Scott Myers

Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Death Threats!

This past week the theme has been break-ups. Next week, courtesy of a suggestion by Chris Schipper, we explore the world of cinematic death threats: “I know what you’re thinking. ‘Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement

Update: “Chronicle”

So apparently there’s some sort of significant football game going on this weekend. And per conventional wisdom, the presence of said football game is supposed to squash the weekend box office. Someone didn’t tell that to one surprising key demographic. Per THR: Fueled by younger moviegoers, who have

Inside the First Screening of “A Clockwork Orange”

Thanks to Roger Ebert for this link: “I think it’s my most… skillful film,” Stanley Kubrick stated in his calm, equanimous voice, the day after screening the first assembly of A Clockwork Orange. We were standing on either side of Stanley’s desk in his functionally chaotic home office

Screenwriting News

In screenwriting news, Albert Torres hired to do film adaptation of TV series “Ben 10”. The Help writer-director Tate Taylor to receive the WGA Paul Selvin Award. Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) to receive the WGA East Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence. Ed Burns on CBS “This Morning” talks

Daily Dialogue — February 5, 2012

ELLE: Here’s to us. WARNER: The reason I wanted to come here tonight was to discuss our future. ELLE: I‘m fully amenable to that discussion. WARNER: I mean, we’re having a lot of fun now — but things are gonna be different when I‘m at Harvard Law

Daily Dialogue theme for next week?

We had an interesting week of Daily Dialogues exploring the theme of break-ups [suggested by Teddy Pasternak]. In fact, we got a ton of suggestions, some of which failed to make the final cut due not to their quality, but the limit of seven posts in seven days. Here

Is Josh Schwartz this generation’s John Hughes?

From the NYT earlier this week: SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — Josh Schwartz tried his best to appear calm and composed, but the look in his eyes betrayed him. He had never directed anything before — not a short, not an episode of television — yet there he was, making a movie for Paramount

LOTR violin medley

From FlavorWire: Epic nerd and talented musician Lindsey Stirling has just released a follow up to her popular Legends of Zelda medley with an even more impressive video featuring a medley of the music of Lord of the Rings. The video is actually shot in New Zealand, and the cinematography

Update: “Awake”

File this under “Blatant Pimping”: NBC has announced the premiere date for midseason entry Awake. The dual reality drama starring Jason Isaacs will launch on Thursday, March 1 at 10 p.m., taking over for struggling series The Firm, it was announced Friday by Robert Greenblatt, chairman of NBC Entertainment.

Saturday Hot Links

It’s time again for another installment of Saturday Hot Links! Today: The Gag Reel Edition. We begin with the blooper reel from the movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin: Deadline with a helpful overview of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival: The Highs, the Lows, the Polarizing Films. Also from

Written Interview: David Mamet

Today’s interview subject is playwright-screenwriter-director David Mamet. His film credits include The Verdict, The Untouchables, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Spanish Prisoner, Wag the Dog, State and Main, andSpartan. Here are some excerpts: What’s your writing regimen? I think I’m going to just start writing and

Daily Dialogue — February 4, 2012

Melissa: Why would you go to Las Vegas? Stu Price: ’Cause my best friend was getting married, and that’s what guys do. Melissa: That’s not what you do. Stu Price: Really? Well, then why did I do it? Huh? ’Cause I did it! Riddle me that! Why’d

2011 Spec Script Sales Analysis: First Timers

On Monday, we broke down the 2011 spec script sales by genre. Tuesday by studios. Wednesday by representatives. Yesterday we looked at the deals with the biggest payoffs. Today: That group of writers who broke into the business by selling a spec script what Variety calls tyro scribes and we

Question: “Who is the Protagonist in ‘Ferris Buller’s Day Off’”?

Received a tweet this week from @ryanbinaco: Can you review Ferris Bueller’s Day Off? Ferris is the main character but the movie’s about Cameron. Elaborate, if you would. Turns out, I’ve already gotten into this, but it’s a subject worth revisiting. From January 19, 2010, a

Sundance 2012: Who Bought What — and How Much They Paid

From THR: The Surrogate | Fox Searchlight: Nearly $6 million, worldwide rights (CAA) Red Lights | Millennium Entertainment: Nearly $4 million, U.S. rights (UTA) For a Good Time, Call … | Focus Features: $3 million, worldwide rights (Cinetic) Arbitrage | Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions: About $3 million, North American rights (WME) Robot & Frank

David Lynch’s commercial for his line of organic coffee

Coffee commercial a la David Lynch: Interesting guy. But we all knew that, right? Whether it’s interviewing Eddie Vedder [here], launching a coffee brand, promoting meditation, doing weird weather reports, starting the “Interview Project” [here], or describing how he used to write scripts by daily visits to Bob’s

How They Write A Script: Nancy Meyers

Nancy Meyers was for many years part of the Meyers & Shyer writing team that produced numerous hit movies including Private Benjamin (1980), Baby Boom (1987), and Father of the Bride (1991). She directed her first solo writing effort Something’s Gotta Give (2003), which was a hit with critics

Great Characters: E.T. (“E.T.: The Exterrestrial”)

Who doesn’t remember this character? E.T. from the 1982 movie written by Melissa Mathison E.T.: The Exterrestrial. A plot summary from IMDB: A group of aliens visit earth and one of them is lost and left behind stranded on this planet. The alien is found by a

Daily Dialogue — February 3, 2012

Jerry: Oh no you don’t! Osgood, I’m gonna level with you. We can’t get married at all. Osgood: Why not? Jerry: Well, in the first place, I’m not a natural blonde. Osgood: Doesn’t matter. Jerry: I smoke! I smoke all the time! Osgood: I don’

Spec Script Sales Analysis 2011: Top Sales

On Monday, we broke down the 2010 spec script sales by genre. Tuesday by studios. Yesterday by representatives. Today we look at the deals with the biggest payoffs (at least as reported by various news outlets): Arthur & Lancelot — Fantasy Action Adventure David Dobkin — $2M He’s F***ing Perfect

“The Swarm”: Short Horror Film Made Entirely on Phones [VIDEO]

Franklin forwarded this to me from Mashable: The Swarm is all about shallow breathing, heavy petting and Xperia smartphones. The short horror film, shot entirely on Sony’s Xperia Arc S phones, follows a group of (mostly) horny teenagers in London who come face to face with an otherworldly terror.

Movie Trailer: “The Hunger Games”

Yahoo! Video PlayerEdit descriptiond.yimg.com Screenplay by Gary Ross and Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray, based on Collins’ novel IMDB site Release date: March 23, 2012

Why screenwriters root for movies to succeed

From BoxOfficeMojo: Following three-straight months of year-over-year declines, the movie business took a slight turn for the better in January 2012. Overall box office came in at over $831 million for the month, which is a 10 percent improvement from January 2011. That’s not a high

How They Write A Script: Robert Towne

The screenplay for Chinatown (1974) is considered one of the greatest scripts of all time (it was named the #3 best script in the WGA’s 101 Best Screenplays list). The script was written by Robert Towne, who also received writing credit for a slew of other movies including Shampoo,

The Business of Screenwriting: Hurry up and wait

We have worked on the script for months. It’s an assignment. The studio and the project’s producers have made it known emphatically since day one they want to see the draft ASAP. Our agents, well aware of this fact, check in routinely to see how things are going.