Thane Economou
Thane is a feature writer who recently sold a musical romantic comedy to Lionsgate and previously wrote and directed the one-shot feature film The Wedding Party.
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Check out Thane’s screenwriting tip about Research)
After graduating from Southern Methodist University, Thane moved out to Los Angeles and worked in development at a 20th Century Fox-based production company. There, he read hundreds and hundreds of scripts. Some were great. Some were awful. But most were mediocre, and Thane wanted to figure out why. He analyzed structures, character arcs, thematics, and the industry itself. And he applied it to the screenplays he was writing at night.Â
One of those screenplays became THE WEDDING PARTY, a feature film he directed in 2017. The Wedding Party is a romantic comedy filmed in one-continuous 119-minute take.Â
Since then, Thane sold his spec musical feature script MEET ME IN NEW DELHI to Lionsgate. In 2019, he was featured on both the Hit List and the Young and Hungry List.
Most recently he wrapped production on his latest feature film as writer and director, TRUST ME I’M A DOCTOR starring Kal Penn, Abbie Cornish, and Linda Hamilton.Â
He’s repped at 3 Arts Entertainment and can be found on Instagram @thaneeconomou.Â
Testimonials
Thane was one of the most generous, conscientious and insightful screenwriting mentors I’ve had the good fortune to learn from. His love of film and storytelling was infectious. He was respectful, professional and engaging with clear, well thought-out lesson plans and excellent time management skills that kept things moving yet still allowed time for questions and class participation. The vibe was pure joy! During our one-on-one’s, he gave students his undivided attention, offering helpful feedback while respecting each writer’s personal vision. And his written notes were mind-blowing. I’d sign up for another class with him in a heartbeat and I will absolutely recommend him to my writer friends.
Thane is a fantastic instructor who has a deep passion for cinema, great sense of storytelling and respect for his students. He made the lecture part his own, continuously using every single script in class as an example to introduce Script Anatomy terms. During the feedback portion of the class, Thane helped solve vairous story problems by pitching specific solutions, grounded in his stunning knowledge of almost every movie that’s ever been made. Plainly put, Thane’s brain is full of knowledge and he’s eager to share it with his students. I’ve been recommending his class to everyone and will continue doing so.Â
Taking Thane’s class was transformative to me as a first time feature writer. My story and character transformed completely from where I was at the beginning to where I thought I would go and I credit that to Thane’s commitment to writing fundamentals, structure, and respecting each individual writers voice. I never felt judged, and felt Thane was a balanced and fair provider of story insights no matter what your genre. By the third class, I knew I wanted to complete writing my feature with him and signed up for his Feature Draft Intensive class as well. Highly recommend Thane no matter what genre or universe you are building. He helps point out where you can increase your dramatic narrative and also provides suggestions as well as other film case studies for students to analyze.