Writing
Sep 27, 2026
The Rocketeer: Danny Bilson on pulp adventure that still plays
Screenwriter Danny Bilson helped bring The Rocketeer to the screen, a 1991 adventure that wears its serial roots openly. The writing craft is sincerity: play the pulp straight enough that the audience leans in instead of winking constantly at the costume.
Period adventure scripts fail when they apologize for their genre. Bilson's talk covers how character want (flight, love, courage) keeps gadget spectacle attached to a person.
Rewriting pulp for modern audiences still starts with a clean dramatic question, not a pile of references.
Go deeper on Kingdom of Dreams
- → EP 300: Danny Bilson on The Rocketeer
- → EP 327: the guest on Back to the Future - Complete Screenplay
- → EP 328: Bob Gale on Back to the Future Trilogy
Browse more writer conversations in the Kingdom of Dreams archive.
Original Kingdom of Dreams craft take based on our conversation with screenwriter Danny Bilson (EP 300).