Scott Myers

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Moment of clarity

From a suggestion by DeafEars: How about a “moment of clarity” — a scene where a character realizes and speaks a truth about himself? I’ve found that scenes like that are hard to get right as a writer because there’s the danger of “telling” something rather than “showing” that

Michael Bay’s rejected “The Dark Knight” script

How did I miss this.  I think my favorite line of scene description is: An American flag (CGI) flies proudly in the central courtyard. Of course it’s got to be CGI! HT to another one of my awesome UNC students Brian Gaither. Comment Archive

Restored 1903 film: “Alice in Wonderland”

This is a true Holy Shite discovery. The first-ever film version of Lewis Carroll’s tale has recently been restored by the BFI National Archive from severely damaged materials. Made just 37 years after Lewis Carroll wrote his novel and eight years after the birth of cinema, the adaptation

Written Interview: Howard Gordon (“24”)

Today’s written interview is with TV writer and now novelist Howard Gordon. The interview is hosted by TheWrap in a new series they’re calling The Writer’s Room. Some background on Gordon: Former “24” show runner Howard Gordon, who just released his debut novel while working on two

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: ???

I’ve decided to wipe the slate completely clean, so let’s start anew.  I’ve run a Daily Dialogue post every day at 6AM ET (U.S.) since I started this blog in 2008. Part of my thinking was that it’s nice to start each day with some

Oscar Moguls: Harvey Weinstein (The Weinstein Company) Q&A

Deadline is running an interesting series of interviews with the heads of production at major Hollywood Studios. The focus of the Q&A’s is on the current Oscars race, but I’ve drilled down into each conversation to highlight information relevant to screenwriters. As I have said before,

Amazing Hitchcock discovery

This is pretty amazing. Via FilmDetail: In 1962 François Truffaut carried out a series of extensive interviews with Alfred Hitchcock at his offices in Universal Studios. They were recorded to audio tape and the content eventually edited down into Truffaut’s famous book Hitchcock: A Definitive Study of Alfred Hitchcock.

Screenwriting Lessons: “The Social Network” — Part 5: Handling Exposition

As I watched The King’s Speech recently, I was struck by how many screenwriting lessons could be gleaned from the movie. So I decided to analyze The King’s Speech and The Social Network, the most likely winners of this year’s Academy Awards for Best Screenplay (Speech for

Middle Earth according to Mordor

For all you LOTR fans, this is pretty damn cool. From Salon: As bad lots go, you can’t get much worse than the hordes of Mordor from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings.” Led by an utterly evil disembodied entity who manifests himself as a

Great Characters: Frank Booth (“Blue Velvet”)

One of the creepiest Nemesis characters in American film history is Frank Booth from Blue Velvet: Played with demented intensity by the late Dennis Hopper, Booth is a psychopath of the first order. Here is the IMDB plot summary: A man returns to his home town after being away and

Oscar Moguls: Rich Ross (Disney)

Deadline is running an interesting series of interviews with the heads of production at major Hollywood Studios. The focus of the Q&A’s is on the current Oscars race, but I’ve drilled down into each conversation to highlight information relevant to screenwriters. As I have said before,

“Dare to Suck”

This may be my favorite video ever: God bless Maureen Johnson! Consider her words to be the Gospel truth. As writers, we need to embrace the power of suckitude — because nothing frees us up creatively as much as knowing we can dare to suck. You can find Maureen Johnson’s

Screenwriting Lessons: “The Social Network” — Part 4: Subplots

As I watched The King’s Speech recently, I was struck by how many screenwriting lessons could be gleaned from the movie. So I decided to analyze The King’s Speech and The Social Network, the most likely winners of this year’s Academy Awards for Best Screenplay (Speech for

Mitch Hurwitz’s Guide to Getting a Sitcom Cancelled

Via Deadline. A few excerpts: Have a confusing title Come up with an unwieldy title that perhaps comes from the realm of psychology, so that the title of your show is almost instantly forgettable. For example, if you were to call the show Welcome Matt, an audience could immediately understand

The Business of Screenwriting: The Travails of Pitching (Part 1) — The Distracted Exec

We are seated in a studio executive’s office for a pitch meeting. He’s late. Very late. We’ve been waiting for close to a half-hour. His assistant is apologetic — “He’s hung up in traffic.” More like air traffic. For the last 20 minutes, we’ve been

Goodbye PC. Hello MacBook Pro.

After two decades of wandering around in the shadows of the Dark Side, I have had it. I’m sick of all the BS PC issues that keep cropping up. This latest round of Politically Crappy inanity / stupidity / rigidity, the phalanx of computer gremlins torching my every effort to… you

Oscar Moguls: Jeff Robinov (Warner Bros.) Q&A

Deadline is running an interesting series of interviews with the heads of production at major Hollywood Studios. The focus of the Q&A’s is on the current Oscars race, but I’ve drilled down into each conversation to highlight information relevant to screenwriters. As I have said before,

Screenwriting Soap Box

What’s on your mind? Do you have something to say about screenwriting? The state of movies? Have you made any recent discoveries re the craft of screenwriting you want to share? Or is there something about it that is really bugging you? Are you looking for some advice? Maybe

Screenwriting Lessons: “The Social Network” — Part 3: Theme

As I watched The King’s Speech recently, I was struck by how many screenwriting lessons could be gleaned from the movie. So I decided to analyze The King’s Speech and The Social Network, the most likely winners of this year’s Academy Awards for Best Screenplay (Speech for

Audio Interviews

Due to unfathomable computer issues that have been plaguing me for several days, I’m no longer able to provide links to podcasts, rather I’m forced to download them. So you may go here for all of Creative Screenwriting magazines many, many podcast interviews with screenwriters. If anyone else

Spec Script Sale: “Article III”

Route One Films buys legal thriller spec “Article III” from writer Aaron Tracy. Per Variety: Story follows a 26-year-old law clerk for an aging Supreme Court justice who’s the swing vote on the court. The clerk has three days to save the life of his girlfriend when

Screenwriting 101: Phil Alden Robinson

“I think it’s one of the reasons that people resent writers is because when we are writing, we are God. When you’re making a movie, the most powerful director is still subject to, the lens won’t do that, the sun just went behind the clouds, the actor

Oscar Moguls: Brad Grey (Paramount) Q&A

Deadline is running an interesting series of interviews with the heads of production at major Hollywood Studios. The focus of the Q&A’s is on the current Oscars race, but I’ve drilled down into each conversation to highlight information relevant to screenwriters. As I have said before,

Feature: Screenwriter Alan Loeb

An interesting and informative read in New York magazine on the life of a screenwriter from the perspective of Alan Loeb. A few excerpts: There are few writers (if any) in Hollywood who’ve written for both Oliver Stone and Adam Sandler, and there is certainly only one who’s

Screenwriting Lessons: “The Social Network” — Part 2: Narrative Framework

As I watched The King’s Speech recently, I was struck by how many screenwriting lessons could be gleaned from the movie. So I decided to analyze The King’s Speech and The Social Network, the most likely winners of this year’s Academy Awards for Best Screenplay (Speech for