Austin Film Festival 2009 Part One

Howard on doing real-life stories: "For a long time I avoided doing something based on real characters. I was fearful that I would lose command of dramatic potential. And I think I was just a little afraid of what the principals involved in the story would think. Apollo 13 was the first and I had such a great experience. I began to just trust the truth."

Hurwitz, who not only confirmed that he is writing the film version of "Arrested Development" but that he is also directing it, on writer's block: "There's kind of a subconsciousness, a worry about the results. That can really be crippling. Writer's block isn't really not being able to think of what to write. It's not being able to sit down and write. It's not being able to face the fact that you might come across something that doesn't meet up with your notion of yourself as a writer, as a filmmaker.

Zaillian on holding onto a story that he hopes to make someday: "I like having something for the future. It's called The Duke of Deception. If I had to pitch it, and I've tried, it doesn't sound like anything anyone would want to make."

Howard screened his true life space film Apollo 13 by opening with a collage of before unseen Apollo 13 footage provided by NASA exclusively for the film fest. It was amazing to see the original clips of the real Apollo 13 as Houston ground control worked to bring the capsule safely back to earth after an explosion threatened to kill astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert. (Lovell was on hand for the screening.) Howard's film, with Tom Hanks as Lovell, holds up incredibly well after 14 years.