Scott Myers

New web series: “Urban Wolf”

Mark Filippo forwarded me this info: Crackle.com Launches Acclaimed International Suspense Web Series ‘Urban Wolf’ Series To Debut May 13, 2010 CULVER CITY, Calif., March 31 /PRNewswire/ — Crackle, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s online video network, announced today that it has licensed worldwide distribution rights to the acclaimed international suspense

John August on “theme”

A helpful post yesterday. The word “theme” does seem to get tossed around in a lot of different ways. In fact, August’s use of theme as the “essential idea” of the movie sounds an awful lot like what Lajos Egri meant when he used the word “premise”: Everything has

Compiling Script Recommendations: Style

We are compiling lists of excellent screenplays per various categories as a resource for writers to read and analyze. Today: Scripts notable for their style. My recommendations: (500) Days of Summer Alien (Walter Hill & David Giler draft) Basic Instinct Beaver, The Broadcast News Crash Get Shorty Go Heathers Local

Scene Description Spotlight: “Raising Arizona”

I’ll always have a soft spot for Raising Arizona as it was the very first industry screening I attended back in March 1987. That and the fact it still ranks as one of the best Coen brothers’ movies. Here is an IMDB summary of the plot: Recidivist hold-up

Daily Dialogue — May 13, 2010

Emma: Tommy, you be sweet. Be sweet. And stop tryin’ to pretend that you hate me. I mean, it’s silly. Tommy: I like you. Emma: Okay, then will you listen especially close? Tommy: What? Emma: You’ll listen real hard? Tommy: I said, what?! Emma: I know you like

Walter Murch: “Three Fathers of Cinema”

I’ve mentioned before that one of the best books on screenwriting I’ve read is actually about editing: “In the Blink of an Eye”, written by the esteemed Walter Murch. Here is a nice video (18 minutes long), a PowerPoint presentation with Murch talking about the “three fathers of

Defy authority. Destroy property. Take off clothes.

Here’s some dialogue from the 1986 movie Sweet Liberty. The discussion is between Bo Hodges (Saul Rubinek), director of a movie in production about the American Revolution, and Michael Burgess (Alan Alda), author of an historical book upon which the movie is based: Bo Hodges: You realize who goes

Compiling Script Recommendations: Dialogue

We are compiling lists of excellent screenplays per various categories as a resource for writers to read and analyze. Today: Scripts notable for their dialogue. My recommendations: Annie Hall Big Chill, The Broadcast News Bull Durham Casablanca Ferris Bueller’s Day Off Goodfellas Network Parenthood Repo Man Roxanne Rushmore Say

Screenwriting 101 — William Broyles, Jr.

“Writing really is a process of discovery. The biggest enemy is being satisfied. When I think, ‘Oh, this is so great. They can’t change a word. They’ve got to film it exactly like this,’ that’s when I know I’m not pushing hard enough. That’s when

Daily Dialogue — May 12, 2010

Mrs. Chasen: I have here, Harold, the forms sent out by the National Computer Dating Service. It seems to me that as you do not get along with the daughters of my friends, this is the best way for you to find a prospective wife. [Harold starts to interrupt] Mrs.

“Short films can be a shortcut to Hollywood success”

Steve Zeitchik of the LA Times with this piece: To many movie fans, the mention of short films conjures some dusty notions. If the form registers at all, it’s as a film-festival afterthought or a quaint anachronism, a reminder of the moviegoing era of a half-century ago

Pitch Sale: “Untitled Ansari & McBride Comedy Project”

Per Deadline.com: In a real cross-pollination of series TV and film, Mandate Pictures has acquired an untitled comedy pitch from Aziz Ansari and 30 Rock writer Matt Hubbard, that Harris Wittels will write as a star vehicle for Ansari and Danny McBride. Wittels is a writer on the

Pitch Sale: “Untitled David Caspe Comedy”

Per MovieJungle.com: Charlize Theron is set to start in and produce an untitled comedy based on a pitch by David Caspe, with David Ellison’s Skydance Productions financing and producing. No details on the plot. Re Skydance, Variety has this (subscription required): Skydance’s credits include the upcoming Paramount

Do screenwriters have a moral responsibility in the stories we write?

I never made this connection, but Rahul K. Parikh, M.D. has in this open letter on Salon.com: Dear Mr. Lucas and Mr. Spielberg, When I was a kid, your movies were a big part of my summers. So were all the goodies that came with them — “Star Wars”

Compiling Script Recommendations: Characters

We are compiling lists of excellent screenplays per various categories as a resource for writers to read and analyze. Today: Scripts notable for their characters. My recommendations: Adaptation Almost Famous American Beauty As Good As It Gets Crying Game, The Diner Erin Brockovich Finding Nemo Forrest Gump Graduate, The In

Hollywood Tales

“I lobbied for Billy for the movie. When the play was up for sale, I said, “I want Billy Wilder.” I longed to meet Billy Wilder. [The agent] Irving Lazar got into the act, and he put the package together and offered it to [the agent-producer] Charlie Feldman and

Daily Dialogue — May 11, 2010

Anita Miller: “First it was butter then it was sugar and white flour, bacon, eggs, balogna, rock ‘n roll, motorcycles. Then! It was celebrating Christmas on a day in September when you knew it wouldn’t be commercialized! What else are you gonna ban?” Elaine Miller: “Honey, you want to

Daily Dialogue theme for the week

You can help me out in two ways. First, someone posted a suggestion that we do scenes with no dialogue as a weekly theme. I’d like to run with that next week, but I can’t find that comment. So could someone steer me to the comment as I’

Action genre and character (cont’d)

We begin with this post in which GITS reader justwrite7 posed a question about how to balance character and plot in action movies. I went into some detail providing an analysis of Tony Stark’s character (Robert Downey, Jr.) in Iron Man to show that it is possible to craft

Compiling Script Recommendations: Fantasy Writing

We are compiling lists of excellent screenplays per various categories as a resource for writers to read and analyze. Today: Fantasy writing. My recommendations: Big Fish Brazil Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Groundhog Day Pan’s Labyrinth Princess Bride, The Stranger Than Fiction Wizard of Oz, The What are

On Writing

“The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.”  — Agatha Christie

Daily Dialogue — May 10, 2010

Cole Sear: [of his grandmother] She wanted me to tell you… Lynn Sear: Cole, please stop… Cole Sear: She wanted me to tell you she saw you dance. She said, when you were little, you and her had a fight, right before your dance recital. You thought she didn’t

Hollywood according to Joe Eszterhas

From The Independent: You, too, can be a star My biggest year was 1994. I wrote five scripts in one year. I made almost $10m. I had houses in Tiburon and Malibu, California, and in Kapalua, Maui. I made half a million dollars for writing a 30-second television commercial

NYT Feature: Liz Meriwether

Nice feature in today’s NY Times on playwright and screenwriter Liz Meriwether: These days this 28-year-old Yale graduate spends weekdays in Los Angeles preparing for the start of shooting on her first produced screenplay while writing the next one, and weekends in New York attending rehearsals for

“100 Movie Characters Saying ‘Get Out Of There’”

Our editor friend from the U.K. hh1edits is back with a classic video compilation: 100 Movie Character Saying ‘Get Out Of There’”: hh1edits’ YouTube channel is here. Comment Archive