In my first solo piece for the indispensable culture website Hollywood in Toto, I talk about one of my favorite screenwriters:

Sometimes you find yourself a fan of somebody’s work without knowing it.

This doesn’t happen with books. An author’s name is on every page, so you know if you’re a fan or not. It’s happening less and less with television shows: if Dick Wolf’s name is on something, you know it’ll involve cops, robbers, and lawyers. If Shonda Rhimes’s name is on it, it’ll start out okay and then devolve into an unwatchable stew of intersectional feminism. With movies, we generally tend to know the greats, alive or dead: Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick. But what about those lesser-known screenwriters or directors, the ones who create some of your favorite movies, but don’t get as much notoriety?

Gregory Widen is a perfect example. He wrote Highlander and Backdraft, and wrote/directed The Prophecy. Now I’ll bet you’ve heard of him.

Head out to Hollywood in Toto to read the whole thing!