Miramax Presents The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Every installment asks the same five questions. This week’s subject is Max Borenstein, the screenwriter who became the co-creator and showrunner of Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. Mixing fact and some narrative license, the series tells the provocative story of the Showtime-era Lakers and all the internal drama with owner Jerry Buss, coach Pat Riley and stars Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There is the bitter rivalry between the Lakers and Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics, along with all the sex and decadence befitting Hollywood’s hoops team in the 1980s. Many of the players hate it, but audiences love it. The show is in its second season, and we’re about to see Riley reach for the hair gel and Armani suits.
Borenstein started his career writing movie scripts, and his work includes three blockbusters for Legendary’s Monsterverse and the Michael Keaton starrer Worth, before moving to the small screen with the AMC series The Terror. Find out how The Simpsons and its parodies of classic films led to his own education, all of which led to him finding his voice as a writer and showrunner.
