Gustin Nash is an American screenwriter best known for writing the 2007 film ''

Charlie Bartlett ''Charlie Bartlett'' is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Jon Poll. The screenplay by Gustin Nash focuses on a teenager who begins to dispense therapeutic advice and prescription drugs to the student body at his new high school in or ...

'' and the 2010 film ''

Youth in Revolt ''Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp'' is a 1993 epistolary novel by C. D. Payne. The story is told in a picaresque fashion and makes heavy use of black humor and camp. The book contains parts one through three of an eleven-part series ...

''.

Life and career

Nash began writing the screenplay for ''

'' when he was 26 years old and working at a mall in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

. He spent time with a group of teenagers through to thirty-year-olds—the "sub-culture of the mall"—watching films and playing video games, and noticed the discrepancies between the teenagers' behavior and the way they were portrayed in the

teen film Teen film is a film genre targeted at teenagers, preteens, or young adults by the plot being based on their special interests, such as coming of age, attempting to fit in, bullying, peer pressure, first love, teen rebellion, conflict with paren ...

s they saw. He had attended the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

to learn screenwriting and had already written nine as-yet unsuccessful

spec script A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or ...

s. He went to his father, a

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

, and told him that he was unsure of whether he could become a successful screenwriter in the film industry. His father advised him to create a list of everything he hoped to accomplish, and write next to each "You can do it". That night, he dreamed of a character who remained optimistic and whose mantra was "You can do it"; he says the entire film came to him in one night, and he had completed the ''Charlie Bartlett'' screenplay in four weeks after observing his teenage friends further for inspiration. As Nash finished writing ''Charlie Bartlett'', he read C. D. Payne's novel ''

'' for the first time. He wrote the screenplay for a film adaptation of the same name. He says that, writing the screenplay, he stayed as honest to the novel as possible besides changing the ending because he envied Payne's writing, saying jokingly, "Here was a chance to take credit for writing something that was much better than what I'd come up with on my own." He says he preferred adapting ''Youth in Revolt'' to writing ''Charlie Bartlett'' as he had source material, and in early 2008 he was working on a spec script based on a graphic novel series of short stories called ''Rumble, Young Man, Rumble'', which he is in an agreement to direct as well. He is also working on another teen film to star

Vince Vaughn Vincent Anthony Vaughn (born March 28, 1970) is an American actor. Vaughn began acting in the late 1980s, appearing in minor television roles before attaining wider recognition with the 1996 comedy-drama film '' Swingers''. He has appeared in ...

titled ''Career Day'', based around a high school career day where adults visit the school to speak about their professions.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nash, Gustin Film producers from California American male screenwriters Living people People from Burbank, California USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Screenwriters from California