Contextual studies: screenwriters research

Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon is an American writer, director, producer and composer. He has worked on numerous projects, some of which have gone on to be very successful, such as the two Marvel Avengers Assemble films, which he both wrote and directed and together made almost $3 billion. He has also worked on numerous cult classics, being one of the writers and producers for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran for 144 episodes between 1997 and 2003.

Joss Whedon has actually given his top 10 tips for writing a screenplay, which was initially published in Channel 4's talent magazine by Catherine Bray. Some examples of these are to cut what you love from the script, as it is sometimes necessary if you are stuck in order to give you some working room, and that scene may be able to be put in again later, and track the mood of your audience, as this will help you to write a better script and connect with the audience more. 
(http://dannystack.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/joss-whedons-top-10-writing-tips.html)

At the same time that he was writing Buffy, Whedon was a script doctor, and was an uncredited writer for films like The Getaway, Speed, Waterworld, Twister and X-Men. However, X-Men apparently contained only two dialogue exchanges of Whedon's contribution, but the final cut of Speed left in most of his dialogue.

Whedon has also written comic books, authoring the ‘Dark Horse Comics’ miniseries Fray, which takes place in the far future of the Buffyverse. Whedon and the other writers then released a new ongoing series, taking place after the television series finale "Chosen", which is officially recognized as the canonical eighth season of Buffy.

Whedon has also won several awards, such as an Annie award in,1996 for Best Individual Achievement: Writing for
Toy Story. He has also been nominated for an Oscar, for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for
Toy Story. In total, Whedon has had 20 wins along with 39 nominations. 

Edgar wright

Edgar wright has not had as big of a career as joss Whedon, but he has still had great success with his projects, his most famous being the 'three flavour cornetto trilogy' with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. He has had 9 award wins and 27 nominations, with his most recent being winning the Oglethorpe Award for Excellence in Georgia Cinema for Ant Man earlier this year.

He also co-wrote, produced and directed the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Along with his friend Joe Cornish and Steven Moffat, he co-wrote Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. Wright and Cornish co-wrote the screenplay for the Marvel Studios film Ant-Man, which Wright was intended to direct before departing the project. However, Joss Whedon said that the screenplay for Wright's version of the film was “not only the best script that Marvel had ever had, but the most Marvel script I'd read,"

Edgar wright has also, as mentioned before, co written and directed Scott Pilgrim vs the world, which had a budget of $85 million, where Hot Fuzz had a budget of only £8 million. Also, in 2010 Wright was under consideration to direct Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Over his relatively short career, Edgar wright has had the opportunity to work with some very experienced people, such as Chris Evans, Simon Pegg and fellow writer Steven Moffat. He has also gained the likes of more accomplished directors for his work, with the likes of Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and Jason Reitman saying good things about Scott Pilgrim vs the world.