Award-winning playwright Israel Horovitz wasn't used to working on movies when he penned the script for the grossly underrated dramedy, Author! Author! With only two other screenplays under his belt, the forgotten '70s relics The Strawberry Statement and Believe in Me, it took some convincing for Horovitz to try his luck in the film biz again.

But the writer had a bunch of supporters in his corner: Film star and friend Al Pacino -- who experienced his first taste of fame playing a street punk in Horovitz's 1968 play The Indian Wants the Bronx -- and the playwright's three children (including future Beastie Boy, Adrock), whom he had raised largely on his own.

The story of a neurotic playwright (Pacino) trying to open a new show, start a new relationship and raise five young kids, Author! Author! was inspired by a conversation Horovitz had with his own children about the negative impact divorce has on families. Instead of turning that depressing subject into a treacly weepy, he stuck with what he knew, and fashioned a semi-autobiographical, multi-genre script that works as a moving family drama, a hard-luck romance, a screwball comedy and an insider's parody of the New York theater scene.

To top it off, his good buddy Pacino was cast as his cinematic stand-in. 

Author! Author! airs Sunday, April 20 at 7AM | 6C on AMC. For a complete schedule of this movie, click here.