Scott Myers

Pitch sale: “License to Steal”

Paramount’s new regime wastes no time making noise with a seven-figure purchase of action-comedy pitch “License to Steal” from writer Shane Salerno: Shane Salerno will pen the script. Project is loosely based on Marc Weingarten’s Salon.com article about the high-end repo business, in which

On writing

“Practice, practice, practice writing. Writing is a craft that requires both talent and acquired skills. You learn by doing, by making mistakes and then seeing where you went wrong.”  — Jeffrey A. Carver

Daily dialogue — June 29, 2009

“Everything a lie. Everything you hear, everything you see. So much to spew out. They just keep coming, one after another. You’re in a box. A moving box. They want you dead, or in their lie… There’s only one thing a man can do — find something that’s

Video interview: Neil Gaiman

Today a great video interview with author and screenwriter Neil Gaiman. Most well known for his science fiction and fantasy novels, short stories, and graphic novels, Gaiman’s movie credits include Stardust (2007), >Beowulf (2007), Coraline (2009), and the upcoming Doctor Strange (2012). Gaiman has also been a blogger

Blog spotlight: The Word Player

Here’s an interesting screenwriting blog worth spotlighting: The Word Player. Hook: “Creating one original feature film pitch every day for a year.” Writer: David S. Rielly Location: Glendale, CA Occupation: Freelance copywriter for the last 5 years. Before that, TV and film development exec. Blog origins: Here In my

“Zhang Yimou remaking Coens’ ‘Blood Simple’”

So okay, Zhang Yimou has written and/or directed seventeen movies that have won or been nominated for 71 international awards including the Grand Prize Jury award in 1974 at Cannes for the movie Huozhe. But the lizard part of my brain is crying out, “Please say this ain’t

Written Interview: David Mamet

Today’s interview subject is playwright-screenwriter-director David Mamet. His film credits include The Verdict, The Untouchables, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Spanish Prisoner, Wag the Dog, State and Main, andSpartan. Here are some excerpts: What’s your writing regimen? I think I’m going to just start writing and

The story behind script coverage: “How to Write Coverage”

Once more into the breech with our ongoing dissection of the “ICM Story Department — Coverage Packet.” Today’s scintillating subject: “Appendix A: Summary Outline: How to Write Coverage.” Ooh. Doesn’t that title just send a tingle up your spine?  Actually I think you will find this pretty fascinating, offering

Spec script sale: “Hellified”

Paramount goes to hell and buys supernatural-action spec “Hellified” from writer Andy Burg: “Hellified” is known to be a supernatural action movie involving a journey to hell. Burg is repped by ICM and Justin Silvera Management.

Friday movie reviews

My Sister’s Keeper (Warner Bros.) Daily Variety (Justin Chang) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) New York Times (A.O. Scott) The Hurt Locker (Summit) Daily Variety (Derek Elley) Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan) New York Times (A.O. Scott) Comment Archive

Great Scene: “Se7en”

One of the most darkly compelling endings in recent movie history. When a movie builds to the climactic face-off between Protagonist and Nemesis, I call that the Final Struggle. Typically it’s a case of fists-versus-fists or guns-versus-guns. But the movie Se7en (1995), written by

“Should I leave L.A. after one year?”

I’ve featured Salon.com advice columnist Cary Tennis before here and here. Cary is funny, smart, and often deals with the challenges people have trying to lead the ‘creative’ lifestyle. The question today comes from a young person who moved to L.A. to break into the film business.

The story behind script coverage: General Coverage Information

Once again, we return to our analysis of the “ICM Story Department — Coverage Packet”. The scintillating saga continues with the next section entitled “General Coverage Information”: TITLE & AUTHOR: Rely on the title page of the script for correct spelling. If the writer is a client your comments need to

“Oscars’ best picture race: 10 in 2010”

I’m sorry, but I can’t see this move as anything but an attempt to stem a slide in TV ratings: There will be 10, count ’em 10, nominees for best picture when the nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards are announced Feb. 2. In a move designed

“Ten faces igniting movie buzz”

On Sunday, the LA Times “Calendar” section came out with one of those listy lists again: This one “Ten faces igniting movie buzz.” Not sure how many folks outside the 101–10–405–110 Hwood bubble are frothing at these faces, but I’ll say this: They’re all involved

Quick! Grab the film rights! U.S. 2, Spain 0!!!

Here are some of the subjects I have never broached on this blog: Kumquats, breastfeeding, the Bee Gees, ingrown toenails, Anopheles quadrimaculatus, Bill O’Reilly, and tofu. I prefer, of course, to stick to what GITS is supposed to be about: screenwriting, movies, Hwood, and helping to make you millions

New screenwriting blog: “Screenwriting Tips… You Hack”

Xander Bennett wrote this comment re the most recent “The Story Behind Script Coverage” posts: I’m a script reader, and this is much more guidance than we ever got. It’s actually pretty handy. Scott: Speaking of readers, you might be interested in my new blog, http://screenwritingtips.tumblr.

20 Questions: Judd Apatow

20 Questions with Judd Apatow in Playboy that is. So if you’re in an office, beware of visuals! Here are a few choice Q&A’s for the writer-director-producer behind such hit movies as The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Pineapple Express: PLAYBOY: Your

Screenwriting 101 — Dana Stevens

“The truth of the matter is, I couldn’t solve my [writer’s] block with location. Or silence or self-flagellation. I could only let myself off the hook. My block was about my own ego as much as anything. I had become my worst critic: a one-woman, pissed-

The story behind script coverage: Coverage Questions

Related to yesterday’s topic, the “ICM Story Department — Coverage Department” doc follows with a section titled “Questions To Elaborate On When Writing Comments.” Here are the questions: CONCEPT/STORY -What is the script’s intention? -How well does it fulfill that intention? -What works, what doesn’t work, why?

All hail the typewriter!

Some fun facts from The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor” today: It was on this day in 1868 that the typewriter was patented, by Christopher Sholes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1873, he sold the patent to the Remington Arms Co., a famous gun maker, for $12,000. There had

Francis Ford Coppola’s new movie: Tetro

H/T to Kent Takano for finding this gem of a feature on screenwriter-director Francis Ford Coppola. Hard to imagine that it’s been over 10 years since Coppola’s last directed a studio movie The Rainmaker (1997). Since then, he’s moved into making more intimate movies: Coppola

The continuing saga of K-9

So our friend journalist Lewis Beale sends me this email yesterday: In yesterday’s Sunday Times Magazine, there’s a story about a Palestinian terrorist living in exile in Ireland. The author goes to visit him, and… “We stepped into the blandly furnished living room. James Belushi’s cop-meets-

Hollywood Tales

“Once Jonathan came on board [The Silence of the Lambs] and it was greenlighted and a start date was set, then everything began happening at once. While I was rewriting, we were also talking about everything else in the world, including casting. Jonathan is generous with all his collaborators. He

Pitch sale: “Business Trip”

Universal buys comedy pitch “Buisness Trip from writer Stacey Harman: Benderspink, behind the Warner Bros. hit “The Hangover,” will produce the laffer about a group of women who go on a corporate trip but wind up doing anything but business while on company time. Benderspink director of development Langley Perer