“The Thought Fox” I wanted to promote this comment from handsomehead about my son Luke’s advice on writing — “Go into the story and find the animals”: Hey I just stumbled across your blog while I was googling ‘story structure’in an attempt to ‘Go Into The Story’ myself!!! And just thought I’
Hollywood Tales: Richard Jenkins, The Sequel In last week’s installment of Hollywood Tales, Academy Award Best Actor nominee Richard Jenkins pulled back Tinseltown’s curtain to reveal a boozy George Clooney — or else Jenkins was just lying because he was really really attracted to Clooney. In this second video for Funny or Die, Jenkins manages
More Oscars: Seth Rogen and James Franco video I thought this video featuring Seth Rogen and James Franco, who starred in Pineapple Express, was great. Written and directed by Judd Apatow — and featuring noted cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. Comment Archive
Post Oscars upcoming movies trailer Per the good folks at First Showing.net, here is the kick-ass trailer that ran at the end of last night’s Academy Awards, showing excerpts from over a dozen movies coming out this year. Which ones are you most excited to see? Comment Archive
On writing “If you don’t know what to write, talk to your subconscious, your story, or your God and ask, ‘What are you trying to tell me?’ Ask that question and wait. There will be an answer.” — Kurt Brown Comment Archive
Daily dialogue — February 23, 2009 “To save money, you don’t spend it. It’s as simple as that. You give maybe $100 at a funeral, $200 at a wedding. That’s not good. A million is nothing if you spend it. But even $100 is yours if you save it. Say you’re trying
Sold: Yet another zombie project First Showing.net reported this last Monday: Budding screenwriter Geoff LaTulippe is on a roll — his breakout script Going the Distance was on the Black List and is in development at New Line and now he’s set to adapt a novel called “Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament” written by
It’s Oscar day! Yes, today at 8:30PM EST, it’s the 81st edition of the Academy Awards. And what better way to celebrate than take a look at the five movies nominated for Best Picture — as re-enacted by Chad Vader: Comment Archive
Video interview: Peter Morgan and Ron Howard (“Frost/Nixon”) Screenwriter Peter Morgan and director Ron Howard talk about making the movie Frost/Nixon (2008). http://www.youtube.com/v/TUOr9NK0Pcg&hl=en&fs=1
Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Snacks It’s like maybe fifteen years ago and I’m reading an interview with noted playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon. And in this interview, Simon confesses that one way he forces himself to write is the judicious use of snacks. That’s right. Snacks. I don’t have the interview,
Happy birthday, Chuck Palahniuk! Our friend actor-writer Shea Vitartas got to The Writer’s Almanac today before me and emailed me with this head-up: Today is the birthday of novelist Chuck Palahniuk, author of “The Fight Club.” Per The Writer’s Almanac: After college, he worked as an assembly line mechanic for
“Beware Falling Stars!” Daily Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart chooses Oscar week to weigh in about the current state of the movie business in this essay in Vanity Fair. Apart from his snide swipe at the WGA and the work stoppage last year over “esoteric demands for broader compensation in the ‘new
Interview: Robert Mark Kamen “Wax on. Wax off.” For movie fans from the 80s, that dialogue is immediately identifiable as coming from The Karate Kid (1984). The screenplay was written by Robert Mark Kamen who has gone on to a notable career as a screenwriter including such movies as Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), A
Interviews: Robert McKee Robin Kelly at his blog Writing for Performance has this post with an interview that the folks at Creative Screenwriting conducted this week with screenwriting guru Robert McKee. Here are some highlights: Q: Does a story always need to be believable? What makes it believable? Robert McKee: Yes. The audience/
Dennis Leary: “The Ultimate Acceptance Speech” Actor-comedian Dennis Leary writes the ultimate Oscar-winning acceptance speech in this Daily Variety piece: Omigod. OmiGOD! Whoo-hoo! Omigod. Okay — okay. Is this really happening? OMIGOD!! Okay. I didn’t even write a speech! (She takes out a large sheaf of paper) Okay. First of all — I’d
Friday movie reviews Fired Up (Sony) Daily Variety (Robert Koehler) Los Angeles Times (Mark Olsen) New York Times (Manohla Dargis) Medea Goes to Jail (Lionsgate) No reviews. But here’s an overview of the upcoming weekend from the Hollywood Reporter: “‘Madea’ takes on the Oscars”.
Spec script sale: “Old Timers” Sydney Kimmel Entertainment picks up spec comedy “Old Timers” from writer Noah Haidle: The script follows two sixtysomething cons who have one final night to do everything they’ve wanted and reunite their gang before one of them meets his demise. Bucket List meets Heist? Comment Archive
Great Scenes: “The Natural” “He swings — violently and perfectly — the ball exploding off his bat.” I figured it was time to feature a great scene from a baseball movie and what a great scene it is: The ending sequence from The Natural (1984). With a screenplay by Roger Towne and Phil Dusenberry, based on
MTV “Spoilers” Per Cynopsis: MTV brings back a second edition of Spoilers, hosted by MTV News, this Saturday at 8p. The 30-minute Spoilers anchored by MTV News correspondents Tim Kash and Kim Stolz will offer a sneak peak and a screening party of the upcoming movie Watchman. Other future films such
“50 Greatest Active Film Directors” Entertainment Weekly has come out with their list of the “50 Greatest Active Film Directors”, as opposed, I guess, to the “50 Greatest Inactive Film Directors.” Here’s the list: 1. Steven Spielberg 2. Peter Jackson 3. Martin Scorsese 4. Christopher Nolan 5. Steven Soderbergh 6. Ridley Scott 7. Quentin
Bumping around the blogs Alex Epstein at Complications Ensue.com reviews the book “Small Screen, Big Picture” by TV veteran Chad Gervich: I’ve been dipping into Chad Gervich’s book SMALL SCREEN, BIG PICTURE. It’s a really complete look at how the TV business works. There’s quite a bit on spec
Hollywood ASST — parody video Here’s a great music video parodying life as a Hollywood ASST (assistant) by Back of the Class, a sketch comedy troupe. And for the rap-hearing impaired, here are the lyrics. Yo, I’m an east coast transplant. I dreamed that I’d land at a job in Los
Conan O’Brien vs. Stephen Colbert: Invisible String Dance-Off Okay, this has nothing to do with movies or screenwriting, but O’Brien is moving to Hwood — and this exchange below is creative in its own absurd way. http://widgets.nbc.com/o/4727a250e66f9723/499c3c2b2e5d4636/499c19b8585a308a/af918d10/-cpid/7fa2cdd3c19e69a3 How do you think O’Brien will handle living in LA?
Pitch sale: “Back to America” Alcon Entertainment obtains comedy pitch “Back to America”, an idea hatched by comic-actor Martin Lawrence: The comedy centers on a working-class man from Queens who discovers he is heir to the throne of an African country and travels there to claim his birthright. Talk about ‘similar but different’
“The Oscar bounce is a big thud this year” Patrick Goldstein of the LA Times chimed in with this analysis yesterday: The movie business is in the midst of a phenomenal roll, with the astounding box-office success of “Friday the 13th” helping propel Hollywood to its biggest three-day Presidents Day weekend of all time. But it was
