It’s all about relationship. Or, at least that’s what Ryne Pearson says. I had the privilege of talking with the screenwriter of “Knowing”. The first question I had concerned his name, Ryne! I had never come across that name before –it’s pronounced “Ryan” he told me. “My parents gave it to me.” And of course, that is a doom we all share.

Moving on, I noticed that his previous official screenwriting credit was “Mercury Rising” back in 1999, and nothing since. He said he is first an author of novels. “Writing movies came second.” He is married, a Catholic and has two precious children, a boy and a girl, ages 11 and 9.

Ah, thought I, he’s a father! So that would explain, at least in my way of thinking, why the Nicholas Cage character has a son. Ryne affirmed that and went on to describe how fatherhood changes everything. “I heard Steven Spielberg say he should not have written ‘E.T.’ now.” Because, Ryne went on to say, “He wasn’t a dad then. You know, at the end of the film the dad leaves in the space ship, that part would be unthinkable to Spielberg since becoming a father.”

Being a father and husband “has changed how I view life. When I wrote the screenplay for ‘Knowing’, it was more relational, but the director made it more epic.” Ryne went on to affirm the decisions of the director. “The changes that were made were the right ones. It is a better story.”

Nonetheless, it is still about a powerful relationship between a father and his son. A relationship so connected and grounded in love that it would outlast the… well, even end of the world as we know it.

“You know I did not see the final movie until opening day” he said.

“What, did you say?”

“Yeah it’s true. I went with my wife and mother in law. After the film we stood in the lobby and people were talking about it. You know, that’s what I hope would happen. The film got people interacting with each other.”

“Wow, well that’s really the true test of a film, despite the critics.” Changing the subject somewhat, I asked, “What’s next?”

He mentioned something doing a screenplay based on the book “An Eye at the Top of the World.” And, of course, I was curious to know what that was about.

Here’s the official explanation: In 1965, a CIA-recruited team of elite American and Indian mountaineers planted a sensor atop a Himalayan peak in India to eavesdrop on nuclear bomb and missile tests in western China, then unreachable by spy planes and satellites. But one sensor-powered by highly poisonous, radioactive plutonium-disappeared in an avalanche and remains lost to this day.

Sounds hot and I am curious to know how Ryne Pearson will incorporate his “relational” style of writing into his new effort. I know he will because, after all, it’s all about relationship. Or, at least that’s what Ryne Pearson says.