The Dialogue: An Interview with Screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci

NIA VARDALOS was nominated for the Academy Award® and the Writers Guild Award in 2003 for her breakthrough screenplay My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which was based on her one-woman play. The film became the highest-grossing independent feature and turned her in to an overnight success, spawning a follow-up sitcom and a cemented spot among Hollywood s elite writers. Listen as she talks candidly about her favorite laugh, tapping into her inner guy, and why her take on the hardest part of screenwriting just might make you blush.

Simon Kinberg recently burst onto the scene with his script for XXX: State of the Union, and has since worked on comic-to-film adaptations for Elektra and Fantastic Four and penned the third film in the X-Men series, X-Men: The Last Stand. Kinberg's breakthrough hit, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, began as a script that he wrote in college and became one of the top grossing movies of 2005.

Peter and Bobby Farrelly have single, or rather double-handedly reinvented the comedy. Their films Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary, Shallow Hal and Me, Myself & Irene combined shocking-but-hilarious gross-out humor with a sweet love story, and became blockbuster hits in the process. And in this interview, you'll learn why their writing methods of painting themselves into a corner and not wanting to know where a screenplay is going, can seem as unconventional as their comedy.

David Seltzer knows Hollywood. He knows the business, the tricks of the trade and all the hidden truths. He's got the stories from working with Jacques Cousteau, penning the horror classic The Omen and adapting Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. He can tell you why writing is like love-making and why there is no such thing as fiction. His advice about directing? Wear comfortable shoes. In this interview, you'll learn that and more, including what recent screenplay is the most elegant he has ever heard spoken on-screen and why you don't win arguments with movie stars.

Jeff Nathanson is easily among the A-list of Hollywood screenwriters, His script for Catch Me If You Can earned him much critical praise, as well as the devotion of Steven Spielberg, who also brought him to work on his next movie, The Terminal. Nathanson has also collaborated with Jan de Bont on Twister and Speed 2: Cruise Control and with Brett Ratner on the Rush Hour films. In this interview, learn more about why he dreads pitching, never speaks during a notes meeting, and finds he can do almost all his research with the Internet and old Playboys.

Hamburg wrote and directed the crime comedy Safe Men, which played at Sundance and spawned a devoted cult following. A sure-thing comedy closer, the New York City native built hilarious set pieces and character work into Meet the Parents, Zoolander, and Meet the Fockers that not only helped lift them to huge box office but also pushed a few new catchphrases into the American lexicon. A veteran of the uncredited production rewrite, Hamburg also wrote and directed the romantic comedy Along Came Polly in 2004. In this amusing interview, Hamburg discusses how he developed his talent for writing actor-hooking dialogue in the humorous monologues he performed in college, why he'd do a thousand test screenings if he could, and what it's like to hand a new scene to Robert De Niro and stand there waiting to see if he likes it.

With over 23 years in the business, Bruce Joel Rubin has done it all. From his Oscar-winning screenplay for the romantic-comedy-drama Ghost, to the psychological thriller Jacob's Ladder, the family-friendly adventure Stuart Little 2, and the tearjerker My Life, which he also directed. In this in-depth interview, Rubin delivers some insightful stuff: his carpet-laying theory about writing, the story behind the Jacob's Ladder gut-wrenching opening scene, and which of his screenplays came about thanks to a burrito that didn't digest well.

Susannah Grant received an Oscar nomination for her screenplay for Erin Brockovich, an inspirational story based on the life of a working-class heroine. After her nomination, she went on to adapt In Her Shoes and Charlotte's Web, as well as write and direct Catch and Release. Here, Grant goes into the midwife vs. mother role of novel adaptations, the importance of finding your voice and why sometimes you just have to be able to really, really suck.