Scott Myers

Audio Interview: Richard Curtis

Richard Curtis with numerous screenwriting credits including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually and War Horse. You may go here for an audio interview on BBC. HT to @opedr for the link.

Video Interview: Elmore Leonard

The famed author Elmore Leonard has 40 writing credits per IMDB including 3:10 to Yuma, Get Shorty and Out of Sight. HT to @Story_Factory for the link. Comment Archive

Daily Dialogue — December 4, 2011

Clouseau: Guten tag. Hotel Clerk: Good Day! Clouseau: My name is Professor Guy Gabroir, Medieval Castle Authority from Marseilles. Tell me, do you have a room? Hotel Clerk: I do not know what a rum is. [Clouseau leafs through his translation dictionary] Clouseau: Zimmer. Hotel Clerk: Ah! A room! Clouseau:

Daily Dialogue theme next week???

As we wrap up a week’s worth of hotel check-ins, here are three suggestions for themes already on the board: Character introductions [Deaf Ears]: The thing to look for there is distinctive and interesting ways a character gets introduced through dialogue. If we can come up with seven

“The Murdochs Hug It Out” by Etan Cohen [Satire]

From the NYT: The writer of “Tropic Thunder” imagines a succession squabble, Rupert-style. Screenplay by ETAN COHEN, with notes by DAN STERLING (executive producer, “The Sarah Silverman Program”). To read it, hit the jump! HT to @webacion for the link.

Spotlight: Film Producer Jason Blum

Another in a series of occasional posts focusing on movie producers. From the LAT, a feature on film producer Jason Blum: The gig: Jason Blum is a producer whose career took off when the low-budget horror film “Paranormal Activity,” which he played a key role bringing to the big

Spec Script Sale: “Untitled Peter Morgan Project”

New Line has acquired an untitled heist film from writer Peter Morgan. Per Variety: The character-driven story is set in America and features two strong male leads in the vein of “Heat” and “The Departed.” Morgan is repped by UTA and Independent Talent Group. By my count, there have

Saturday Hot Links

Welcome to another installment of Saturday Hot Links served up piping hot with a side of potato knishes. Today: The Unusual Muppet Video Edition! Starting with a 12/31/1965 appearance on “The Tonight Show”: Now that production is wrapped on The Dark Knight Rises, Christian Bale reflects back on

Written Interview: Steve Zaillian

An interview in ICG magazine with screenwriter, producer and director Steve Zaillian (Searching for Bobby Fisher, A Civil Action, Schindlers List, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Excerpts: ICG: You’ve written many scripts from novels and non-fiction. How do you approach the adaptation process? Steven Zaillian: The

Daily Dialogue — December 3, 2011

[James bond enters the 5-star hotel unkempt, drenched, and in hospital clothes] James Bond: My usual suite, please. Snooty Desk Clerk: [sarcastically] Do you have a credit card… or any luggage, sir? Mr. Chang [offscreen]: Mr. Bond, so good to see you. It’s been a long time. James

GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “Cloverfield” [Found Footage]

We recently completed Round 12 of our weekly GITS Script Reading & Analysis series: #1: Gladiator (Action) #2: Bridesmaids (Comedy) #3: Good Will Hunting (Drama) #4: The Silence of the Lambs (Thriller) #5: Toy Story 3 (Family) #6: Pan’s Labyrinth (Fantasy) #7: Blade Runner (Science Fiction) #8: The Thing

Sundance Film Festival announces out-of-competition lineup

Spotlight, Park City at Midnight, NEXT <=> and New Frontier. Hit the jump to see the list: SPOTLIGHT Corpo Celeste/ Italy (Director and screenwriter: Alice Rohrwacher) — After moving back to southern Italy with her mother and older sister, 13-year-old Marta struggles to find her place, restlessly testing

Movies You Made: “What’s in 301?” by Timothy Visentin

From filmmaker Timothy Visentin: I’m a filmmaker from Toronto. I am currently putting together two shorts and a feature to shoot. We shot this teaser as a small test and will be using it as part of a much larger crowd-funding campaign soon to raise some money to

Spec Script Sale: “Hidden”

Warner Bros. buys horror-thriller spec script “Hidden” from first-timers and twin brothers Matt and Ross Duffer. Per Variety: Project is an elevated horror-thriller about a family hiding in a bomb shelter after escaping a mysterious outbreak. — — Deal contains progress-to-production language, indicating that the project is

GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “Panic Room” — Dialogue

We wrap up our week long analysis of the script Panic Room by considering its use of dialogue. There are the standard set of questions: * What do you consider to be the most memorable lines, either good or… not so good? Why did they work — or not — for you? * Any

Great Characters: Dwayne Hoover (“Little Miss Sunshine”)

Frankly you could choose any of the characters in Little Miss Sunshine, the 2006 gem of a movie written by Michael Arndt, but let’s go with Dwayne: Here’s the movie’s storyeline from IMDB: In Albuquerque, the housewife Sheryl Hoover brings her suicidal brother Frank to the breast

Daily Dialogue — December 2, 2011

SMITTY: Welcome to Memphis, gentlemen. We have a slight problem with your reservation. Nothing serious, I’m afraid. IAN: How slight? SMITTY: You wanted seven, uh, suites. IAN: Seven. Seven suites. SMITTY: Yes w-we-he mistakenly put you on the seventh floor with one suite. IAN: That’s considerably

“The Creative Personality: Ten paradoxical traits of the creative personality”

Somehow this 1996 Psychology Today article excerpted from the book “Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People” by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ended up in front of me. Check out these 10 traits of the “creative personality”: 1. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they’re

Official 2011 script download sites?

Thanks to Pat Connelly for forwarding this link, the official Fox Searchlight site to download the shooting script of The Descendants. Bumping around the web, I found this site which has aggregated 13 scripts from this year which you can legally download including Martha Marcy May Marlene, Shame and Win

The entire conversation: Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond

Here are all the links for the entire interview with Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond: Part 1 here. Part 2 here. Part 3 here. Part 4 here. Part 5 here. Part 6 here. Part 7 here. Part 8 here. Part 9 here. Part 10 here. Such an amazing

Movie Trailer: “John Carter”

Screenplay by Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon and Andrew Stanton, based on novel and characters by Edgar Rice Burroughs Release Date: 9 March 2012 (USA) Comment Archive

Movies You Made: “Ghost is the Memory” by Jake Gott

From filmmaker Jake Gott: I wanted to share with you a narrative music video I wrote, directed, acted in and edited for my brother’s band. I took the lyrics from his song and crafted a story around it that I think is pretty effective. Here is the 5-minute

GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “Panic Room” — Themes

This week we are analyzing the screenplay for the 2002 movie Panic Room. You may access the 2000–02–23 version of the script [written by David Koepp] here. Today we discuss the script’s themes. One obvious big one: Security. Or the perception of it. Anna Kelian found this

Daily Dialogue — December 1, 2011

Front Desk Girl: Welcome to Hampton Inn. Do you have a reservations? Mavis: No. Hands over credit card. Front Desk girl types in information. Notices sounds from Mavis’ bag on the counter. Front Desk Girl: Is that a dog in your bag? Mavis: No. The bag sniffles like it has

Write that damn script!

A screenwriting morality tale in the Daily Beast from Ricky Gervais: I was on holiday with my girlfriend Jane in about 1999 in Hungary (yeah, I know, odd choice, but money was tight). We visited this huge Victorian museum one day, and as I was walking round I had an