From left to right, P. Harry Jellinck, Caitlin McCarthy, Alysia Reiner, Steve Guttenberg at the 15th Annual Hamptons International Film Festival. Actors Reiner and Guttenberg starred in the staged reading from McCarthy's latest screenplay Wonder Drug.

The following interview is part of the six-part series profiling the 2007 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition winners.

"I love a good challenge," Caitlin McCarthy writes via e-mail, a sentiment that perhaps explains why the teacher by day, screenwriter and veteran novelist by night, continually traverses both genre and format with her writing. "Whether you're writing a novel or screenplay, you have to be mindful of character development, action and emotional storylines, pacing, etc., but the way you outline and ultimately express yourself on paper is different," McCarthy says.

"Novels allow writers to explore their characters’ inner thoughts and pursue multiple subplots. Screenplays have to be concise. Writers must also rely upon visual images to convey their characters’ inner thoughts," she adds.

These particular images and inner thoughts for McCarthy manifest recently in Vera, a biographical screenplay about World War II resistance fighter Vera Laska. Preparing for her weekend at the Atlanta Film Festival screenplay competition workshops, McCarthy here shares her creative process for the film, hitting on many points now historically forgotten.

SM: While your earlier script Free Skate derives out of a personal space, it shares in common with both Vera and Wonder Drug a focus on exposing issues relating to women. That's not to say that any of the scripts is typical in either a feminine or feminist sense, but just that some underlying themes pertain to womanhood. It's reductive to say that a woman will naturally have those concerns as an artist, and in fact many don't. Why, however, do you find yourself drawn to stories about and relating to women?

CM: I’m naturally drawn to stories with female leads. Nothing against men. Perhaps I’m just writing what I know!

That being said, I do think it's important for screenwriters to develop stories about or relating to women. There's a growing movement in Hollywood to do away with female leads, all because of a few recent box office failures. This would never happen if the tables were turned and a few films with male leads flopped.

I blame the failure of Nicole Kidman’s The Invasion and Jodie Foster’s The Brave One on the fact that those films had already been done ad nauseum. Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Death Wish, anyone? My feeling is this: Make an original, compelling film and the people will come. The gender of the main characters really shouldn't matter. It should all come down to the story. That’s what makes people go to the theatre, rather than wait for the rental. People want a unique experience. There are enough reruns on TV!

Yes, it’s true that I write scripts with female leads, but my stories are universal -- something that both men and women can enjoy. My goal is to entertain everyone.

SM: On a related note here, filmmaker Matia Karrell served as a mentor for you on entering the film industry in 2002. That's a rare gift, I think, for one woman filmmaker to work with another. Can you tell me a bit about the experience, and what both of you learned from each other?

CM: Matia Karrell is an Oscar-nominated director. She is also an accomplished screenwriter and producer -- and an amazingly generous person. It's unusual to find a woman with her resume…which is a sad commentary, but I believe that’s changing. Talent can’t be denied. Thanks to trailblazers like Matia, women in film today have terrific role models.

I'll always be grateful that Matia took me under her wing at the beginning of my screenwriting career. Working with her was like having a master class. She read every draft of my first script Cape Cod Lite and gave me valuable insight into what was working and what wasn't. We became – and remain -- friends, and I look forward to having her direct one of my scripts someday. She's expressed interest in both Free Skate and Cape Cod Lite-- quite an honor for me, as I adore her work.

I wouldn’t say that I’ve taught Matia anything, but she often compliments me on my drive. Like Matia, I’m in it for the work, the spirit, the humanity, the moving forward.

SM: In the personal journey of your development for Vera, it must have been such a boon to have studied with Vera Laska herself. What were your first impressions of her, and how did those impressions change as you began to look at her not only as a professor but as a woman whose life you were now recreating in an artistic medium?

Vera Laska was a petite woman...no taller than 5'3”…yet she was a force to be reckoned with. As a professor, she demanded the best of her students. There was no room for slouches. Still, her students always knew that she wanted the best for us.

Vera’s brand of tough love worked. Everyone who took her class remembered it, long after graduation. And Vera remembered us, too. She often invited current and former students over to her house for pizza and chats about the world.

Before Vera’s battle with lung cancer, I would periodically visit her with my sister Erin, who also had her as a professor. We'd sit in Vera’s living room, eat Gouda cheese--which Vera adored--and talk, talk, talk for hours. Those times were very special.

Because of Vera’s illness, I wasn’t able to consult with her on my script. I had to rely on source material. My screenplay Vera is based upon Vera Laska's interview with Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation; Women in the Resistance and in the Holocaust: The Voices of Eyewitnesses by Vera Laska; and "Vera Laska" from Women Reshaping Human Rights: How Extraordinary Activists Are Changing the World by Marguerite Guzman Bouvard.

Thankfully, Marguerite was friends with Vera. She has been a true champion for me and this project. I often refer to Marguerite as the guardian angel of Vera.

In addition to Marguerite’s remembrances of Vera, I drew upon my “day job” for inspiration when creating the teenage Vera. I currently teach English at an urban high school. All day long, I'm surrounded by teenagers who are very courageous, surviving horrific conditions and triumphing despite the odds. Young adults have a special energy that never changes from decade to decade.

I wrote Vera as a tribute to Vera Laska, and as a teaching tool for students everywhere. Prior to its release, a Website for the film could be created, where there is a special section for high school teachers with curriculum ideas for history and English classes. After students view the film, teachers could do a lesson unit about WWII, the Resistance, and the Holocaust. Vera is unique, in that it covers all three points.

SM: As for starting points, the texts gave you a lot to work with, but where did you actually begin with the writing itself? How did you find the rhythm of the writing?

I felt it was very important to show Vera's world before the war broke out. What were her interests? What -- and who -- did she love? What were her dreams for the future? I imagined what Vera would have been like as a young teenager. As an adult, she was feisty, bright and unafraid. Those qualities were transferred to her teenage character in the script. Once I wrote the first scene between Vera and her mother, the script tumbled right out of me. I had a very solid draft in six weeks, which is incredible considering the amount of research the script involved.

SM: What kind of liberties did you to take with the story, and did you have any concerns about doing the adaptation itself?

Because Vera’s story spans several years, I had to create a few composite characters to help move the story forward. But overall, I stayed very true to the books that I secured for the screenplay. Vera isn’t a documentary, but it’s certainly based on a true story.

SM: You've said that the proposed tagline is, "Resist. Endure. Survive." During World War II that's simply not a tag society would readily accept when applied to a woman. Yet, that's exactly what Laska did and what in fact many women did. In a creative field, where so often our war stories are those of men, how did you, even with the assistance of the texts, find the voice of a woman fighter?

Teenage girls and women often made the best spies during World War II because so many people underestimated them. Chauvinism was definitely used to their advantage.

Both Vera Laska and Marguerite Guzman Bouvard wrote their books about female Resistance fighters and activists because this subject wasn’t being explored by other historians. That doesn’t mean there was a small number of female Resistance fighters and activists during World War II. They just weren’t receiving equal time along with the men.

Hopefully when my screenplay Vera is produced, the idea of a female Resistance fighter will be reinforced. In many ways, Vera is a companion piece to Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List. The projects all show different sides of World War II. It’s a subject we must continue to explore. As a teacher, I’m aware that many students still don’t know about the Holocaust. Frightening, but true.

On a personal note, it was very easy for me to find the voice of female Resistance fighters, because my mother and sister are pistols. I have to give props to my father, who never squelched our fire, but encouraged it. We’re not a timid family, that’s for sure!

SM: Most importantly are these questions though: What did you learn throughout the process? Did you have fun working on it?

By writing Vera, I learned many lessons that were applied to my next project, Wonder Drug. When creating a historical drama, it’s imperative that you organize your research; create a succinct outline; and focus on making the past fresh and exciting to readers and -– ultimately -- audiences.

Writing has always been fun for me. The best days, though, are when I write the first page and last page. I love when everything’s a possibility and when all of my hard work has paid off with a completed draft.

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