Scott Myers

Question: Movies about screenwriters?

The topic came up in a discussion the other day: What movies are there where the central character is a screenwriter? This is the list I came up with: Sunset Blvd. Barton Fink The Front The Muse Adaptation There are other movies that involve a writer-director: The Big Picture

Bumping Around the Blogs

Billy Mernit provides this nice analysis of Duplicity, the Julia Roberts — Clive Owen rom-com that debuted last weekend: Personally, I wish it had more of an emotional charge — I can understand how this kind of heady, brain-teaser of a picture can leave some people cold — but it’s

Daily dialogue — March 26, 2009

“Meeting him across the lawn for the first time would be so ordinary. I don’t want to be just introduced to him. I want it to be something strange and romantic and something I’ll always remember.”  — Esther Smith (Judy Garland), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), screenplay by

Where the Wild Things Are — Trailer

Debuted just yesterday. Looks amazing. Comment Archive

Spec script sale: “Celeste and Jesse Forever”

Fox Atomic continues to be active on the spec acquisition front by buying “Celeste and Jesse Forever” from writers Rashida Jones & Will McCormick: Story revolves around a young divorcing couple who try to maintain their longstanding friendship while pursuing other relationships. Jones, who is best known for her stint

“CAA Announces World Football Challenge”

If you’re the Creative Artists Agency, one of the top agencies in Hwood, and some of your clients are Steven Spielberg, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Will Ferrell, and Will Smith, the elite of the elite, what do you do in your spare time? Well, you could woo the elite

“‘‘Sideways’ Returns, Uncorked for Japan”

As Hwood looks to squeeze every last dollar out of every last movie project, they’ve now extended the remake obsession overseas: HERE’S the pitch: Two guys, old college buddies. One’s a has-been TV actor, the other a never-been writer. The actor is about to get

“Screenwriter Nolan urges students to follow passions”

“Nolan” as in Jonathan Nolan, co-writer of The Dark Knight among other movies. This article is from the Yale Daily News doesn’t provide a lot more insight than we’ve already read from Nolan here, here, and here, but it does give me a chance to pimp one

“Overheard at the Playground”

Third World Girl at her blog Three Hole Punched has a great post “Overheard at the Playground”: Courtesy two high school kids trying to cram themselves into toddler swings on a cold playground day… GIRL #1: I’m not a Christian. I grew up around cursing. BOY #1: Yeah. Me

Screenwriting 101: Scott Alexander

“My real life is totally inhibited: A cliched domestic existence, happily playing in my yard with my wife and kids. But through the scripts, I’m able to act out and scream at everything that bugs me. The loudmouths vent on my behalf. Obviously, I’m not the first to

Daily dialogue — March 25, 2009

“This story’s gonna grab people. It’s about this guy, he’s crazy about this girl, but he likes to wear dresses. Should he tell her? Should he not tell her? He’s torn, Georgie. This is drama.”  — Ed Wood (Johnny Depp), Ed Wood (1994), screenplay by Scott Alexander

Spec script sale: “Nonstop”

Per TrackingBoard.com, rumor of a pitch going out today called “Non-Stop.”Turns out it’s not a pitch, but a script. Written by a Michael Gilvary. A couple of days go by. Interest in the project heating up. Then this on Twitter: Update: Dreamworks in talks to pickup

“Harvey Weinstein, ‘Nowhere’ man”

Awesome story from Patrick Goldstein today at the The Big Picture about a new film project called “Nowhere Boy”: For all of us Beatles fans, the news last week that the Weinstein Co. had acquired “Nowhere Boy,” a coming-of-age tale about John Lennon’s tumultuous teenage years in

Hollywood Tales

“Virginia. 1990. I’m thirty-five years old, married with two very young kids. No one’s asking, but I get an idea for a love story where the two main characters don’t even meet until the very last scene — but that when they do, it’s on top

Daily Dialogue — March 24, 2009

“Destiny is something we’ve invented because we can’t stand the fact that everything that happens is accidental.” — Annie Reed (Meg Ryan), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), screenplay by Nora Ephron and David S. Ward and Jeff Arch, based on a story by Jeff Arch Comment Archive

Screenwriting Guru: Syd Field

In response to some requests, I’ll be posting some background on various screenwriting gurus. Today we start off with the ‘dean’ — Syd Field. Why dean? Because Field was the first to publish a book on the modern screenplay, appropriately called “Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting,” all the way back

“In Hollywood, the Easy-Money Generation Toughens Up”

Good read in the New York Times where you can put some faces to names, studio execs, agents, and producers all having to face Hwood as it reformulates itself: After riding two decades of almost nonstop growth from the cable and video revolutions, a new generation of Hollywood power players

True Grit remake by the Coens

Now this is interesting: Title: True Grit Logline: A 14-year-old girl along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman, tracks her father’s killer in hostile Indian territory. Writer: Joel Coen Ethan Coen Agency: United Talent Agency United Talent Agency Studio: Paramount Pictures Prod. Co: Rudin

“‘I Love You, Man’ and the rules of male friendship”

LA Times movie reviewer Glenn Whipp analyzes the recent trend of “bro-mance” comedies in this article today: Midway through “I Love You, Man,” L.A. real estate agent Peter, played by Paul Rudd, wonders how quickly he can phone someone he just met. No, it’s not a girl

On writing

“We may be perishable, but creativity and creation are not.”  — Erica Jong

“An Entourage of Their Own”

Fun stuff about screenwriters — of the female persuasion — in this New York Times article: “When you read a screenplay, it doesn’t come with a picture on the cover,” said Adam Siegel, president of Marc Platt Productions, a producer who is friends with all four women and has worked with

Weekend Funny: Darth Vader: Orchestra Leader

Darth Vader gets in touch with his inner John Williams in yet another Lego parody of Star Wars. Comment Archive

Daily dialogue — March 22, 2009

“You know, I never feel comfortable on these sort of things. Victims? Don’t be melodramatic. Look down there. Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really,

Weekend Funny: “David Lynch & Crispin Glover’s Big Blockbuster #1”

I strongly suspect several bongs of pot were consumed before the inspiration for this movie struck its creators: Hollywood’s two baddest bad boys! Crispin pitches his movie idea to David. Starring Ryan Reyes and Chris Dotson. Jessica Flynn plays the “Assistant.” Adrian Selkowitz shot and edited this series and

Interview: William Goldman

“One of the things I love to do when I work with young writers is to disabuse them of the notion that I know what I’m doing. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m writing a script now, and as we are speaking, I am looking