Making Us All Cry in Public with Mark Bomback | The Long Leash #9

Here’s an unexpected perk Mark Bomback got for writing The Art of Racing in the Rain: he got to make people cry.

The prolific screenwriter is more accustomed to writing big action movies, where trains blow up and buildings fall. But after his script about a dog narrating his last canine incarnation was released, he saw people crying on planes as they watched it on in-flight entertainment.

The movie, which stars Kevin Costner as Enzo, and Milo Ventimiglia as his human, was released right in a weird time for the movie business. We had just stopped going to the theaters and started streaming films instead. Now that The Art of Racing in the Rain is on Disney+, more folks are seeing it and it’s sparking a real conversation.

Do dogs reincarnate as humans, as the book the movie is based upon posits?

Join host James Jacobson for a conversation about love, dogs, and art. It’s a special conversation with a special artist whose movie is the Terms of Endearment for dog lovers.

About Mark Bomback 

In 1994 Mark Bomback got his first job: as an assistant for Eagles' guitarist Glenn Frey. He held that job for a year before going on to become a screenwriter. His first credited screenplay was The Night Caller (1998). He has since gone on to co-write the scripts for numerous blockbuster films, including Live Free or Die Hard (2007), The Wolverine (2013) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014). He's also done uncredited rewrites on several other high-profile films, such as Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), Logan (2017) and The Mummy (2017.) His most recent project is the crime drama miniseries Defending Jacob produced by Apple TV+ 

The Art of Racing in the Rain on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478839/