Scott Myers

2012 Sundance Film Festival lineup announced

From Sundance this afternoon: Sundance Institute announced today the films selected for the U.S. and World Cinema Dramatic and Documentary Competitions of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Film Festival will take place January 19 through 29 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah. — — For

Conversations with Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond [Part 10]

More excerpts from a sit-down interview with writer-director Billy Wilder and longtime screenwriting partner I.A.L. Diamond: Wilder: In Double Indemnity I had a final scene with the character in the gas chamber. There are pellets dropping and the bucket and the fumes, and outside is Eddie

“The Karate Kid” [1983]: A ‘new’ version comprised of rehearsal footage

Via One Cool Thing A Day and Slashfilm, a fun find: In 1983, director John G. Avildsen was getting ready to shoot The Karate Kid with stars Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita and others. As part of the rehearsal process, Avildsen decided to film all of the rehearsals and edited it

Movies You Made: “Man of the House” by Zach Jansen

From filmmaker Zach Jansen: A man seeking his next drug fix finds himself in a situation he’s desperate to avoid. Here is the 2:30 minute film Man of the House: Director: Zach Jansen, Lead Actor: Andrew Anderson If you have comments on Zach’s film or information about

Friendly reminder

Read scripts. Watch movies. Write pages. Comment Archive

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

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 characters. Here is a list of most prominent ones in order of appearance in the

Script To Scene: “(500) Days of Summer”

From the 2009 movie (500) Days of Summer, written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, a whimsical fantasy sequence. Setup: Tom finally gets a chance to know his fantasy girl Summer… in the Biblical sense. INT TOM’S BEDROOM — SAME We watch from behind as he re-enters his

Daily Dialogue — November 30, 2011

POLICE CHIEF: I’m a police chief. From Michigan. Look, fella, I have explained to you. I have a postcard which says I have reservations in this hotel. CLERK: I’m very sorry, sir, but you’re on the late list. So your reservations has been transferred to the… ah…

Reader Questions

I’ll be starting up another round of answers to reader questions next Monday, so here is your chance. If there is an issue or concern about the craft or business of screenwriting, no matter how big or small, I’m happy to take a crack at it. Plus as

Conversations with Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond [Part 9]

More excerpts from a sit-down interview with writer-director Billy Wilder and longtime screenwriting partner I.A.L. Diamond: Q: In your visual style, you very often seem to concentrate on one particular object. For example, the filing cabinets in A Foreign Affair or the whiskey bottle and the

Movies You Made: “Dirge” by Aaron Kirk

From writer-director Aaron Kirk: i’m a writer/director. one of those people. Live near Austin, TX and have a few other flicks from the last couple of years up. you can poke around at From The Top Turnbuckle. my interests are just unashamedly telling the best story i

Spec Script Sale: “Narco Sub”

Twentieth Century Fox acquires action thriller spec “Narco Sub” from writer David Guggenheim. Per Deadline: Described as reminiscent of Scott’s Crimson Tide and Man on Fire, plot for “Narco Sub” involves the semi-submersible crafts South American drug cartels employ to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. Man, thrillers

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

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 structure. You may choose to consider the story in terms of three-act structure with

Screenwriting 101: Jane Anderson

“I wrote a spec script called Cop Gives Waitress $2 Million Tip. It later was turned into a film that they renamed It Could Happen to You. I went around pitching the idea to various studios before I wrote it. The idea I pitched was a cop can’t pay

Daily Dialogue — November 29, 2011

Chet: Are you a trans or a res? Barton: A what? Chet: Transient or resident? Barton: Oh, I’ll be here a long time. Indefinitely. Chet: Res. That’ll be $25.50 a week payable in advance. Checkout time is twelve sharp, but you can forget about that on account

New screenwriting class: “Character Introductions”

When the sage wordsmith Mick Jagger once penned, “Please allow me to introduce myself,” he was definitely onto something. And we think we are, too, with the newest Screenwriting Master Class offering Craft: Character Introductions, a 1-week online writing course which provides perhaps the first and last words on

Spec Script 2.0?

There is a spec going out called “One Night In Compton” [Three female college students spend an eventful night in Compton on the eve of their college graduation]. Accompanying the script is a website, three Xtranormal teasers here, here, and here [Warning: NSFW], and a downloadable one-sheet [comptononesheet.pdf]

Spec Script Sale: “Guys Night”

Millennium Films acquires comedy spec script “Guys Night” from writer Chris Baldi. Per Variety: Story centers on four guys stuck in dead-end jobs and not-much-better relationships who hear about a mystery island off the coast of New Jersey where anything goes. One night, they set off in

Conversations with Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond [Part 8]

More excerpts from a sit-down interview with writer-director Billy Wilder and longtime screenwriting partner I.A.L. Diamond: Q: This raises a question of the handling of delicate themes. What problems did you have in The Seven Year Itch? Wilder: It was a nothing picture, and I’ll

“Terry Gilliam, the heir of Fellini and the enemy of God?”

An absolutely fantastic piece by Geoff Boucher at the “Hero Complex” [LAT] about Terry Gilliam: The late Ted Demme once approached Terry Gilliam and asked for the secret of his cinema sorcery. Demme wanted to know how the director of “Brazil,” “Twelve Monkeys” and “The Fisher King” approached those magical

Movies You Made: “Sweethearts” by Sloane H. Korach

From Sloane H. Korach: My submission for your Movie You Made section is in the vein of GRIM NIGHT’s spec screenplay/spec trailer combination. The project is entitled SWEETHEARTS. I wrote the spec screenplay as well as created the brief teaser. LOGLINE: The place. The timing. The ring. Getting

R.I.P.: Ken Russell (1927–2011)

Ken Russell has died. Most think of him as the director of such movies as Women in Love, Tommy, and Altered States, but he also has 34 writing credits according to his IMDB page. Here is a scene from arguably his best effort, the 1969 adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’

GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “Panic Room”

Welcome to Week 12 of the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series. This week we will be 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. Let’s use this post today for your

On Writing

“A character, to be acceptable as more than a chess piece, has to be ignorant of the future, unsure about the past, and not at all sure of what he’s supposed to be doing.” — Anthony Burgess, quote from “Advice to Writers”

Daily Dialogue — November 28, 2011

ROOM CLERK (taking a key from behind the counter): Do you have any luggage, Mister — (looks at registration card) Gladstone? BEN: Luggage? Yes. Yes. I do. ROOM CLERK: Where is it? BEN: What? ROOM CLERK: Where is your luggage? BEN: Well it’s in the car. It’s out in