Scott Myers

Your recommendations for Daily Dialogue

So I’m guessing that everybody has figured out that each day I post a side of dialogue from a movie, something I call Daily Dialogue. Because hey, a day without dialogue is a very quiet day! Anyhow what movies do you want to see featured? Lay them on me

Interview: Jared Hess

I was just thinking about Napoleon Dynamite the other day, what a refreshing, fun movie that was (and still is), so I dug around to find this interview on Screenwriters Utopia.com with writer-director Jared Hess. A few highlights: DRE: What was the process for writing the script? JH:

Character, Plot and “art”

Character. Plot. Which comes first? Does one have primacy over the other? How ought they interplay in the story-crafting process? At their best, Character and Plot function as equal parts of a creative dynamic tension. All too often, however, writers get hung up on how to approach these two

“The Hangover”

We’ve talked about Frustration Comedies. Here’s a trailer for what looks like a classic example The Hangover. Premise: A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find

Friday Movie Reviews

All About Steve (Fox) No reviews available. Seriously has a movie’s premiere arrived with any less fanfare than All About Steve? The trailer may suggest why: Watchmen (Warner Bros.) Daily Variety (Justin Chang) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan) New York Times (A.O. Scott) Phoebe

“Mark Wahlberg taking ‘Prisoners’”… and an offer

Hollywood Reporter with this today to inspire every single aspiring screenwriter: One of the hottest scripts in Hollywood right now? It’s a dark thriller from a writer who just signed with a major talent agency two weeks ago — but has the attachment of Mark Wahlberg and the interest of

Great Scene: “No Country For Old Men”

“You need to call it. I can’t call it for you. It wouldn’t be fair. It wouldn’t even be right.” The coin toss scene from No Country For Old Men (2007), screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, one of the most riveting scenes in the movie:

“It’s a small world…”

So I post something on Tuesday, March 3 about my friend production designer Gary Frutkoff. That very same day I show up to work and there is a 70 person crew doing a massive green screen shoot in our studio’s big soundstage for the new version of “Guitar Hero.

Spec script sale: “Once Upon A Time…”

MGM buys original comedy screenplay “Once Upon A Time” from writers Charles Vignola, Kevin Marcus, and Bradley Marcus: “Once’s” humorous quest story plays with fairy-tale convention in the vein of the “Shrek” movies and “The Princess Bride.” Managment: Epidemic Pictures. I wonder how much room there is left

Spec script sale: “Medieval”

New Regency goes deep into their pockets to procure “Medieval”, a spec script from Endeavor-repped writers Alex Litvak and Michael Finch: While Regency or Fox, with whom Regency has a distribution deal, would not comment on the sales figure, sources say it was $800,000 against $1.6 million,

“Terminator Salvation”

Per Jeff’s comment in “Bumping Around the Blogs” re Terminator Salvation, here is the latest trailer for the movie. Have to agree — it kicks ass. Comment Archive

Spec script sale: “Grandma vs. Grandma”

Paramount picks up comedy spec “Grandma vs. Grandma” by writers Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg: The script, which would net the scribes north of a million dollars if it is produced, concerns two 60-ish grandmothers who aggressively compete against each other for the affections of their grandchildren while the

Bumping Around The Blogs

Alex at Complications Ensue.com offers this interesting comparison between business start-ups and the spec screenplay world based upon Paul Graham’s “Startups in 13 Sentences” : 2. Launch fast. The reason to launch fast is not so much that it’s critical to get your product to market early,

“The end is the beginning”

I’ve been a fan of The Writers Store since they had that tiny little showroom on Santa Monica Blvd near the Nuart Theater in west LA. They’ve since moved to a much bigger location on Westwood Blvd, but more important over time The Writers Store has become a

RIP: Horton Foote (1916–2009)

Sad news. The New York Times has reported that noted screenwriter and playwright Horton Foote has died. He was 92 years old: In screenplays for such movies as “Tender Mercies,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Trip to Bountiful,” and in plays like “The Young Man From Atlanta” and his

Flight 1549

I had lunch today with David Sontag, who heads up the Writing for Screen and Stage program at UNC-Chapel Hill. As it turns out, David was a passenger on Flight 1549. Yes, that flight, the one that landed in the Hudson River. He, along with other passengers and crew

“Hollywood 4.0: Coming Soon to a Browser Near You”

My friend screenwriter-photographer-teacher Tom Benedek appears to be adding “techno-journalist” to his list of credits as he’s got an article today in The Wrap, discussing what sounds like a great new feature called Little Shoot: Very soon, all computers will be easily connected to big home

Screenwriting 101 — Alan Ball

“[In American Beauty] Lester’s a man who in midlife has completely lost his passion about living, as do many people who have mind-numbing corporate jobs. And he knows that he needs to get back in touch with that passion, and Angela [his daughter’s Lolita-like girlfriend, played

Daily dialogue — March 4, 2009

“If we live our lives the right way, then everything we do can become a work of art.”  — Claire Fisher (Lauren Ambrose), Six Feet Under (2001–2005), created by Alan Ball Comment Archive

Production Design

In 1988, I spent several days on the set of K-9 down in San Diego. Since I knew next to nothing about movie production, I focused my attention on the “below-the-line” jobs, talking with crew members when they were available. One of them was Gary Frutkoff who

Hollywood Tales: Richard Jenkins, Part 3

Obviously Richard Jenkins has too much time on his hands, making videos for Funny or Die about his experiences on Intolerable Cruelty and The Witches of Eastwick. In yet another confessional on about the dirty business which is Hollywood, Jenkins offers a timely tale about working with Al Pacino on

Question re “Dialogue and Subtext”

I’ll be teaching a new 1-week online screenwriting course beginning March 18. It’s called “Screenplay Universe: The External and Internal Worlds.” Here’s a brief course description: This course looks at a screenplay’s universe, how it is comprised of the External World (plotline) as conveyed through

Movie Story Type: The [Blank] From Hell

Inspired by today’s announcement of the sale of the spec script “Within” — “Story revolves around a couple whose marriage is threatened when the baby surrogate they have hired becomes obsessed with wanting the husband and the baby for herself” — here is another movie story type: The [blank] from Hell.

Spec script sale: “Within”

Screen Gems picks up thriller spec “Within” from writer Jack Olsen: The story, in the vein of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” revolves around a couple whose marriage is threatened when the baby surrogate they have hired becomes obsessed with wanting the husband and the baby for herself. Movie

On writing

“Writing is very hard work, and having done both writing and directing, I tell you that directing is a pleasure and writing is a drag. Directing can be difficult, but it is a pleasure because you have something to work with. You can put the camera here or there, you