After a stellar premiere at South by Southwest earlier this month, audiences will be able to catch Holland, a new American mystery thriller written by Film alum Andrew Sodroski '10, on Prime Video when it hits the streaming service on March 27.
Directed by Mimi Cave and starring Nicole Kidman, Holland traces how a woman’s picture perfect life in quaint Holland, Michigan crumbles and begins to unravel when she and a friend uncover a disturbing secret leading to a twisted tale.
Sodroski, who is known for his work as a writer and executive producer on the TV series Manhunt (2017-2020), shared how his creative process and craft toolkit continues to be shaped by what he learned in Columbia’s MFA program. “Everything I know about the craft of screenwriting, I learned at Columbia,” he said. “[Courses like] 'Elements' taught me fundamentals of drama that I use every single day in my work. 'Revision' taught me how to take notes and the importance of a unique voice. 'Directing IV' taught me visual storytelling. And my thesis process taught me (the hard way) that it's very easy to write a script that's 'perfect' but dead, and very hard to write one infused with one's own life and soul.”
Sodroski originally wrote Holland 12 years ago, fresh out of Columbia, marking a turning point in his career. “Holland was the first thing I wrote that accomplished that infusion. I was doing an interview recently about the script, and I found myself using the metaphor of the roller-coaster...and I realized, ‘I'm still just parroting things I learned from Eric [Mendelsohn, Professor of Professional Practice] 15 years ago. Well, steal from the best, I guess.”
After the film’s warm reception at SXSW, there has been much anticipation for its streaming release. As audiences await the film with bated breath, Sodroski shared who the first audience for his material usually is: “For everything I write, my first readers are still my Columbia classmates. Plus, I've had the great pleasure of working with Columbia classmates in TV writers' rooms over the years. There's an understanding of story and a grasp of dramatic form that you get at Columbia that's hard to replicate. It all goes back to putting Aristotle and Terminator side by side.”
Watch a trailer for Holland below.
