David Weiner: The Nostalgia Curator goes In Search of Darkness
David Weiner is the writer-director of the upcoming definitive 80’s horror documentary, In Search of Darkness. Recently, we sat down with the busy filmmaker to discuss his beginnings and his role as “Nostalgia Curator.”
Wordsmith of the “GenreVerse”
David Weiner is first and foremost a writer. He has the sort of career that most journalists aspire to and few achieve. Through his various stints with such prestigious outlets as The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Tonight, Famous Monsters and L.A. Weekly, he is able to meet and talk with some of the legends in the film industry.
A three-time Rondo Hatton Award winner and current nominee, he prides himself on being a Nostalgia Curator. His musings on various genres can be found on his highly entertaining website, It Came FromBlog. Which is exactly what the doctor ordered for fans of all things popular culture.
We were fortunate enough at 1428 Elm to chat with the hyphenate about his upcoming documentary, In Search of Darkness. An all-encompassing look at the golden age of horror, the 1980’s through the eyes of the creative personalities that defined the decade.
Let’s travel back in time with our guide, the Tiki Ambassador and Nostalgia Curator, David Weiner.
David Weiner: The Interview
Birth of The Nostalgia Curator
David A Weiner – Portrait 2 – Courtesy of Michael J. Cahill
1428 Elm: I want to talk a little bit about your journey from writer to director. You have written for some pretty prestigious publications plus you have your own site, ItCameFromBlog. How did you manage to capture those outlets’ attention as a beginning writer for them to take you on board?
David Weiner: That’s a good question. It’s been a journey of progression where one stepping stone has led to another. Prior to Entertainment Tonight, where I was for 13 years, I was with Hollywood.com and a series of other dotcoms that were victims of the dotcom boom and bust.
I did a lot of online journalism for those smaller outlets. Once I ended up at ET, I had a tremendous output. I was writing multiple stories a day. That led to Famous Monsters.
I literally was running from a junket for Star Trek Into Darkness to a screening of The Hobbit. In the line in front of me, was a guy in a Famous Monsters sweatshirt.
We struck up a conversation and I told him that Famous Monsters was one of my favorite magazines and that I loved reading it as a kid. It just so happened, he was the editor of the magazine and asked what I did.
It was a simple introduction because I saw something that appealed to me. I told him I worked for ET and I just came from the Star Trek junket. He then proceeded to tell me that he was looking for someone to write a piece bridging the Star Trek TV series with the J.J. Abrams movies.
Of course, I took him up on it. Everything kind of started from there. When I left Entertainment Tonight, I ended up being the Executive Editor of Famous Monsters when Ed Blair moved on.
As a writer, you assemble relevant clips together to target whatever site you want to write for and then pitch ideas to the editors. After I left Famous Monsters, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Aaron Couch at The Hollywood Reporter who was the Senior Editor on Heat Vision.
It’s been a great experience!