We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Reinhard Denke. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Reinhard below.

Reinhard , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

As a screenwriting I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a number of meaningful projects – projects that to this day I’m astonished I was fortunate enough to be part of.

My interest in true crime dates back thirty years or more. There was a bookshop in Palm Springs that sold mostly used paperbacks, and of those, about 70% were true crime. Anne Rule, Carlton Stowers, Truman Capote dominated those titles and I would find myself transported into the dark world of crimes committed in the 1960s-1980s, completely transfixed. That was what set me on the course as a writer.

My first professional screenwriting jobs were horror films, which I very much enjoyed. However – horror films reach a limit after a while. You can only write in so many jump scares. After my third professional job I told my wife I wanted to write something different and she suggested I write a “true crime story since you like those so much”. I decided to write about the case that had always intrigued me, the 1983 “Cotton Club murder” in Los Angeles. Since then, there’s been no looking back. After that I wrote “Sex, Greed, Money, Murder and Chicken Fried Steak” about the Cullen Davis murders in 1976 Fort Worth. That script got me on the Hollywood Blacklist. I got an agent after that, and within 3 years became a Current Member of the WGA.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Reinhard Denke and I am originally from Texas. I came to Los Angeles to attend the USC Master’s Cinema Program and liked it so much in California I chose to stay. My first job was as an assistant editor for a very well known commercial editor at the time. In those days, the assistant did all the sound design for the various commercials (Lexus, Reebok, Nike, Liberty Mutual Insurance). I was a big David Lynch fan and tried to incorporate as much “Lynch-like” sound design in the spots I was assigned. Director would request to work with me, and from that point forward, that was my job. In 1995 I began my first sound design-music company called “Primal Scream” with a business partner. In 2001, I started another company called “Stimmüng” that was larger. I have won Clios and AICP awards for my sound design. The people who worked with me at my companies also won numerous awards and even garnered a Cannes Gold Lion for music. I stopped working in that industry in late 2023 and am officially retired from the commercial business.

While I worked as a sound designer, I also wrote screenplays at nights and over the weekend. In my opinion, no one is a “born writer”, especially in the case of screenwriting. It’s a craft that is structured and extremely refined. The only way to get good at it is to keep working and to hit your “10,000 hours”. Along the way, there were rejections but in what industry is it easy to get in? Since 2005 I have been employed as a screenwriter (except during the strikes – don’t forget those), which is something I’ve extremely thankful for. When I’m brought on to an assignment, I bring the full weight of my talent and ability to bear. When I’m on a true crime story, I shine.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

A few years ago I was enticed by some people I knew who were very confident they had the money to produce one of my screenplays. They paid for the screenplay up front, which is rare, and then my manager and two producers began hiring crew to shoot the movie. About 3 months into the project, the “investors” confessed they really didn’t have the amount of money that was promised, the whole thing was a sham. Needless to say, the anger from the crew was tremendous.

The incredible disappointment that follows a betrayal is devastating. There was a part of me that wondered if I’d ever work again. Within a year, I got another writing job, a WWII movie. Followed by another, a vampire movie directed by an old colleague of mine from the commercial days. Then another came along, then another and another.

Never once during that ugly period after the fallout from the collapsed production did I dare give up on myself. I knew I wasn’t finished, this was only a very bad bump in the road and it would be surmounted in time. The most difficult part is when you’re in the middle of it and although you know all bad times must end, one doesn’t know WHEN it will end.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Looking back on my writing career, the one thing I wished I had done earlier is to have been a better learner. I was so convinced of my glittering talent I never really took the time – in the beginning – to concentrate on the basics; structure, character development, and overall story pacing. My early screenplays had too much description and way too much lazy dialogue.

I hit my 10,000th hour when I wrote the movie about the “Cotton Club Murder” and am still learning to get better at my craft.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reinhard_denke/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reinhard.denke
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reinhard-denke-153ab56b/
• Other: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm3690965?ref_=m_acc_yourpage