‘Cool Runnings’ Writer Was on Heroin

Screenwriter Tommy Swerdlow, behind such films as Cool Runnings and Little Giants, went on Reddit yesterday to promote a crowdfunding campaign for his new movie, The House Itself. But while answering Reddit’s questions, he dropped this bomb: he wrote Cool Runnings while high on heroin. He’s clean now, after going to the hospital for a heart-valve infection, and is making a movie that seems to be about guys failing to score drugs in L.A. Swerdlow also said the inspiration for Shrek, which he’d been hired to adapt from a children’s book, was Midnight Cowboy, and Mike Myers only added Shrek’s Scottish accent when he realized Eddie Murphy was stealing the show.