William Monahan on Writing ‘The Tender Bar,’ How He Adapts Material, and Neil Jordan’s Philip Marlowe Movie Starring Liam Neeson

With director George Clooney’s The Tender Bar now streaming on Prime Video, I spoke with Oscar winning screenwriter William Monahan about writing the film based on Pulitzer Prize-winning writer J.R. Moehringer’s memoir of the same name. If you haven’t seen the trailer, the Massachusetts-set drama explores the relationship between the fatherless J.R. and his uncle , as they bond at a bar overflowing with colorful patrons.

WILLIAM MONAHAN: I don't know. I want them to think it's good. I'd want them to think it's distinctive, I'd want them to think you can tell it's by me, and I certainly want them to think that it's not many hands Hollywood product or something. It was done by me. An individual human writer.MONAHAN: Well, that's an interesting question because that is out there if you actually want to pursue it, and do stuff like that.

It'd be like somebody looking at an old album they made 20 years ago. You might not be able to stand it. Who was this young punk who wrote this? Look at all the mistakes he made. Or maybe not, I might be surprised. The other thing I'd like to do is a western, a black powder western. I've been messing around with that, and I've been doing little bit of TV, a lot of other things, have a lot of stuff in development. I've learned not to announce it.

I've had these conversations with a number of people that, unfortunately, are off the record. Jumping into why I get to talk to you. You are obviously adapting this from a very, very popular book and a critically acclaimed book. What is actually the first steps when you are taking material like that and deciphering it down to what will make ultimately a two-hour movie?

Once George Clooney gets involved, I'm sure he has notes on the script. Can you talk about how you guys work together to ultimately get to what is on screen? One of the things that I found was Ben Affleck as Uncle Charlie, I felt like he was almost Chuckie from Good Will Hunting 25 years later. There was almost a little bit of that character in there. Not on purpose, but it felt a little like that. Did you notice that? Did you feel that?

Great movie👏

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