In preparation for episode 600, John revisits our first two episodes with Christopher McQuarrie (Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, The Usual Suspects) to marvel at his wisdom and enjoy his ongoing feud with Craig.

We chart his course from writer to writer-director, his process of rescuing a movie in crisis, the storytelling opportunities on TV, and what the future holds for young filmmakers.

In our bonus segment for premium members, John, Craig and Chris conduct a post-mortem on what killed the Spoof Movie – surely there must be a reason? (Of course there’s a reason, and don’t call us Shirley.)

Links:

• Original Chris McQuarrie episodes 300 and 400
• Chris McQuarrie on IMDb
• Chris McQuarrie on Instagram
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription!
• Craig Mazin on Instagram
• John August on Twitter
• John on Instagram
• John on Mastodon
• Outro by Matthew Chilelli (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt (from episodes originally produced by Megana Rao and Godwin Jabangwe), and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.