Dan Kay understands the business of screenwriting. With credits including Timber Falls, Pay the Ghost, and now, I.T., Kay crafts edge-of-your-seat, white-knuckle thrillers for modern audiences.

In I.T., Pierce Brosnan’s Mike Regan is an airline billionaire who has everything he has ever wanted, until he crosses the wrong I.T. guy. With his company at risk and his family in harm’s way, he faces losing control of all he’s worked so hard to attain.

Creative Screenwriting first spoke with Dan about Pay the Ghost. In this interview, we chatted about stakes characters, research and influence, and why you can’t be protective of your work.

Pierce Brosnan as Mike Regan and James Frecheville as Ed Porter in I.T. © Voltage Pictures

Tell us about about your background and how you got started as a screenwriter.

Dan Kay

I didn’t go to film school, but after I graduated college I was certainly into movies, so I went into independent film production for about two years. While I was doing that, I started writing independent scripts and I actually got one of these into the hands of the producer who was able to help me get together a budget. I directed my first movie about six months after that (Way Off Broadway).

Where did you come up with the idea for I.T.?

I.T. came about after I had a meeting with one of the producers, David Friendly (Courage Under Fire, Little Miss Sunshine). David has been producing movies for years and he liked the script I had written for Pay the Ghost and asked to meet me as a writer.

During our meeting, he was telling me about this experience he had with an I.T. guy at his film company. The events were nothing like the movie, but he was uncomfortable with the guy, and then realized he had access to all of his information and there was really nothing he could do about it. He was telling me this and asked if there was a movie in this story.

I thought there could be a white-knuckle story in this, so I started working on the script. It took about six months to a year to develop the script.

Anna Friel as Rose Regan in I.T. © Voltage Pictures

What other kind of research was involved for the film?

I interviewed four or five I.T. guys at various companies. I also interviewed a police officer, who worked in the cyber crime unit. He relayed some stories to me about some of the criminals they had caught who perpetrated crimes online. By talking to this police officer, I really had an opening to take the story in several directions. So there were several interviews before the scriptwriting began.

Were there any cinematic influences that come to mind when writing the sadistic character for this film?

I studied some obsession thrillers as I prepared to write the movie. Films like Fatal Attraction or the Cape Fear remake come to mind. I watched those, not so much as an archetype for the I.T. character, but to see how one person’s obsession develops. With Cape Fear it was the obsession for a family, and for Fatal Attraction it was for another person.

So you put the protagonist and antagonist against each other in a way that the antagonist can hurt the protagonist without even being in the same room. For these films, the tactics of the antagonist are very psychological, so I wanted the I.T. guy’s tactics to also be very psychological, where he has a great influence over this family even though he’s not in the same location.

He could have been halfway around the world and still had influence over their lives. I really like the psychology of that.

James Frecheville as Ed Porter in I.T. © Voltage Pictures

What are some of your writing rituals?

I try to keep regular hours, but that varies with deadlines. Part of that is dictated by my family, so I want to be available for them. It’s easier for me to keep regular nine to five hours.

Can you elaborate on how you chose to write Pierce Brosnan’s character, specifically about his family and career?

For me, I wanted this guy to have the threat of losing everything. I wanted him to have a relatable family with a teenage character so there could be some friction there. That’s more interesting than a perfect, happy family.

By creating this realistic family, that would up the stakes for this guy. If he were single, he could lose his business and maybe be incarcerated, but there’s more to losing a family that could register with an audience. I wanted a family that felt real. That makes him more identifiable and makes the threat more realistic.

Pierce Brosnan as Mike Regan in I.T. © Voltage Pictures

Do you have any advice for writers?

There are a lot of things. One is that, as a writer in this industry, you have to love the process of writing.

Being a writer in Hollywood, for movies and television, you’re not just sitting in an isolation chamber. After you’re done, you are going to give that work to producers, directors, and actors, so they are going to want to shape the work to fit their vision.

Those words you write down may not translate to what you see on screen. So you have to love the process. You’re not writing a novel where you have complete control over your world and your story. It’s your work. But, as a screenwriter, screenwriting is a collaborative medium, so you have to love both writing and collaborating.

Also, you are going to work with people who are going to give you notes about something that you’ve written. You can’t be super protective of your work, or you won’t survive in this business. If you want to get your specific vision across, you would be better off writing novels, rather than for writing film or television.

Stefanie Scott as Kaitlyn Regan in I.T. © Voltage Pictures

Is this always the case or are there certain stories that you are holding on to?

I started as a writer / director, but I have not directed a feature since Way Off Broadway, while I have had other movies made. Sometimes, I will write something close to my heart that I wish I could direct, but the reality is that if you are holding out until you can write and direct, that could push the movie back for months or even years.

If you want to direct, then maybe you should hold on to your scripts, but if you want to make a living as a writer, and writing is your main goal, then you just need to write.

I know how many years it might take to raise money for a movie I’ve written, but I think your priorities shift the longer you are in this business. With that said, I would still like to direct something I’ve written, but I’d rather that movie get out there than sit as a file on my laptop. That’s more important to me.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about the film or any future projects that you are currently working on?

I usually don’t like to share too many details about future projects, but there is one show that I’m excited about. I’m working on a show that we are developing with 50 Cent (Tomorrow, Today). It’s in the very early stages, but we have announced it!

Featured image: James Frecheville as Ed Porter and Pierce Brosnan as Mike Regan in I.T. © Voltage Pictures

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