, directors, producers, editors, and actors. The Pollock Theater connects artists to our audience of aspiring production students, and Guild & Academy Members. Our Q&As transform into a television show that airs on the UCTV cable station. The series is hosted by the Pollock Theater Director, Matt Ryan, and co-produced by the Pollock Theater student staff.