LEGO Star Wars Anniversary Special: A Behind-the-Scenes Adventure

Behind the Scenes: Crafting the LEGO Star Wars 25th Anniversary Special

Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit trace their love for writing back to childhood. Hernandez recalls writing a Star Wars short story in fourth grade, inspired by Timothy Zahn's novels, such as the Thrawn trilogy. "I remember that moment as the first time that I really thought, oh, I really enjoy doing this. I like doing this. I think I can do this," he shares. "And that bug never really quit. It never really left me."

Similarly, Samit grew up in a family of writers. "My mom's a writer. My dad has written some things. So there's always been like writing in my world," he explains. "And I always saw it as a thing that people do to express themselves. And yeah, when I was a kid, I loved writing stories, making up stories with my friends."

Their partnership began at Brown University, where they discovered a shared taste in pop culture. "We started as best friends, just hanging out in college talking about movies and TV and just pop culture that we love," Samit recalls. "We just had this bond where we had basically the same taste, everything he liked I liked, everything I liked he liked. We didn't really ever disagree on anything."

This synchronicity laid the foundation for their future collaboration. Hernandez adds, "We were making each other's writing better. We were making each other's creative choices better. There are things that he's really, really good at that I'm not good at, at all."

Read the full interview here: https://www.creativescreenwriting.com...

00:00 Introduction: The Sights, Sounds, and Smells
00:06 The Nerf Herder Idea
00:23 Collaboration with Lucasfilm and Lego
01:16 Meeting Bobby Moynihan
02:07 Realizing Old Ideas
02:58 A Day in the Life on Finesse
03:19 The Screenwriting Process
03:34 Conclusion: The Joy of Collaboration

#filmmaking #film #filmmaker #director #writing #writer #screenwriter #screenwriting #hollywood #podcast #Comedy #Action #LEGO #legostarwars #starwars #lucasfilm