The Big Picture

The idea for "The Big Picture" came to me the day after John Hughes died. I've always been a huge fan of his writing and the way his movies can be absolutely hilarious and then turn on a dime and make you start crying. "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" will always be a top five film for me.

I wanted to write my version of a teen comedy that takes place over one night. Something in the spirit of "The Breakfast Club", "Career Opportunities", or "Sixteen Candles."

And what is one of my favorite places in the world?

A movie theater.

So why not set it there?

I wanted to tell the story of Emma, the assistant manager who took the job because she needed money and then discovered that she actually kind of loves the place.

The story of Nick, the weird kid who wants to be a magician like his dad but has never quite figured it out. He's also never figured out how to get up the nerve to talk to Grace, his dad's magician's assistant.

The story of Carl and Wolftrap, the weirdo lifers who seem perfectly happy spending their lives at the theater. And one of them might be a secret government agent?

The story of Jonah and whether he and his lifelong best friend Emma will ever be anything more than that.

It's complicated.

There's a recurring idea throughout "The Big Picture" about everyone being the hero of their own story. That's really what I wanted the movie to feel like. There isn't just one story happening inside this theater. Everyone who walks through those doors has something going on that feels enormous to them, even if nobody else realizes it.

Maybe that's part of what I've always loved about movies in the first place. They can take the weird kid, the assistant manager, the hopeless romantic, the theater lifer, or somebody everyone else barely notices and, for a couple of hours, tell us that this is the person we should be paying attention to.

Everybody gets to be the hero of their own story.

"The Big Picture" is about what happens when all of those stories collide over one very long night at the movies.