My buddy William Robert Rich (co-author of Story Maps: The Films of Christopher Nolan) over at Screenplay How To has put together a fantastic Story Map for Rian Johnson’s 2012 sci-fi action film Looper, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. It’s a great way to study the screenplay structure and screenwriting techniques used by Rian Johnson to create one of the most compelling Science Fiction features of the last decade.

Download the free Looper Story Map
from ScreenplayHowTo.com

I think it’s safe to say that writing and directing Looper was the reason he snagged his latest gig. Rian Johnson recently made headlines when he was hired to write and direct Star Wars Episode 8 and 9 for Disney. The films won’t be out for years, not that you’d guess that if you went purely on the tsunami of fanboy response that follows any Star Wars-related announcement.

Many look at Disney’s hiring of Johnson as following the Marvel Cinematic Universe model, and I would agree, considering the planned spinoffs with popular supporting characters such as Yoda and Boba Fett, which makes one think about how the Iron Man, Captain America and Thor movies fueled the monster success of The Avengers. Disney hiring a young director like Rian Johnson, with no blockbuster hits on his filmography, hearkens to Marvel hiring directors like Jon Favreau, Joss Whedon and Kenneth Branagh before they were considered to be big-budget major studio filmmakers.

Enjoy the Looper Story Map and comment below if you have any thoughts.

Good luck and happy writing,

Dan

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“Dan has a no-nonsense approach to screenplay analysis that cuts through the bull and delivers the goods. A must read for serious screenwriters.”
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“…as much as an analysis of Nolan the filmmaker as it is an analysis of story structure within his films.”
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