Scott Myers

Video Interview: Woody Allen (1979)

A 1979 French interview [1 hour] with Woody Allen: HT to @webacion for finding the video Comment Archive

Daily Dialogue — May 27, 2012

TONY: Frankie! How are you doing? FRANK JR.: How are you, kid? TONY: It’s good to see you. FRANK JR.: You too. TONY: You look good. FRANK JR.: No, I don’t. You do. You look wonderful. TONY: Checking out my trophy? FRANK JR.: Oh, yeah. That’s you,

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Lies!

As we round out a week’s worth of Daily Dialogue around the theme of siblings [suggested by mommyfollows], we roll into next week’s theme which is lies! Suggested by BilleJeanVK, this one has a lot of promise. Remember there are bad reasons for lying and good reasons for

Teaser: “Skyfall”

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:770840/cp~vid%3D770840%26instance%3Dwp%26uri%3Dmgid%3Auma%3Avideo%3Amtv.com%3A770840 Screenplay by John Logan, Patrick Marber, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, based on characters created by Ian Fleming IMDB site. Release date: 9 November 2012. Comment Archive

Scene Description Spotlight: “The African Queen”

Today a blast from the past: An excerpt from the shooting script for the movie The African Queen (1951), adapted from the C.S. Forrester novel by James Agee and John Huston (Peter Viertel’s name is on the script, but he received no formal credit). This script was written

Saturday Hot Links

Time for another installment of Saturday Hot Links! This week: The B-Movie Trailer Edition! All the 2012 Cannes Film Festival movie trailers in one spot. IndieWire with 12 reviews of films from Cannes. The entertainment economy is completely different than the way it was. 7 essential books on optimism.

Written Interview: Vince Gilligan, Matthew Weiner, David Milch

For all you cable TV fans, a special sit-down interview from GQ with Vince Gilligan [“Breaking Bad”], David Milch [“Deadwood”], and Matthew Weiner [“Mad Men”]. Excerpt: GQ: I think we’ve all gotten used to the idea that television has evolved into its own distinct art form over the

Daily Dialogue — May 26, 2012

TERRY: I’ve actually got to confess to you, Sammy… that the reason you may not have heard from me for a little while is that I’ve been kind of unable to write… on account of the fact that I was in jail for a little while. SAMMY: You

“The Quest”: How should you write a logline?

I am pleased to announce “Go Into The Story: The Quest,” my attempt at creating a new pathway into Hollywood for aspiring screenwriters: A 24-week online screenwriting workshop which I will offer for free to as many as 4 writers. I introduced the idea in this post last week

What’s YOUR concept of “high concept”?

On Tuesday in this post, I presented my articulation of what a “high concept” is: “A story idea that can be summed up in 1–2 lines.” Then in a discussion from yesterday, I made this point: High concept movies can be made poorly. Or well. High concept should be

K-Town

I don’t cover reality TV all that much… well, honestly like never, but a longtime friend of the blog Mike Le has some exciting news. From THR: Ben Silverman’s Electus has greenlighted a new web series exploring the lives of young Asian-Americans residing in the heart of

Movie Trailer: “Anchorman 2”

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player Screenplay by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, based on characters created by Will Ferrell. IMDB site Release date: TBD  Comment Archive

GITS: The Twitter Conversations — Script Readers (Part 4)

So late the other night, I was just about to head off to my nightly 20 minutes of sleep when I decided to check Twitter one last time. Big mistake… that turned into a bit of brilliance. The mistake was I saw that @BittrScrptReadr [The Bitter Script Reader] and @nate_

Great Characters: Keyser Söze (“The Usual Suspects”)

One of the most memorable Tricksters in recent cinema is Keyser Söze from the 1995 movie The Usual Suspects (written by Christopher McQuarrie). An overview of the story from IMDB: Following a truck hijack in New York, five conmen are arrested and brought together for questioning. As none of them

Daily Dialogue — May 25, 2012

INT. HAPPY’S RESTAURANT — DAY. 35. HELEN and TRISH sit together. HELEN (picking at her food) Uch. I don’t know why I suggested this place. Joy recommended it… TRISH: Well, at least we’re together. I never get to see you, you’re so busy. HELEN: No, you’re

“The Quest”: Why is your passion for your story important?

I am pleased to announce “Go Into The Story: The Quest,” my attempt at creating a new pathway into Hollywood for aspiring screenwriters: A 24-week online screenwriting workshop which I will offer for free to as many as 4 writers. I introduced the idea in this post last week

“Hollywood snaps up hot ebook titles”

The Spirit of the Spec is busting out all over, even with ebooks. From Variety: With the “50 Shades of Grey” series hitting 10 million sales this week, ebooks are emerging as a sexy new source of material for Hollywood. The majors are keeping a close eye on digital bestseller

Movie Trailer: “The Master”

Written by Paul Thomas Anderson IMDB site Release date: 12 October 2012 Comment Archive

GITS: The Twitter Conversations — Script Readers (Part 3)

So late the other night, I was just about to head off to my nightly 20 minutes of sleep when I decided to check Twitter one last time. Big mistake… that turned into a bit of brilliance. The mistake was I saw that @BittrScrptReadr [The Bitter Script Reader] and @nate_

The Business of Screenwriting: When getting fired can be good news

No one likes to get rewritten, but sometimes there’s a silver lining. When you break into Hollywood as a screenwriter, it’s a bit like entering a reality akin to George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” with the Seven Commandments of Animalism, where up is down, war is peace, and

Daily Dialogue — May 24, 2012

Elinor: Edward made his promise a long time ago, long before he met me. Though he may… harbour some regret, I believe he will be happy–in the knowledge that he did his duty and kept his word. After all–after all that is bewitching in the idea of one’

Spec Script Sale: Untitled Campbell & Stuecken Project

Paramount acquires untitled thriller spec script from writers Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken. From Variety: Script is described as a contained thriller with sci-fi elements. First contained thriller to sell in a while. Note: J.J. Abrams prod co Bad Robot to produce. The pair is repped by UTA.

“The Quest”: Why do you need to think in terms of genres?

I am pleased to announce “Go Into The Story: The Quest,” my attempt at creating a new pathway into Hollywood for aspiring screenwriters: A 24-week online screenwriting workshop which I will offer for free to as many as 4 writers. I introduced the idea in this post last week

Spec Script Sale: “The Man in the Rearview Mirror”

Latitude Prods. and Lascaux Films acquire action-thriller spec script “The Man in the Rearview Mirror” from writers Andy Pagana and Justin Thomas. From Variety: Set in the 1950s, “Rear Window”-esque story follows a man, his wife and her mother who pursue a suspected kidnapper at high speeds on

The key to successful movies: Blowing stuff up?

Leonard forwarded this to me: Here is my review [June 29, 2009] of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with this key excerpt: Of all the reviews of the movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen — from the Daily Variety (“with machines that are impressively more lifelike, and characters that are more