Meet Shannon Bradley-Colleary | Screenwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shannon Bradley-Colleary and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shannon, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
My upbringing had a huge impact on who I am today. I am a child of divorce, which means, much like an astronaut reentering earth’s atmosphere, I had to learn how to enter each home at the exact right angle or endure incineration on contact. This turned me into a chameleon/raconteur. As a professional screenwriter, it only took me about a decade to realize that most of my protagonists are characters living two separate lives and hoping they won’t collide with one another, simultaneously destroying both worlds (and the protagonist, of course).

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I like to say I’ve had two screenwriting careers. The first was in the early aughts when I sold quite a few spec scripts and had many gun-for-hire jobs, but never was quite able to push the work over the finish line into production.

I couldn’t understand how to marry art with commerce at that time.

So I took a Sabbatical and started a blog, The Woman Formerly Known As Beautiful, which, in its heyday, was commanding 90,000 pageviews a month and was aggregated everywhere from The Huffington Post to The Oprah Magazine.

Having a place to do the work I wanted to do put fresh wind in my sails. So when screenwriting came calling again, with one of my screenplays going into production, I decided to start my second screenwriting career.

In 2019 my movie, “To The Stars” was one of thirteen films in the U.S. Dramatic Features category at The Sundance Film Festival and sold to Samuel Goldwyn. It was released in 2020 (that ignominious year). This gave me more opportunities.

In 2021 my film, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: The Kristine Carlson Story” aired on Lifetime starring icon Heather Lockear and I have two more film projects with directors and talent attached that, fingers crossed, will head into production in 2024.

I’ve learned that filmmaking is collaborative and that the people risking their money need to be a respected part of the process. When I was younger, I clung to my material because I didn’t think I would have any other good ideas. Now I know I have a million good ideas.

This doesn’t mean I throw my work under the bus for commerce, but I do listen and try to incorporate notes in a way that makes the work better. I’ve learned to make sure my bosses feel heard and that they know their input is invaluable when it comes to the final product. If they are bumping on something — it means there’s a problem. I may not take their solution — but will try to come up with one that excites both them and me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The first thing I would do is take her to The Edison speakeasy when it reopens in 2024. It’s “The Great Gatsby” meets Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge”. It’s located in an underground basement in the historic Higgins Building downtown wherein fairies serve you “absinthe” while you dance to 1920s hot jazz. The next day we’d catch “The Black Dahlia” tour through Esotouric. Because who doesn’t love a tour about a beautiful 1940s murder victim/unsolved crime that spawned books by John Gilmore and James Ellroy? Next I would take her to The Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles. Their website reads:

“MORE THAN A FEW BIBLIOPHILES would prefer that their prized possessions be kept in a bank vault as opposed to a bookshelf, but few actually get to see their dream in action. Enter The Last Bookstore, an iconic Los Angeles book shop with a not-so-subtly symbolic name that is housed in the grand atrium of what was once a bank. The marble pillars and mile-high ceiling remain from the old bank, but in place of patrons and guarded stacks of cash, bookshelves line the walls and artful displays of books abound.”

After we purchase the latest New York Times bestsellers, we’d walk to the nearby Grand Central Market for Honey Glazed Baby Back Ribs at Maple Block.

Also on my list of to dos — body surfing at Will Roger’s beach, rubbernecking tourism on Hollywood Boulevard and a trip to the Crypto.com arena to watch the Los Angeles Clippers defeat the travel team.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
If it weren’t for my husband, MICHAEL COLLEARY (screenwriter of the ultimate action film, John Woo’s FACE/OFF) I’d never have stayed the course in my screenwriting career. This lovely man taught me — not how to write — but how to navigate the marriage of writing and commerce. He showed me how to be a professional, working as a team member with my producers and the studios, to get a film made. I learned not to keen at and eviscerate note-givers, rather to be grateful to be on the playing field and work with them.

Website: https://thewomanformerlyknownasbeautiful.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-bradley-colleary-38b5864

Image Credits
Shannon Bradley-Colleary image credit.