Writing partners get their days in the sun

Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, a husband-and-wife team whose credits include “Bad Boys II” and “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” as well as the new “National Treasure,” seem such an unlikely pair of writers on the rise. Lifelong residents of the South Bay, they exude an air that’s more sun-and-surf than just-off-the-lot.

They seem terribly, well, normal.

Marianne, 39, laughs as she recalls, “Early on, we had an agent tell us to get the beach out of us. We gave bad meeting because we were too laid-back.”

Married for 20 years, and parents of a 12-year-old daughter, the couple began writing scripts about 13 years ago and never looked back. To describe their view of writing for the movies, Cormac, 45, uses the analogy of baseball where there are starting pitchers, middle relievers and closers. The Wibberleys see themselves as utility players, having performed all three tasks on various projects. And though the pair profess a preference for creating original scripts, they feel comfortable filling any role.

On “National Treasure,” opening Friday, they were brought onto the project a few drafts (and writers) in. At that point, the idea of an “Indiana Jones”-style adventure using historical monuments in the United States was well in place, but the treasure wasn’t compelling enough.

“They go, ‘Hey, come up with a treasure,’ ” explains Marianne. So after doing some research they began to weave in connections between the Freemasons, already referenced in the script, and the mythical Knights Templar. Eventually the script would pass through even more hands, including Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the writing team behind “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.”

The Wibberleys seem to see Hollywood as part funhouse, part factory.

“You’ve got to understand the process,” says Cormac. “The writer is just low man on the totem pole, trying to please all these different people.”

Adds Marianne, “You accept it.”