Scott Myers

Spec Script Sale: “2”

Universal announces it recently acquired action thriller spec script “2” from writer Barry L. Levy. No plot details available. Levy is repped by UTA and Evolution Management. By my count, this is the 47th spec script sale in 2012. There were 38 spec sales at this point last year. The

Spec Script Sale: “My Owner’s Wedding”

Millennium Films has acquired romantic comedy spec script “My Owner’s Wedding” from writers Robert Cary and Jonathan Tolins. From Deadline: My Owner’s Wedding is a romantic comedy about two eligible young women, the man both of them want, and his dog. The latter will go to any length

Aaron Sorkin’s commencement address at Syracuse University

Delivered May 13, 2012: The transcript: Thank you very much. Madam Chancellor, members of the Board of Trustees, members of the faculty and administration, parents and friends, honored guests and graduates, thank you for inviting me to speak today at this magnificent Commencement ceremony. There’s a story about a

Pixar studio stories — The movie vanishes

Okay, so we’ve all accidentally deleted files from our computers, right? Well, what if you accidentally deleted an entire animated movie! HT to Vulture for the link. Comment Archive

Preview: “The Amazing Spider-Man”

Screenplay by James Vanderbilt and Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves, story by James Vanderbilt, based on a comic book by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko IMDB site Release Date: 3 July 2012

Hollywood Tale

“[Ben] Hecht was sitting at the typewriter, and his head was clamped in place with one of those clamps they used to photograph criminals. [Charles] MacArthur was beside him, lying stretched out on a couch. When Hecht would finish typing a page, he would hand it over to Charlie. Charlie

TED Talk: J.J. Abrams — Part 7

Today Part 7 of J.J. Abrams 2007 TED Talk picks up where Abrams has discussed the importance of “investing in character”: When you look at a movie like Jaws… The thing about Jaws is it’s about a guy who’s dealing with his place in the world, about

Screenwriting 101: Richard Price

“It’s all about what happens next, what happens next, what happens next. It’s speed chess, not chess.” — Richard Price on what makes a good story

Daily Dialogue — May 15, 2012

EXT. PATIO The next morning R.L. turns to his mother. R.L. Where’s Dad? MOTHER Gone on a trip. The boys go wild. They crawl around on the floor, they bounce on the beds, they let the screen door slam carelessly behind them. She cannot contain their energy.

You want inspiration?

Here’s your inspiration: For years, Gac Filipaj mopped floors, cleaned toilets and took out trash at Columbia University. A refugee from war-torn Yugoslavia, he eked out a living working for the Ivy League school. But Sunday was payback time: The 52-year-old janitor donned a cap and

Trailer: “The Newsroom”

Created by Aaron Sorkin IMDB site Debuts on HBO: 24 June 2012 Comment Archive

Carl Jung: “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”

Writer and artist Austin Kleon offers this wonderful visualization of Carl Jung’s final book “Memories, Dreams, Reflections”: If you know Jung, you will find loads of meaning in it. If you don’t know Jung, perhaps consider it to be a map of the human psyche, a touchstone for

TED Talk: J.J. Abrams — Part 6

Today Part 6 of J.J. Abrams 2007 TED Talk picking up where Abrams has stated that for a writer “the blank page is a mystery box”: Then there’s where you think what you’re getting and what you’re really getting. And it’s true so many movies

On Writing

“One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing — writing and

Daily Dialogue — May 14, 2012

— Joe (Tom Hanks), Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), written by John Patrick Shanley The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is non-verbal ‘dialogue’ suggested by Liz Swan. Today’s suggestion by blknwite. Trivia: Writer John Patrick Shanley’s trademark: full moon. Dialogue On Dialogue: That silhouette of Joe against

GITS turns 4 years old this week!

On Wednesday, May 16, this blog turns four years old and I’ve got a few things I’ll be rolling out over the next week to help celebrate. A couple of them are pretty mind-boggling [in a good way] and I’m excited to share them with the

Two opportunities to jump-start your writing!

In an intriguing confluence of events, I actually start teaching two screenwriting classes tomorrow and there are still slots in both: A Screenwriter’s Approach to Story Prep: This is a new take on one of my most popular online classes: In just 4 weeks, you will develop your story

Audio Interview: Lena Dunham

Lena Dunham, writer-director of Tiny Furniture and creator of the new HBO TV series “Girls,” on a recent “Fresh Air” appearance. Excerpt: GROSS: And everybody’s, like, picking it apart to see if this is what, like, the new wave of feminist-oriented programming by young women is like.

Screenwriting Advice From The Past: Action [Part 4]

If you are a screenwriter, you should know about Anita Loos. Loos was one of the most influential writers in the early stages of American cinema, associated with 136 film projects per IMDB. Married to writer John Emerson, the pair wrote one of the first books on screenwriting in 1920:

Screenwriting News (5/7–5/13/12)

Writer-director Luc Besson opens a movie studio in France. LAT feature on Dustin Lance Black about his directing debut What’s Wrong With Virginia. NYT feature on James Cameron. Chris Cantwell and Chris Rogers (“The Knoll / 2011 Black List) to write “Shadow Runners” for Sony. Lindsay Devlin (“The Sleeping

Daily Dialogue — May 13, 2012

JANE: Nice car. SIMON: Thank you. It’s yellow. Of course it’s yellow. All right. Okay. JANE: I thought you’d changed your mind. SIMON: Oh. No way. It’s just… been a while since I did this. JANE: You haven’t been going out? SIMON: I go out

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Non-verbal ‘dialogue’

Thanks to churnage for this week’s suggestion: First date. And great work with your examples, representing a wide variety of genres and story scenarios. Next week, something different: Non-verbal ‘dialogue’ suggested by Liz Swan. Longtime GITS readers will remember we did something along these lines last year [Teddy

Movie Trailer: “The Campaign”

Written by Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell IMDB site Release Date: 10 August 2012

Scene Description Spotlight: “Raging Bull”

Sports movie are tough to write for many reasons. Here’s one of them: How to describe athletic action without being too specific and ‘stagey’ or too generic and inauthentic. A screenplay that does a great job on this front is Raging Bull (1980). Adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik

Saturday Hot Links

Back with another installment of Saturday Hot Links! Today: The Dick Cavett, Truman Capote, and Groucho Marx Edition! We begin with a cool photograph of Alfred Hitchcock… at his bar… with a script. Did a copying mistake build the human brain? Samuel L. Jackson criticized NYT film critic A.O.