Scott Myers

Exclusive GITS Q&A: Justin Rhodes (Part 3)

Back in July, I posted this: Warner Bros. acquires sci-fi spec script “Second Sun” from writer Justin Rhodes. Per Hollywood Reporter: Story is an adventure set on another planet with twists. Rhodes is repped by ICM and manager Kevin Donahue. Recently I caught up with Justin who agreed to

Movie Trailer: “We Bought a Zoo”

New from Cameron Crowe: HT to Slash Film for the heads-up re the trailer. Comment Archive

Why We Write: Danny Rubin

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: “Bridesmaids” — Characters

We continue our analysis of the script “Bridesmaids” today by considering the characters in the story. Here is a list of most of the characters from the script in order of appearance: Annie (bride’s best friend, maid of honor) Ted (Annie’s wannabe boyfriend) Lillian (Annie’s best friend,

Script To Screen: “Dead Poet’s Society”

The ending scene of the movie Dead Poet’s Society (written by Tom Schulman). Setup: The schoolboy’s teacher Keating has been fired for deviating from “proper” teaching techniques. INT. KEATING'S CLASSROOM - DAY The students are all seated at their desks in silence. Everyone looks as the door

Daily Dialogue — September 14, 2011

“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” — Jack (John Lurie), Zack (Tom Waits), Roberto (Roberto Benigni), Down By Law (1986), written by Jim Jarmusch The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is screamfests. Down By Law suggested by Saint. Trivia: Co-star Tom Waits referred to the

Reader Question: Is there a danger of having an Act One that is too short?

“There is a reason most first acts clock in between 20–30 minutes long and that is because it takes that much time to establish a baseline of experience for the moviegoer about where the Protagonist starts out.” From Pliny the Elder: I’m writing a drama, in what Linda

Exclusive GITS Q&A: Justin Rhodes (Part 2)

Back in July, I posted this: Warner Bros. acquires sci-fi spec script “Second Sun” from writer Justin Rhodes. Per Hollywood Reporter: Story is an adventure set on another planet with twists. Rhodes is repped by ICM and manager Kevin Donahue. Recently I caught up with Justin who agreed to

Why We Write: Hart Hanson

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: “Man With a Gun”

Crime Scene Pictures acquires action thriller spec script “Man With a Gun” from writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe. Per Deadline: A gunslinger on a personal mission to gut the participants in a drug war that has plagued a U.S. border town for generations infiltrates both sides. By my count this

Spec Script Sale: “Eye in the Sky for Downfall”

FilmNation acquires thriller spec “Eye in the Sky for Downfall” from writer Guy Hibbert. Per Deadline: The company plans to fast-track the movie — an international thriller that follows a group of characters impacted by the decision to drop a drone missile on a house in East Africa — and want

GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “Bridesmaids” — Structure

Yesterday we began our analysis of the script “Bridesmaids” here. Much of the discussion was about how raw the 8/12/2009 draft was, especially in comparison to the movie. However even in a ‘vomit draft’ like this one, essentially reflecting the writers’ attempt to put something down on paper

Screenwriting 101: Michael Arndt

On Tuesday, May 23, 2000, at 4:27 p.m., I sat down to write LMS [Little Miss Sunshine]. I wrote twelve pages the first day, thirty-seven pages the second, and–pulling an all-nighter–fifty-four pages on the third day. I finished the first draft at 9:

Daily Dialogue — September 13, 2011

POPPY: I’m calling the police! Do you want me to call the police? Do you? Right. So let’s just calm down, shall we? Okay? We’re disturbing the peace here. SCOTT: I just want to get in my car and drive away. POPPY: Sorry Scott, that’s not

Reader Question: May I deliver my scripts personally to a literary management company?

Short answer: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! A question from Nick Oleksiw: Hey Scott, I have a couple high concept scripts I plan on submitting to some management companies (that read unsolicited material) for representation. I am out here in L.A. and was actually thinking of bringing them in person as a way

Popcorn Fiction: “Dark as Hell” by Sheldon Woodbury

A new short story from the site Popcorn Fiction hosted by screenwriter-novelist Derek Haas: I’m a huge fan of Sheldon Woodbury’s short fiction…this is our third time to publish the talented author. He’s written us a couple of hard-boiled noir stories, and now he

Exclusive GITS Q&A: Justin Rhodes (Part 1)

Back in July, I posted this: Warner Bros. acquires sci-fi spec script “Second Sun” from writer Justin Rhodes. Per Hollywood Reporter: Story is an adventure set on another planet with twists. Rhodes is repped by ICM and manager Kevin Donahue. Recently I caught up with Justin who agreed to

Why We Write: Iris Yamashita

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 and Analysis Series: “Bridesmaids”

Welcome to Week 2 of the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series. This week we will be analyzing the 08/12/2009 draft of “Bridesmaids,” your choice for the Comedy genre. If you haven’t had a chance to read the script yet, you can go here to access it.

Spec Script Sale: “Seven Days Waiting”

Davis Entertainment and Benderspink teaming up on ensemble drama-thriller “Seven Days Waiting” from writers Jeff Bacon, Joe Davidson and Jordan Capell. Logline: Similar to “Crash” in tone. [Announced 8/31/11] By my count, this is the 64th spec script to sell in 2011. Only 55 spec scripts sold

On Writing

“There’s a Persian proverb — ‘When the heart is willing you’ll find a thousand ways, and when it’s unwilling it will find a thousand excuses.’” — Randall Wallace

Daily Dialogue — September 12, 2011

“EVERYONE!!!” — Stansfield (Gary Oldman), Leon: The Professional (1994), written by Luc Besson http://movieclips.com/e/irU3T/0/131.123/ The Daily Dialogue theme this week is screamfests. Leon: The Professional suggested by Saint. Trivia: According to Patrice Ledoux, Luc Besson planned Léon as filler. At the time, he had

GITS Script Reading & Analysis: October

Tomorrow we begin our second round of script analysis, this time the comedy genre and the script you voted for us to read: “Bridesmaids”. You can access the script via myPDFscripts.com here. We had a terrific time last week delving into a draft of “Gladiator,” the first script in

In The Cut: “The Dark Knight”

We have our Script To Screen series. What Jim Emerson is doing with his new In The Cut series is more like from Script To Sequence. From Indie Wire: There are plenty of ways to make a movie. There are plenty of ways to make a mess, too. But sometimes

Toronto International Film Festival: Days 1–3

Some recaps: Day 1: Globe and Mail Day 2: THR Day 3: THR Days 1 and 2: IndieWire Day 3: IndieWire Comment Archive