Podcast: Ian Reichbach, Aaron Sorkin’s Researcher/Assistant
In this edition of the Script magazine podcast, I talk with Ian Reichbach, who has the unique job of being the researcher/assistant to legendary scribe and recent Oscar winner, Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network).
In this edition of the Script magazine podcast, I talk with Ian Reichbach, who has the unique job of being the researcher/assistant to legendary scribe and recent Oscar winner, Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network). Reichbach began working with Sorkin during preproduction on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and has been with him ever since. A computer programmer by trade (he quit that gig to join Sorkin and pursue his own writing career), Reichbach was integral in helping Sorkin understand computer jargon and geek culture during the writing of The Social Network (and was personally thanked by Sorkin onstage during his Oscar acceptance speech). Reichbach is full of wit with a dry sense of humor and a professional sensibility, all the traits someone like Aaron Sorkin would want in a researcher/assistant.
Highlights of this podcast include:
- How Reichbach landed the gig to be the researcher/assistant to one of Hollywood's top screenwriters.
- How he landed his first-ever writing credit for You Can't Do That On Television (before he hit puberty).
- The inside scoop on what it's like inside a writers' room run by Aaron Sorkin.
- Reichbach's first-hand description of how Sorkin writes.
- The potential benefits and pitfalls of being an aspiring screenwriter working under the shadow of a world famous scribe.
- Reichbach's own writing career and where he sees that heading.
- Reichbach's theory of "having a seat at the table."
- And much more...
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Joshua Stecker is a freelance entertainment journalist based in Los Angeles. His bylines include The Hollywood Reporter and Death & Taxes Magazine. Stecker is the former west coast/web editor of Script Magazine. He's also the co-founder of the Modjeska Playhouse theatre company in South Orange County. Follow him on twitter at @joshuastecker.
