Hollywood screenwriting guru launches international writers' institute

American scriptwriting guru Robert McKee, immortalised by actor Brian Cox in the Nicolas Cage starring movie Adaptation, will be setting up the 'International Institute for Writers' in Malta.

Speaking at the 'symbolic' launch of the International Writers Institute at Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta, Robert McKee spoke about the future of storytelling and how this could be galvanised in Malta thanks to an institute such as this.

"I hope this initiative will be successful, and it shouldn't just be open to fiction: it should be open to all writers that would work here in a spirit of shared experience."

McKee also said that the institute should also cater to adaptations.

"Film and television are starved for ideas, so they cannibalise novels and plays. But instead of encouraging the novelist or playwright to pen their own screenplays, they employ a third party to do that. They assume the original writer will be a pain in the ass because they would be too precious about their material, and not have the necessary skills to adapt their work. But I don't think this should be the case. I think we should empower our writers to be able to write their own screenplays."

McKee also commented that Europe in particular suffered in this area because the craft of writing was never given due importance.

"Europe has some wonderful schools of music and art? So why was writing never viewed int this way?" McKee asked.

Referring to hit television series like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, McKee said that the "cathedrals of storytelling in the future will be the long form television series".

"By around 2050, I predict that cinema will have the same place in our culture as, say, ballet does now," McKee said, adding that he hoped that the Malta-based institute will be a good springboard for innovative ways of storytelling.

McKee is famous for his 'Story Seminar', an influential screenwriting workshop previously attended by film industry luminaries like Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash), John Cleese, Geoffrey Rush and Joan Rivers amongst others.