Craig Mazin

HBO is developing a Baldur’s Gate TV series with Craig Mazin (The Last of Us) attached, and the big twist is that it’s being described as a follow-up to Baldur’s Gate 3 , not a straight adaptation. I break down why that’s both exciting and risky, especially with Larian not involved , and how the show might handle the game’s multiple endings without instantly dividing the fanbase. We also talk about what to watch for next, like casting, the returning character question, and whether HBO leans into practical locations or goes heavy on CGI. 00:00 HBO developing Baldur’s Gate TV series with Craig Mazin attached 00:13 Larian not being involved and why that worries fans 00:13 The show is a continuation after Baldur’s Gate 3, using the wider D&D rule set 00:26 The canon problem: multiple endings and how the show might handle it 00:37 Optimism check: HBO + Hasbro money, plus The Last of Us as a recent success story 00:51 What to watch for next: casting, returning names, CGI vs on-location filming HBO is developing a Baldur’s Gate series with Craig Mazin attached in a major creative role. The show is framed as a follow-up set after Baldur’s Gate 3, not a retelling. Larian not being involved is the biggest immediate red flag for a lot of fans. The biggest storytelling challenge is picking (or avoiding) a canon ending in a game built around choice. The next real “proof it’s happening” moment will be casting and visual approach (CGI-heavy vs real-world locations). “If you play the game, you know there are multiple endings, so what is Craig going to pick as the canon ending… it’s a little risky.” “We’re getting a D&D series with HBO and Hasbro money back in this thing… so while I’m cautious about this, I’m trying to stay optimistic.” If you enjoyed this breakdown, subscribe to Geek Freaks Headlines , leave a quick review, and share the episode using #GeekFreaksHeadlines . GeekFreaksPodcast.com (source for all news covered on the show) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegeekfreakspodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/geekfreakspodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/geekfreakspod Threads: https://www.threads.net/@geekfreakspodcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GeekFreakspodcast Got thoughts on what ending should be “canon” for a Baldur’s Gate show, or which companion absolutely has to return? Send your questions and we’ll read our favorites on a future episode. Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate 3, HBO, Craig Mazin, The Last of Us, Dungeons & Dragons, Forgotten Realms, Larian Studios, Hasbro, Video Game TV Adaptations, Fantasy TV, Geek Culture News Timestamps and TopicsKey TakeawaysMemorable QuotesCall to ActionLinks and ResourcesFollow UsListener QuestionsApple Podcast Tags

This week on On Story, a conversation on the prestige miniseries with Craig Mazin and Marissa Jo Cerar. Craig Mazin is the creator, writer, and executive producer of HBO's Emmy-winning limited series Chernobyl. Chernobyl is a five-episode historical drama following the events leading up to the Chernobyl disaster and the cleanup efforts that followed. Mazin is also known for co-creating and co-writing HBO's The Last of Us, and for his work on comedy films such as Scary Movie 3, and Identity Thief. Marissa Jo Cerar is the creator of the NAACP Image Award-winning miniseries Women of the Movement. Women of the Movement centers on the true story of Mamie Till-Mobley, who dedicated her life to seeking justice for her son Emmett Till, who was lynched in 1955. Cerar is also the creator of the Hulu series Black Cake, and has worked as a writer on The Handmaid's Tale, and 13 Reasons Why. Cerar and Mazin joined AFF moderator Fabienne Harford for a conversation on the advantages of writing for a limited series, and how they decided that the limited series was the right format for their respective stories. Clips of Chernobyl courtsey of Home Box Office, Inc. Clips of The Last of Us courtesy of Home Box Office, Inc. Clips of Women of the Movement courtesy of Kapital Entertainment, LLC. Clips of Black Cake courtsey of Kapital Entertainment, LLC. Clips of the Handmaid's Tale courtesy of MGM Television Entertainment, Inc. Clips of 13 Reasons Why courtesy of Paramount Television Studios.

Writing legends John August & Craig Mazin talk about their journey to screenwriting, podcasting, & writing a book. They talk about how to boil down 15 years of shows down to a book, the origin of the scriptnotes podcast, the need to help people combined with being annoyed by people, what each of them considers good writing, why people who hate books on writing wrote a book on writing, there are no rules to screenwriting, customizing your process, the moment they thought the might be good enough to make a living at writing, their messiest jobs, their best jobs, the changing nature of show biz, and why the Scriptnotes book weighs a lot less than you think it does. Bio: Craig Mazin is the multiple Emmy® award-winning co-creator, executive producer, writer and director of the smash hit HBO series THE LAST OF US. An addition to setting viewership records for HBO, THE LAST OF US has earned 51 Emmy® nominations including 9 Emmy® wins, a Peabody Award, an AFI Award, a BAFTA Award, two SAG Awards, a DGA Award, a WGA Award, a GLAAD Award, two Film Independent Spirit Awards, and four Golden Globe Award nominations. Previously, Mazin served as creator, writer and executive producer of the HBO limited series CHERNOBYL, for which he won 2 Emmys®, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a Peabody, and awards from the Writers Guild, the Producers Guild, the Television Critics Association and the American Film Institute. Looking ahead, Mazin is executive producing the upcoming HBO E-sports drama DAMAGE alongside writer, director and executive producer Celine Song. In addition to his work in television, Mazin has written numerous hit feature films, which have grossed over one billion dollars in theaters worldwide. Mazin can be heard on the popular screenwriting podcast Scriptnotes, which he co-hosts with fellow writer John August. Bio: John August is a screenwriter whose credits include Aladdin, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie and the first two Charlie’s Angels movies. He directed the 2007 film The Nines starring Ryan Reynolds and Melissa McCarthy, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. He earned a BAFTA nomination for his script for Big Fish, and a GRAMMY nomination for his song in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In 2016, he received the Writers Guild of America West’s Valentine Davies Award in recognition of his humanitarian efforts and civic service. In addition to his work in film, John wrote the Arlo Finch middle-grade novel trilogy, and the book for the Broadway musical of Big Fish. Since 2012, he has co-hosted the popular weekly screenwriting podcast Scriptnotes. His company, Quote-Unquote Apps, makes utilities for writers (including Highland and Weekend Read) along with Writer Emergency Pack, which is used in 2,000 classrooms nationwide. Born in Boulder, Colorado, John received a BA in Journalism from Drake University and an MFA in Film Producing from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. He lives in Los Angeles with his family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Every writer has to pitch themselves, but how do you do it without sounding like a tool? John welcomes back Pamela Ribon (Nimona, My Year of Dicks) for a big talk about small talk and general meetings. They offer practical tips on what to expect, how to get people to open up, navigating NDAs, staying true to yourself, and organically moving the conversation away from the weather and towards your work. We also look at a pernicious effect of underemployment (starting with a prompt from Ryan Knighton,) and answer listener questions on alternating POV, reusing adjectives, and giving your story beats cause and effect. In our bonus segment for premium members, we get meta as we discuss the modern podcast landscape and next era of Scriptnotes. Links: Scriptnotes Episode 700 – LIVE Pamela Ribon My Year of Dicks Rental Family trailer Japan’s Rent-A-Family Industry by Elif Batuman for The New Yorker 37 Seconds Good conversations have lots of doorknobs by Adam Mastroianni Real Time Lightning Map Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT) Who Is Watching All These Podcasts? by Joseph Bernstein for NYT Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member , or gift a subscription Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube Craig Mazin on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Nick Moore ( send us yours! ) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli . Email us at ask@johnaugust.com You can download the episode here . UPDATE 8-22-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here . The post How to Talk About Yourself first appeared on John August .

John and Craig descend into development hell to look at films that almost but never quite existed. Using both widely-publicized and little-known examples, they examine common patterns that keep movies frozen in script form. We also follow up on solar storms, writer education and genres people should see at least one of. We then answer listener questions on writing empathetically, late-career stamina, non-English dialogue, multi-part movies, and the Scriptnotes theme itself. In our bonus segment for premium members, if John and Craig were never paid to write in the screenplay format again, would they still do it? Links: Preorder the Scriptnotes Book! Birdigo on Steam Aurora by David Koepp Pale Flower Deep Red Suspiria Hands on a Hard Body American Movie Wonderland Hands on a Hardbody the musical Cure Pulse Moft magnetic wallet stand Total Party Skill podcast Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member , or gift a subscription Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube Craig Mazin on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Steve Pietrowski ( send us yours! ) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli . Email us at ask@johnaugust.com You can download the episode here . UPDATE 8-19-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here . The post Movies that Never Were first appeared on John August .

The Scriptnotes Book is real, and now available for preorder! John and Craig take a look through its 335 pages to explore the topics, guests and deep-dives we’ve assembled from over 1,000 hours of this podcast, creating what is sure to be your favorite bathroom book. Then it’s another round of How Would This Be a Movie?, where we look at four stories in the news to see whether they’re ripe for adaptation. Stories include a mother taking on the revenge porn industry, a wife navigating her husband’s longtime crush, a government worker who was secretly recorded on a date, and the potential destruction of solar storms. We also answer a listener question on current filmmaking technology. In our bonus segment for premium members, what is kindness? John and Craig talk through what sets this undervalued quality apart from niceness and other traits we mistake for kind. Link: Preorder the Scriptnotes book! Send your pre-order receipt to Drew at ask@johnaugust.com A Mother’s Revenge as told to Christina Cauterucci for SLATE Charlotte Laws’ fight with Hunter Moore, the internet’s revenge porn king by Carole Cadwalladr for The Guardian Help! My Husband’s Manic Pixie Past Has Become a Full-Blown Threat to My Sanity , Dear Prudence column for SLATE SNL’s What’s That Name An Offhand Remark About Gold Bars, Secretly Recorded, Upended His Life by Lisa Friedman for NYTimes The Unseen Fury of Solar Storms by Henry Wismayer for Noema TRMNL Steve Ballmer: Developers The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Birdigo Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member , or gift a subscription Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube Craig Mazin on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Nick Moore ( send us yours! ) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli . Email us at ask@johnaugust.com You can download the episode here . UPDATE 8-6-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here . The post We Wrote a Book! first appear

John and Craig welcome back Scott Frank (The Queen’s Gambit, Dept. Q) to offer their best advice to film students and the people who teach them. They look at ways to improve how we educate writers, and offer advice to an aspiring development executive. We also look at the intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations of characters in Scott’s new series, Dept. Q, follow up on the decline of sex in movies, and ask, what genres of movies should people see at least one of? In our bonus segment for premium members, John, Craig and Scott take a broader view of education in America to see what they’ve learned and what they would change. Links: Dept. Q on Netflix Scott Frank Scott’s last time on Scriptnotes, Episode 476: The Other Senses Everyone Is Beautiful And No One Is Horny by RS Benedict for Blood Knife Scriptnotes 639: Intrinsic Motivation Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading by Nadia Asparouhova Elmore Leonard’s Perfect Pitch by Anthony Lane for The New Yorker Richard Price’s Street Life by Kevin Lozano for The New Yorker McDonald’s AI Hiring Bot Exposed Millions of Applicants’ Data to Hackers Who Tried the Password ‘123456’ by Andy Greenberg for Wired Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member , or gift a subscription Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube Craig Mazin on Instagram John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Nico Mansy ( send us yours! ) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli . Email us at ask@johnaugust.com You can download the episode here . UPDATE 7-30-25: The transcript for this episode can be found here . The post Advice to a Young Film Student (with Scott Frank) first appeared on John August .

This week on On Story, a conversation with writer, director, producer and industry frontrunner, Craig Mazin . Mazin is perhaps best known for his Emmy award-winning historical Drama, Chernobyl. The HBO miniseries captivated audiences with its story of the aftermath of the 1986 disaster and earned Mazin the Emmy for Outstanding Writing on a Limited Series. Prior to his television work, Mazin gained recognition as a sharp comedy writer through features such as Scary Movie 3 and 4, Superhero Movie, The Hangover parts 2 and 3, and Identity Theif. The prolific writer is a long-time friend of Austin Film Festival and often hosts live recordings of his industry-insider podcasted, Scriptnotes, co-hosted with fellow writer John August, during AFF's Annual Writers Conference each October. Eager to inform and support up-and-coming writers, the podcast discusses all things current in screenwriting. The Last of Us Clips courtesy of HBO Max.

This week, creator of Chernobyl and The Last of Us, Craig Mazin, joins Craig Mazin and Craig Mazin to discuss their latest work, Aunty Donna’s Coffee Café . LINKS Buy tickets to The Magical Dead Cat World Tour - https://bit.ly/auntydonna-worldtour Follow @theauntydonnagallery on Instagram https://bit.ly/auntydonna-ig . Become a Patreon supporter at http://auntydonnaclub.com/ . CREDITS Hosts : Broden Kelly , Zachary Ruane & Mark Bonanno Intro VO: Tom Zahariou Producer : James Blake Social & Digital Producer : Nick Barrett Audio Imager : Mitch Calladine Supervising Producer : Elise Cooper Managing Producer : Sam Cavanagh Find more great podcasts like this at www.listnr.com/ Join The Aunty Donna Club: https://www.patreon.com/auntydonna Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our conversation with Craig Mazin continues. This is the full episode including our conversation on episode 3 starring Nick Offerman & Murray Bartlett. We are thrilled to welcome back creator/writer/director/exec producer Craig Mazin (The Last of Us, HBO)! Last time Mr Mazin was on Pop Culture Confidential we talked about his masterpiece 'Chernobyl'. He's back with the TV adaptation of the beloved game 'The Last of Us' which fans & critics are already calling -the best tv/film adaptation of a game ever! Join us for this fascinating conversation about the process behind creating 'The Last of Us'. 'The Last of Us' is airing now in HBOMax Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Larry is joined by Emmy Award-winning writer and director Craig Mazin to talk about his newest venture 'The Last of Us' on HBO. They begin their conversation by breaking down the synopsis of both the series and the popular video game it's based on while also touching on Craig's relationship with the two. Next, they discuss the obstacles and advantages of making comedies, the flexibility of comedic actors, and how to create an adaptation of a video game that already has a rabid fanbase intimately familiar with the source material (8:10). Craig then talks about his experiences making a show about a fungal pandemic while living through a viral one and how he was able to express complex emotional themes within the chaos of a zombie infested post-apocalyptic plotline (21:23). This leads into a conversation about humanity's relationship to sickness, its dependence on religion, and the future of shows based on video game franchises (37:19). Craig and Larry end the pod by discussing Mazin's entry into the world of screenwriting, exploring some of the most frequently asked questions by aspiring writers, and assessing the state of the Writer's Guild (47:11). Host: Larry Wilmore Guest: Craig Mazin Associate Producer: Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla sits down with ‘The Last of Us' Craig Mazin – the showrunner, co-creator, executive producer, writer, and director behind the HBO hit-series. The two discuss the challenges of adapting a beloved video game into a primetime TV show and how Mazin's experience building HBO's Emmy-award winning ‘Chernobyl’ and passion for the game itself sparked a partnership with co-creator Neil Druckmann. They also discuss preparing the star-studded cast for their roles, developing content to appeal to both an existing fan base of gamers and new audiences alike, and why Mazin says he never creates for virality. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.