“What Happens Next”: Lessons from the past Finally getting around to reading Marc Norman’s book, “What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting”. For anyone interested in filmmaking, screenwriting, and the development of the craft of screenwriting, it’s an important read. I’ll be posting excerpts from time to time. Here’s one to start,
Interview — Larry Gelbart Larry Gelbart began his professional writing career in 1952 on “The Red Buttons Show”, wrote 139 episodes of the comedy TV classic “Your Show of Shows”, and then penned 57 episodes — including the pilot — for little TV series called “M*A*S*H”. Then there are his movie credits including
Friday movie reviews The Hangover (Warner Bros.) Daily Variety (Joe Leydon) Hollywood Reporter (Michael Rechtshaffen) Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey) New York Times (A.O. Scott) Land of the Lost (Universal) Daily Variety (Brian Lowry) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey) New York Times (Manohla Dargis) My Life in Ruins
Great Scene: “Dog Day Afternoon” “Attica! Attica! Attica!” The stand-off. One of the most popular, recurring beats in cinematic history. And why not? There’s typically tension galore — guns waving, people screaming, threats being made. Perhaps the most memorable stand-off in recent movie history is this great scene from Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
“Hey, Fox … Here’s an Idea for That ‘Alien’ Remake” We’ve already checked in with The Wrap “Schlock & Awe” columnist Michael Adams with one rant about Hwood’s obsession with remaking movies. Now he lets loose with another blast: Yes, folks, 20th Century Fox has confirmed the rumors that have been getting a singular response — “You’re kidding?
“Nia Vardalos is back on the big screen with ‘My Life in Ruins’” After this recent discussion about strong female roles in movies, this LA Times feature on Nia Vardalos by Rachel Abramowitz slots in nicely: At 46, Vardalos returns to the screen this summer after a three-year absence, with two romantic comedies. In “My Life in Ruins” (in theaters Friday), Vardalos
Update: “Easy A” Always nice to report progress on a spec script getting a greenlight. Back last August, a spec comedy called “Easy A” sold to Screen Gems. Now this: Screen Gems has made a two-picture deal with Amanda Bynes. The thesp will first co-star in the Will Gluck-directed comedy
“In a Sea of Great B.O. Returns, Four Films Fizzled” The Wrap looks at four films that have seriously underperformed at the B.O. in 2009: In a year that has defied economic indicators from every other industry, the overall box-office tally is up year-to-date from 2008 by an incredible 14 percent. But not everyone is enjoying
Daily dialogue — June 4, 2009 “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking… you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? Oh yeah? OK.” — Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro), Taxi Driver
“David Lynch website launches Interview Project” Screenwriter-director David Lynch is such an interesting guy. He’s got his own line of organic coffee: His foundation promotes meditation for the masses. He even has taken to providing weird daily weather reports: And now this: Interview Project: Starting today (June 1), the online home of esteemed film
“13 Tips For Actually Getting Some Writing Done” From writer Gretchen Reuben, here are “13 Tips For Actually Getting Some Writing Done”: 1. Write something every work-day, and preferably, every day; don’t wait for inspiration to strike. 2. Remember that if you have even just fifteen minutes, you can get something done. 3. Don’t binge
Newly discovered Marilyn Monroe photos Life.com has found some ‘new’ photos of Marilyn Monroe, 15 of them to be exact. Here’s The Today Show segment on the revelation yesterday: Who can forget her performance as Sugar in Some Like It Hot: What other memorable Marilyn Monroe movie roles do you remember? Comment Archive
Screenwriting 101 — Randall Wallace I love to tell stories. Here is one. My grandfather was a farmer in Tennessee. During the Depression he had to go into town to find work, and being a big man — six foot three, and over 200 pounds of muscle — he soon found a job doing manual labor at
Daily dialogue — June 3, 2009 “You boys gotta make up your minds if you want to get your cookies. Cause if you want to get your cookies, I’ve got girls up here that’ll do more tricks than a goddamn monkey on a hundred yards of grapevine.” — John McCabe (Warren Beatty), McCabe & Mrs.
Update: “How to Talk to Girls” Remember this deal: Twentieth Century Fox has optioned rights to “How to Talk to Girls,” a newly published advice guide written by Alec Greven, a 9-year-old expert on the subject. And this deal: In the tentatively titled “A.C.O.D.,” which Miramax acquired on spec, the lead
“Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees” From GITS follower Kate Eberle, who found this article from Linda Holmes, who writes the NPR blog Monkey See: Dear Pixar, This is not an angry letter. It is especially not an angry letter about Up, which I adored. I could have sat in the theater and watched it two
Movie analysis: “Up” Up is a delight, wonderful characters on a classic hero’s journey in a richly detailed animated world. But for me as always with a Pixar movie, it’s the story that stands out most. Its screenplay, written by Bob Peterson, who also co-directed the movie, makes excellent use
Hollywood tales “Good gentlemen who overpay Me fifty times for every fart, Who hand me statues when I bray And hail my whinnying as Art — I pick your pockets every day But how you bastards break my heart Knee-deep in butlers, smothered half In horse-shit splendors, soft an fat And
Daily dialogue — June 2, 2009 “Especially important is the warning to avoid conversations with the demon. We may ask what is relevant but anything beyond that is dangerous. He is a liar. The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us. But he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us.
“Cool Guys Don’t Look At Explosions” Okay, apart from the very special Bruno / Eminem ‘teabag’ moment, one of the highlights of last night’s MTV Movie Awards was this video “Cool Guys Don’t Look At Explosions” featuring show host Andy Samberg, Will Ferrell, and screenwriter-director J.J. Abrams on keyboards: Another thing to add
“Titans of the big screen hope to conquer a smaller screen: video games” The Electronic Entertainment Expo is this week at the LA Convention Center and the LA Times graces us with yet another story about Hollywood’s obsession and inevitable conjunction with videogames. Hollywood’s love affair with games dates to the 1970s, when Warner Communications bought Pong-maker Atari Inc. In
Pitch sale: “Swift” Columbia picks up pitch “Swift” from director Barry Sonnenfeld and writer BenDavid Grabinski: The Tom Swift character first appeared in a series of books that launched in 1910. The original books were outlined by Edward Stratemeyer, written by ghostwriters and credited to pseudonym Victor Appleton. Sonnenfeld and Grabinski’s version
On writing “I don’t know much about creative writing programs. But they’re not telling the truth if they don’t teach, one, that writing is hard work, and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.” — Doris Lessing
“A Decade Under the Influence” I somehow missed this documentary along the way, but caught it on TCM: “A Decade Under the Influence”, directed by screenwriter-director Richard LaGravenese and director Ted Demme (who sadly died suddenly in 2002). Here’s the IMDB description of the doc: The 1970s was an extraordinary time of rebellion,
“Thrills? Millions? ‘Spec’ Scripts Bring Big Bids” Great headline, huh? It’s from the NY Times dated July 8, 1990. That’s right, nearly 20 years ago, probably the apex of the spec script frenzy: In Hollywood, money talks. What it has been saying recently is revolutionary. During the last six months, more than a dozen screenplays
