Juno (film)
Diablo Cody was first approached to write a screenplay by film producer Mason Novick, who had previously landed her a book deal for her memoir, "", after discovering her blog about stripping. He persuaded her to adapt the book for the screen, but suggested that she first write a screenwriting sample to show studios; that sample became "Juno". After deciding on an adoption storyline, Cody collected the stories of adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents, including that of her then-husband, an adoptee who reunited with his birth parents after she wrote the film. She also found inspiration in the story of a close friend who had become pregnant in high school and used some details from her friend's experience in the film, such as mistreatment from an ultrasound technician. Much of "Juno", however, was based on Cody's own high school experiences: She dated a tic-tac-loving boy similar to Paulie, she was best friends with a cheerleader like Leah, and she used a hamburger phone identical to the one that appears in the film. After writing the screenplay over seven weeks in the Starbucks section of a Target store in Crystal, Minnesota, Cody compared writing to breathing, seeing Juno as an extension of herself.
Rudy Wurlitzer
Wurlitzer's first script "Glen and Randa", co-written with Jim McBride and released in 1969, was another take on a post-apocalyptic world. At some point, Monte Hellman, who had been directing films for Roger Corman read Wurlitzer's novel "Nog" and approached him about writing the screenplay for "Two-Lane Blacktop". The film became a cult-classic, and the script was printed in its entirety in the April 1971 issue of "Esquire". During his time in Hollywood, Wurlitzer also wrote the screenplays "Walker" (directed by Alex Cox), 1987, "Candy Mountain" which he co-directed with Robert Frank, 1988, and "Little Buddha" (directed by Bernardo Bertolucci), 1993. Wurlitzer was working on a script with Michelangelo Antonioni at the time of Antonioni's death.