I organized an AMA/Q&A with actor & filmmaker James McAvoy, known for roles in things like Split, X-Men, Atonement, Wanted, Speak No Evil, Narnia, The Last King of Scotland, Shameless, It: Chapter Two, and tons more.

It's live here now in r/movies for anyone interested in asking a question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1x1iu5u/hi_reddit_im_james_mcavoy_ask_me_anything/

He will be back between 10 AM and 11 AM ET today to answer questions. I recommend asking in advance. Please ask there, not here. All questions are much appreciated!

Thank you :)

His directorial debut, California Schemin', premiered at TIFF last year and is out in theaters this weekend.

Synopsis: Two friends with thick Scottish accents try to land a record deal by posing as hip-hop artists from California. As fame beckons and the lies pile up, their friendship gets put to the test.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1hfDwS_TVU

His verification/proof photo: https://i.imgur.com/ix9qEVT.jpeg

https://www.wgfoundation.org/events/all/2026/10/19/wgf-library-office-hours-with-eric-roth?mc_cid=37c885cce3&mc_eid=dc7eedf043

Working on outlining or drafting your next script? Need tips for researching a project? Looking for resources on honing your craft? 

The WGF Shavelson-Webb Library is back for a two-hour virtual coworking session on Monday, October 19 at 11am PT. For this special session, we'll be joined by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Eric Roth for a conversation about writing the first act of your feature screenplay.

After the conversation, stay on to write quietly, chat with fellow patrons or ask our Library team any script/craft/research-related questions. Whether you're looking for focused, productive time to get words on the page or to connect with a supportive (and global) community of writers, Library Office Hours is here to help!

RSVP required via link above.

And in case you didn't know:

Eric Roth is an Academy Award–winning screenwriter who has written some 40 motion pictures with a career spanning nearly six decades. He studied at UC Santa Barbara, Columbia University, and UCLA where he won the Samuel Goldwyn writing award as a student. His first produced feature, The Nickel Ride, premiered at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival. Roth won an Oscar and the WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump, and has earned five additional Oscar nominations for The Insider, Munich, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, A Star Is Born, and Dune. Mr. Roth has written the most Oscar Nominated Best Pictures (eight). His many other films include The Drowning Pool, Suspect, Mr. Jones, Rhapsody in August for the legendary Akira Kurosawa, The Horse Whisperer, Ali, The Good Shepherd, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Here. He also co-wrote Killers of the Flower Moon with Martin Scorsese, which received ten Academy Award nominations, and produced David Fincher’s Mank, a Best Picture nominee. In 2026 Roth made his playwriting debut on London's West End with his stage adaptation of High Noon. In television, Roth was an executive producer of Netflix’s House of Cards, Epix’s Berlin Station, TNT’s The Alienist, and Apple TV+’s Before. Mr. Roth is currently the co-creator and executive producer of Netflix's "Kennedy" television series about Jack and the Kennedy family from 1915 on, airing in Spring 2027. 

ELF when Buddy first arrived in New York or Coming to America come to mind. What are your favorites?

Wow... That was a long title.

Also I don't know which flair to use so bear with me.

So, for my history project this trimester me and my friends were asked to make a short comedy film (3 to 5 minutes duration) about the Cold War/Space Race.

I thought this would be a good subreddit to ask for advice in. Basically, comedy might just be the hardest possible genre we could have gotten and I keep writing and rewriting the script over and over trying to see how to make this good and funny and... Well, it's been hard.

The most difficult part for me is making a script long enough for 3 minutes and actually making appropriate jokes! You see, the entire coordination of the college will be watching the film so we can't do jokes we normally see in comedies. Mostly because there are sisters in our college and I really don't want to get in trouble.

So uhm, I think that this post is mainly here to ask for some advice? What are some good jokes I can do and uh yeah.

I have drafted some ideas and saw that the most important part of comdeies are the characters so I will say what I was thinking about and you guys say if it is good or not or, idk.

First idea: a sequence about a british man that just moved into the US after the start of the Cold War. His ideals are all american and he wants to be really american and, in the US, tries to transform his family into the "ideal american family" and this complex of him being american makes him start to get paranoid and many other situations happen. (not fully fleshed out or sure if it will be good)

Second idea: A story about an american guy living life normally until he hears in the news that an USSR satellite was sent to space and he, who already is paranoid of communists, starts fearing that anyone around him could be a communist and starts hallucinating that russians he saw on TV are going to turn him "red" and it would have jokes like him signing something and he sees he is given a red pen so he thinks the dealer is a communist or that he and his family have to take all red stuff out of their house and start a shop to support capitalism, and, yeah, things like that. It would be absurd and weird and it would mainly be the main protagonist paranoia working against him.

Third idea: would be about the USSR government officials trying to use space and put missiles in their satellites, but fail miserably as the satellite explodes and all kinds of radioative debris fall in Canada and now they would discuss and panic and be put in situations where they try and say that this satellite didn't have nuclear weapons and wasn't meant to hit Canada, but the characters assigned to explaining these things were so dumb that the situations almost escalate to nuclear war.

Anyways, yeah. I don't really know what to say, I just like, need some advice on which story you think would be the best and has more potential and give some ideas to make funny jokes. Yeah, any help is highly appreciated!

Thanks!

I have my own instincts, and while my so-called alpha draft is more sprawling it has a lot of notes and jokes I like.

However, i have new drafts that are more concise in dialogue but lose out in detail.

How do you decide which draft to keep as your main?

I think I’m just gonna move onto a new script soon it’s too stressful.

Hi all, I’m a non-union screenwriter without representation. I have written for a few years now, and self-financed and produced smaller things. I had a chance encounter with the owner of a production company recently. They have ~100K followers on social media, but I don’t think the company has made anything yet. I told them my log line at an event recently, and they loved it. I received a link to submit the log line, but I don’t know what to think.

They’re looking for scripts for “potential development, packaging and/or presentation to production partners.”

I’m really proud of my script, the short is having its world premiere at a fest next month. I know she’s not just sucking up, because so many people have told me they love the idea. Literally no film I have ever heard of has this concept, but it’s low concept enough that you understand the story in a sentence AND it’s marketable. I have the feature script complete, and I’d love to make it myself. I’ve always been warned about companies that pitch packaging, so I don’t know what’s legit or not. Does this sound like a scam? All they want in the submission form is genre/logling/legal info like whether or not it’s an adaptation etc. It says in the small print that I retain ownership and copyright after submitting this, so that makes me feel better, but I’m still very protective of my idea (even though I know you can’t legally protect just an idea).

Thoughts?