Scott Myers

“Moneyball”: The movie that almost never was

I have been tracking the long, circuitous path from sale to theatrical release of the movie Moneyball almost since the inception of this blog, and it has been a fascinating journey to track. For my background on it, you can go to this post [July 2, 2009] and this post

“6 Things the Film Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know About”

From Film School Rejects: You may already be a film industry cynic. Maybe you think Hollywood is a barren wasteland, devoid of creativity and originality. Maybe you’re sick of seeing talented people get ignored and vapid hacks get splashed all over the trades. Maybe you’re tired of 3D

Why We Write: Gary Lennon

During the last WGA strike, TV writers Charles “Charlie” Craig and Thania St. John started a blog called Why We Write. They posed that question to a number of writers and over a period of several months, posted their answers on the site. As far as I can tell, the

Spec Script Sale: “Expiration”

Emmett/Furla Films acquires action spec script “Expiration” from writer Brian Tucker. Per Deadline: An ex-CIA operative-turned-hitman is poisoned on his final job. With 20 hours to live, he is determined to find out who poisoned him, and settle the score before he dies. Hitman. Ticking clock.

GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “The Silence of the Lambs” — Dialogue

We wrap up our week long analysis of the script The Silence of the Lambs 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

Great Characters: Daniel E. ‘Rudy’ Ruettiger (“Rudy”)

Sports movies, a long-time Hollywood staple. Isn’t it interesting they always seem to involve an underdog dynamic. And it’s hard to think of more of an underdog character than Daniel E. “Rudy” Ruettinger from the movie Rudy (written by Angelo Pizzo). The plot summary from IMDB: Rudy

Daily Dialogue — September 30, 2011

ANAKIN: Are you an angel? PADME: What? ANAKIN: An angel. I’ve heard the deep space pilots talk about them. They live on the Moons of Iego I think. They are the most beautiful creatures in the universe. They are good and kind, and so pretty they make even the

Early signs of a “Bridesmaids” bump

Fresh on the heels of our week-long analysis of Bridesmaids, this excellent interview in Salon with long-time Hollywood movie producer Lynda Obst (“Sleepless in Seattle,” “Contact” and “How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days”). Some excerpts: Did the success of “Bridesmaids” make a difference to your business?

Movies have consequences…

Screenwriters do not live in a vacuum. Rather we exist in a world populated by movie studios. They are the buyers, the suits, our employers. When things go well for them, generally things go well for us. When things do not go well, things can get a bit dicey. There

Nicholl finalists announced

Here are the 12 finalists: Beverly Hills, CA (September 29, 2011) — Seven individual writers and three writing teams have been selected as finalists for the 26th annual Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their scripts will now be read

Why We Write: David Dean Bottrell

During the last WGA strike, TV writers Charles “Charlie” Craig and Thania St. John started a blog called Why We Write. They posed that question to a number of writers and over a period of several months, posted their answers on the site. As far as I can tell, the

GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “The Silence of the Lambs” — Theme

Onto the subject at hand today as we continue our analysis: What are some of the key themes in the draft of The Silence of the Lambs we read? I don’t know what you think theme is about, but — as I articulated here previously — I think theme = meaning. And

The Business of Screenwriting: If you write a great script…

…Hollywood will find you. Sale. Option. Representation. Writing sample. Writing assignments. Any/all of the above. This is not a pipe dream or fantasy. This statement does not involve unicorns, leprechauns, or magic pixie dust. This is the damn truth. If you write a great script, Hollywood will find you.

Daily Dialogue — September 29, 2011

“I don’t know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments, he loved life more than he ever had before.” — Deckard (Harrison Ford), Blade Runner (1984), screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples, based on a Philip K. Dick novel The Daily Dialogue theme for the

“The best way to have a great idea…”

…is to have a lot of ideas.” Those are the words of the Nobel Prize winning scientist Linus Pauling. With insight like that, he could have been a screenwriting ‘guru’ because the best way to come up with a great story concept is to come up with a lot of

“The screenwriting rules of Charlie Kaufman”

The title of this “Time Out London” article is misleading, at least if you are hoping to find some sort of distillation of the craft from Charlie Kaufman. But it does offer some insight into how he approaches his writing: On studio filmmaking… ‘In a lot of movies, especially big

Why We Write: Michael Oates Palmer

During the last WGA strike, TV writers Charles “Charlie” Craig and Thania St. John started a blog called Why We Write. They posed that question to a number of writers and over a period of several months, posted their answers on the site. As far as I can tell, the

Stephen King reads from sequel to “The Shining”

Via Vulture: Two years ago, Stephen King abruptly polled his fans online to find out whether they’d prefer him to write a sequel to “The Shining” or another side story in his “The Dark Tower” franchise; after they reacted with a pretty uniform “Wow, ‘The Shining,’ we guess,” it

GITS Script Reading and Analysis Series: “The Silence of the Lambs” — Characters

We continue our analysis of the script The Silence of the Lambs today by considering the characters in the story. Here is a list of most of the characters from the script in order of appearance: Clarice Starling (fractured FBI agent in training) Jack Crawford (senior FBI official) Dr. Frederick

Script To Screen: “The Deer Hunter”

The end scene in the 1978 movie The Deer Hunter. Setup: Fellow soldiers and friends gather to commemorate the death of one of their own Nick. INT. V.F.W. POST - MAIN HALL - DAY The meal is over. The WOMEN are drinking coffee, the MEN are smoking and putting down

Daily Dialogue — September 28, 2011

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen: I will have Arrakis back for myself! He who controls the Spice controls the universe and what Piter did not tell you is we have control of someone who is very close, very close, to Duke Leto! This person, this traitor, will be worth more to us

Writing question: How much of the psychology of a story do you nail down before writing pages?

A comment from Betsy: Thanks Scott! Your analysis is really helpful to see how key the psychology is to the character, and hence plot and theme lines. I’m just wondering, in terms of your process, how much of the psychology do you feel is important to nail down before

Flick Chicks: A guide to women in the movies (Mindy Kaling)

This article no sooner hit yesterday than I was besieged by emails and Tweets recommending it. Mindy Kaling is an actress (Kelly Kapoor in “The Office”) and TV writer. The article is from the most recent New Yorker. An excerpt: A few years ago, I sat down for a meeting

Why We Write: Daniel Warren and Mark Warren

During the last WGA strike, TV writers Charles “Charlie” Craig and Thania St. John started a blog called Why We Write. They posed that question to a number of writers and over a period of several months, posted their answers on the site. As far as I can tell, the

@GoIntoTheStory

Most of you probably know I have a Twitter feed: @GoIntoTheStory If you aren’t following it yet, I suggest you do because in addition to links to daily GITS posts and to other interesting news articles I find in my quixotic journey through the Web, I have started using