On Writing “Don’t overcrowd the narrative. Characters should be individualized, but functional — like figures in a painting. Think of Hieronymus…
Writing Tip: Screenplays Are Stories, Not Formulas “If you go in with formula, you come out with formula.”
2023 Award Season Screenplay Downloads — 2 New Scripts, 25 Total It’s that time of year again when studios and production companies make available PDFs of movie scripts for award season.
Page One: “A Haunting in Venice” (2023) Screenplay by Michael Green, based upon the novel “Hallowe’en Party” by Agatha Christie
“Screenplays don’t have to read like an instruction manual for a refrigerator.” A couple of Chris Miller tweets reminded me of a William Goldman quote … and a solid piece of screenwriting advice.
Spec Script Deal: “Undying” Netflix acquires thriller spec script “Undying” written by Ben Ketai. Via Deadline:
Page One: “Freud’s Last Session” (2023) Screenplay by Matt Brown and Mark St. Germain, based on the play by Mark St. Germain
2023 Award Season Screenplay Downloads — 2 New Scripts, 23 Total It’s that time of year again when studios and production companies make available PDFs of movie scripts for award season.
Spec Script Deal: “Level Up” The Hideaway Entertainment acquires science fiction action comedy spec script “Level Up” written by Matthew Altman and David Matalon. Via…
Hollywood Tales In 1956, director John Ford and John Wayne went to their regular spot — the Monument Valley — to make The Searchers. Location shooting…
Page One: “BlackBerry” (2023) Screenplay by Matt Johnson & Matthew Miller, based on the book “Losing the Signal” by Jacquie McNish & Sean Silcoff
2023 Award Season Screenplay Downloads — 2 New Scripts, 21 Total It’s that time of year again when studios and production companies make available PDFs of movie scripts for award season.
Script To Screen: “Jaws” It’s the movie that forever changed the business, the first true blockbuster of the modern era: Jaws (1975), screenplay by Peter Benchley…
Writing Tip: The difference between Act One midpoint and Act One end “Something happens. An event that precipitates a change in the Protagonist’s life circumstances.”
2022 Spec Script Market Analysis Comprehensive analysis of all the reported spec script deals in 2022.
On Writing “Most writers think up a plot with an intriguing situation and then proceed to fit characters into it. With me a plot, if you could call it…
Page One: “Elemental” (2023) Screenplay by John Hoberg & Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh, story by Peter Sohn and John Hoberg & Kat Likkel and Brenda Hsueh
My Conversation on the Green Hills Chat Podcast A wide-ranging talk about character-driven screenwriting, the threat of AI, and an in-depth analysis of The Silence of the Lambs.
Script to Screen: “Jerry Maguire” A fired sports agent… a goldfish… and a personal assistant make a defiant, if awkward exit.
