James Vanderbilt has written more than a dozen movies. 'Nuremberg' was the hardest

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The panic usually sets in around Page 40.

I’ve been writing movies for a while, and it’s always the same for me. It’s not like how we portray it in movies — it’s not a tortured writer staring at a blank page or a blinking cursor after typing FADE IN. For me it’s reaching Page 40 and realizing that what happens there should be happening on Page 4. And that’s when the self-doubt, self-flagellation and internal recriminations begin. On Page 40.

On “Nuremberg” it happened much earlier.

Screenwriters are essentially confidence men and women. We go to the producers or the studios and boldly announce, with absolute conviction, “This has to be a movie!” “I know how to write this movie!”