Episode 71: Adam McKay & David O. Russell, "Don't Look Up"

Geri Cole turns it over to David O. Russell for a conversation with Adam McKay about his latest project, DON’T LOOK UP. David O. Russell is the Oscar- and Writers Guild Award-nominated writer and director best known for his work on titles like FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, THREE KINGS, I HEART HUCKABEES, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, AMERICAN HUSTLE, and most recently, JOY. Adam McKay is a writer, director, comedian, and co-founder of the comedy group Upright Citizens Brigade. He kicked off his film & TV career in the ’90s as a head writer for SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE before rising to fame in the 2000s for his collaborations with fellow comedian and SNL alum Will Ferrell, with whom he co-wrote the hit comedies ANCHORMAN, STEP BROTHERS, and THE OTHER GUYS. In the 2010s, McKay ventured into more dramatic waters as co-writer & director of the 2015 dramedy/biopic THE BIG SHORT—for which he and Charles Randolph received the Academy and Writers Guild Awards for Adapted Screenplay—and as writer & director of the 2019 Oscar- and Writers Guild Award-nominated Dick Cheney biopic VICE.   His most recent project is DON’T LOOK UP, a comedy-drama and cautionary tale written and directed by McKay and based on a story by himself and David Sirota. The film follows two astronomers who discover a comet orbiting within the solar system and which is set on a direct collision course with Earth. The problem? No one really seems to care. Turns out warning mankind about a planet-killer the size of Mount Everest is an inconvenient fact to navigate. The astronomers embark on a media tour that takes them from the office of an indifferent President and her sycophantic son and Chief of Staff to the airwaves of upbeat morning show The Daily Rip. With only six months until the comet makes impact, the team struggles to manage the 24-hour news cycle and gain the attention of the social media-obsessed public—before it’s too late. DON’T LOOK UP was released in December 2021 and is available to stream on Netflix. --- Before it was a podcast, OnWriting was a print publication. Check out OnWriting: The Print Archives. Read shownotes, transcripts, and other member interviews: www.onwriting.org/ Follow the Guild on social media: Twitter: @OnWritingWGAE | @WGAEast Facebook: /WGAEast Instagram: @WGAEast