Scott Myers

Exclusive Q&A Interview: Jason Scoggins (Part 4)

Last week, we had two posts so GITS readers could submit questions to Jason Scoggins: Jason Scoggins is a manager and partner at Protocol, a Beverly Hills-adjacent literary management and production company. He represents writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld

For all you LOTR fans

This is super awesome: For two days only THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING will hit Radio City Music Hall for a truly unique experience. Howard Shore’s entire Academy Award winning score will be performed synchronized with the actual film. Conductor Ludwig Wicki will oversee

Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Transcribe Screenplays

I assume we’ve all heard those stories about how a young Felix Mendelssohn transcribed note for note musical scores by Johann Sebastian Bach, just to get the feel of how Bach wrote music. And stories about how F. Scott Fitzgerald transcribed the novels of writers he admired such as

Meryl Streep op-ed in The Onion

This is classic: “Meryl Streep” writing an op-ed piece in “The Onion” called “Name One Masterpiece of Cinema That I’ve Starred In”: My friends and I were sitting around yesterday having a casual conversation about how the one thing all great actors have in common is that they

Movie trailer: “The Men Who Stare at Goats”

Here’s the trailer for The Men Who Stare at Goats, the upcoming comedy-drama starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges. Here’s the premise per IMDB: A reporter, trying to lose himself in the romance of war after his marriage fails, gets more than he

Daily dialogue — September 3, 2009

“To those who say people wouldn’t look; they wouldn’t be interested; they’re too complacent, indifferent and insulated, I can only reply: There is, in one reporter’s opinion, considerable evidence against that contention. But even if they are right, what have they got to lose? Because if

“The Winners and Losers of 2009’s Record Setting Summer”

The first of many summer-box-office-in-review articles, this one from Bethany Perryman at FilmSchoolRejects: This Year’s Top Ten: (click each title to read our review) 1. $399.4 mil: Transformers: Revenge of the the Fallen 2. $294.3 mil: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Exclusive Q&A Interview: Jason Scoggins (Part 3)

Last week, we had two posts so GITS readers could submit questions to Jason Scoggins: Jason Scoggins is a manager and partner at Protocol, a Beverly Hills-adjacent literary management and production company. He represents writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld

“‘Wizard of Oz,’ still magical after 70 years”

Great piece by Geoff Boucher at Hero Complex, one of the LA Times entertainment blogs: It was 70 years ago this week that “The Wizard of Oz” arrived in theaters and even in this CGI-jaded era those old red ruby slippers still sparkle brightly. The anniversary has been celebrated

“The Maiden Heist”

Here’s a morality tale in extremis that was first broadcast on NPR by reporter Cory Turner a few weeks back: One industry has long been considered recession-proof: Hollywood. Well, no more. It’s true Americans are still buying movie tickets. But the trouble isn’t getting people to

How They Write A Script — Larry Kasdan

Writer-director Lawrence “Larry” Kasdan is a prolific talent who has written movies in almost every genre including the thriller Body Heat (1981), possibly greatest action adventure movie of all time Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), arguably the best of the Star Wars movies The Empire Strikes Back (1983)

Screenwriting 101

“You sell a screenplay like you sell a car. If somebody drives it off a cliff, that’s it.”    — Rita Mae Brown

Short Film: “A Thousand Words”

I saw an article today about the two newest cast members of Saturday Night Live, one of whom is Nasim Pedrad. She was in a short film called “A Thousand Words”. A lovely little film. Enjoy. A Thousand Words from Ted Chung on Vimeo. Comment Archive

Exclusive Q&A Interview: Jason Scoggins (Part 2)

Last week, we had two posts so GITS readers could submit questions to Jason Scoggins: Jason Scoggins is a manager and partner at Protocol, a Beverly Hills-adjacent literary management and production company. He represents writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld

“‘We kinda’ broke his heart’: Ben Stiller on Budd Schulberg and ‘Sammy’”

Patrick Goldstein at always excellent LA Times blog “Big Picture” has this interesting account about Ben Stiller and Jerry Stahl, and their ill-fated attempts to make a movie based on Budd Schulberg’s book, “What Makes Sammy Run”: Stiller spent years working with “Permanent Midnight” writer Jerry Stahl on

“Popcorn Fiction”

Here’s an interesting writing site — Popcorn Fiction: This site grew out of a love for pulpy short fiction that used to dominate popular magazines in the mid-20th Century. As a screenwriter, my partner and I have been tasked with adapting several of these for the big screen, including

New website: “The Auteurs”

Now this is cool: Not everyone can make it to the Cannes Film Festival-especially if you are a school teacher or you live in Winnipeg (or both)-but that doesn’t mean you can’t recite all of Kubrick’s films in reverse chronological order, or that you are

Hollywood tales

“‘The Conversation’ was an original screenplay written probably in the mid sixties, it’s difficult for me sometimes to place these scripts because usually there is a kind of leapfrog effect in which I write a script, get three quarters through it, decide that it’s terrible, abandon it, and

Daily dialogue — September 1, 2009

“You used to have a pretty good build, y’know? You did! Now you’re starting to look like a — an egg!”  — Frannie (Terri Garr), One From the Heart (1982), screenplay by Armyan Bernstein & Francis Ford Coppola, based on a story by Armyan Bernstein Comment Archive

Exclusive Q&A Interview: Jason Scoggins (Part 1)

Last week, we had two posts so GITS readers could submit questions to Jason Scoggins: Jason Scoggins is a manager and partner at Protocol, a Beverly Hills-adjacent literary management and production company. He represents writers, directors and producers of film and TV alongside Protocol’s founding partners Brian Inerfeld

“Disney to buy Marvel for $4 billion”

This is a big deal. Per the Hollywood Reporter: Mickey and Donald, meet Spider-Man!  Disney is purchasing Marvel for $4 billion. Disney said Monday that it will acquire the superhero factory in a cash and stock transaction that values each share of Marvel at $50, a 29% premium to

“10 Lessons I Learned From the 2009 Box Office”

An upcoming Time magazine article by film critic Richard Corliss, featured early on The Tracking Board.com: The 2009 summer-movie season began the first weekend of May with the prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and is ending before Labor Day with Halloween 2, a sequel to a remake. That

On writing

“Some of my characters now feel more grateful about simple things — breathing, buying groceries, sunlight, because I do. We don’t have to live great lives, we just have to understand and survive the ones we’ve got.”  — Andre Dubus

Non-screenwriting related: Telluride Bluegrass Festival

A blast from the past. Before I started screenwriting, I did a comedy act for two years. And before that, I played music professionally for 7 years. From 1978–1980, I lived in Aspen, Colorado. The first winter season, I played in a duo with Pat Flynn. We were known

Notable movie dream sequences

Today’s Daily Dialogue featured the opening dream sequence from Fellini’s movie 8 1/2. In comments, Christian H asked why we don’t see dream sequences more often in movies. You can see my speculation in that thread. But it got me thinking of some of my favorite