Craig Brewer

About Craig

• When he was a student, The Breakfast Club came out; kids at his school were quoting entire passages.
• He realized "there is power in writing," set out to make "the great American movie."
• His whole family got involved, they shot $30,000 worth of film that was a complete failure.
• His dad told him to simplify; "if you can't do it with the simplest tools, what makes you think you can do it with expensive tools?"
• He decided to start all over with a digital camera; started to struggle with, "Do I have what it takes?"
• He bought a cheap camera, made a film in his house with family members as crew; it went to the Hollywood Film Festival.
• Agents from the festival loved the film, wanted to see if he'd written anything else; he had Hustle & Flow screenplay ready for them.
• Says people are scared of failing, tend to put off taking risks, then get bitter and resentful later in life because they never tried.