Scott Myers

Great Characters: Atticus Finch (“To Kill a Mockingbird”)

The second post I ever did on this blog is here: A Daily Dialogue post featuring the 1962 movie To Kill a Mockingbird (screenplay by Horton Foote, based on the novel by Harper Lee). Here is that quote: “If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you’ll get along

Daily Dialogue — September 24, 2010

Sheila: Hi. Can I help you? Bill Foster: Yes, I’d like a ham-and-cheese whamlet, an order of wham fries… Sheila: I’m sorry, we stopped serving breakfast, but we are on lunch menu now. Bill Foster: I want breakfast. Sheila: Well, you can’t have it, we’

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1”

New trailer just released yesterday: Movie hits theaters stateside November 19. Who’s excited? Comment Archive

“Lone Star”

Below a blog post from Kyle Killen, who wrote the script The Beaver and created the new Fox TV series “Lone Star.” The series debuted Monday night and despite much critical praise did not do well in the ratings. I am quoting Killen’s post in its entirety as the

“Franchise Report Card: Which Studios are Winning the Blockbuster Game?”

From TheWrap: Sequels and franchise films are Hollywood’s bread and butter. In the upcoming blockbuster battles, some studios are better positioned than others to compete for box office dollars. In particular, several movie companies face the devastating prospect that their gravy trains are coming to an end — among them

Spec Script Sale: “Expulsion”

Per Deadline, Warner Bros. sci-fi spec “Expulsion” from writer Greg Hurwitz: It’s the template for a big science fiction film. After an act of terror destroys Earth, a small band of survivors escape to a planet beyond the solar system. Finally! Most recent spec sale was precisely one

Screenwriting Back to Basics, Day 4: Character = Function

Yesterday we looked at one basic screenwriting principle: Plot = Structure. Today another one: Character = Function There are three points worth making re this principle. The first is pretty simple: Every character in a screenplay has to be there for a reason. That reason is their narrative function, how who they

The Business of Screenwriting: They don’t think like you (Part 1)

The Business of Screenwriting (Part 1): They don’t think like you Hollywood studio executives can have a different way of seeing the world. I am sitting in the office of a studio executive. At this point, K-9 has been produced, we’ve sold a pitch to Warner Bros.

Daily Dialogue — September 23, 2010

The one thing that bothered me, the one thing that stayed in my mind and I couldn’t get rid of it, that haunted me, was why. Why would she lie? What was her motive for lying? If my client is innocent, she’s lying, why? Was it blackmail? No.

“Trust the process”

[Note: I dug into the GITS vault to find this article from way back in May, 2008 because it’s relevant to the earlier post today re how to approach working with story structure]. “Trust the process.” This is probably my favorite writing mantra. It’s both practical and spiritual,

Mythbusters & Storytelling

So on Sunday, I along with about 3,000 other people journeyed to the Dean Smith Center to spend a few hours with these guys: These guys being, of course, Jamie and Adam from Discovery’s long-running TV series “Mythbusters”: Each MythBusters episode focuses typically on several popular beliefs,

Screenwriting Back to Basics, Day 3: Plot = Structure

William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, The Princess Bride), arguably the dean of contemporary American screenwriters, says this: “Screenplays are structure.” Screenwriting legend Charles Bennett (The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps) says this: “The construction is the most important goddamned

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

Daily Dialogue — September 22, 2010

Ah! Ahh! Ahh! Ahh! Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Ah! Ah! Ahh! Ahh! Ahh! Ah! Ahhhh! Ahhhhhhh!  — Student, Real Genius (1985), screenplay by Neal Israel and Pat Proft, story by Neal Israel and Pat Proft, writer Peter Torokvei The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is character meltdowns suggested by buccaneer. TriviaThe “liquid

This American Life: “Life After Death”

Recently I ran a series on NPR & Storytelling, noting how there are fantastic resources available there for writers. I kicked that off with perhaps the best storytelling radio show of all This American Life. This American Life is a weekly public radio show broadcast on more than 500 stations

“Pokemon: Apokelypse”

Because of the ages of my two sons (19 and 10), the phenomenon of Pokemon has been a part of our family’s life since the TV series was introduced to the U.S. 14 years ago. So when I saw this trailer, I was pretty much gobsmacked: Turns out,

Profile: “Tron”

Our friend Trevor Hogg, whose profiles of filmmakers regularly feature at FlickeringMyth.com, offers something special today: This profile of the original Disney movie Tron. From Trevor’s email: It proved to be quite the challenge to get pictures from the original Tron but Disney Australia came through in the

Screenwriting Back to Basics, Day 2: Protagonist Metamorphosis Arc

In almost all mainstream Hollywood movies as well as most indie films, the Protagonist character or characters go through some type of personal metamorphosis. It is no surprise this is the case. Joseph Campbell who studied thousands upon thousands of stories worldwide and through history determined that transformation is at

Hollywood Tales

“In writing Jurassic Park, I threw out a lot of detail about the characters because whenever they started talking about their personal lives, you couldn’t care less. You wanted them to shut up and go stand on a hill where you could go see the dinosaurs.”  — screenwriter David Koepp

Daily Dialogue — September 21, 2010

David: [to Brad who is singing a Ford jingle to “New York, New York”] Brad, shut up, would you please. [to his boss Paul] Now listen to me, I must get what I deserve. This is completely unfair. I have been here too long a time. Please, make me senior

RIP: Irving Ravetch (1920–2010)

Veteran screenwriter Irving Ravetch died today. The two time Academy Award winning screenwriter’s movie credits include Hud (1963), The Cowboys (1972), Norma Rae (1979), and Stanley & Iris (1989). Here is a clip from Norma Rae: Godspeed, Irving Ravetch. Comment Archive

“32 Coolest Movie Moments”

I was going to relegate this to Saturday Hot Links, as I do now with almost all movie lists, but as soon as I saw the first moment on the list, I knew it deserved its own post. A few selections: 32 Die Hard (1988) “Now I have a machine

The importance of character names

When I was in Banff, Canada recently, I got into a discussion with two writers about the question: How important are character names? The question had arisen because one writer was working on a screenplay in which the names they had originally ascribed to a couple of characters no longer

“Fade In: The Writing of Star Trek Insurrection”

Got an email from The Bitter Script Reader: Hey Scott, I tweeted about this, but I think this might be worth of a link on your blog. Back when Star Trek: Insurrection was in production, Michael Piller wrote a book for Pocket Books that would have detailed the behind the

Screenwriting Back to Basics, Day 1: Writing Scenes

With every scene, you should ask yourself this question: What is the scene’s Beginning, Middle, and End? Just as we think of a story with three acts or movements, so each scene has its own tripartite structure. Therefore as we approach working out a scene, we need to think