Scott Myers

Video interview: Diablo Cody

This is interesting. Bumping around, I found an interview with Diablo Cody on “The David Letterman Show.” This is pre-Juno. In the interview, she talks about working in a strip club in Minneapolis, which Cody chronicled in her book “Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely

Daily dialogue — February 1, 2009

“A beekeeper who has lost his voice, a cook who thinks he’s a gardener, and a witness to a murder. Oh, yes. It is obvious to my trained eye, that there is much more going on here than meets the ear.”  — Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers), The Pink

Is my script big enough to be a movie, Part 1: Story Concept

“Is my script big enough to be a movie?” This is a fundamental question screenwriters must ask themselves at all stages of a screenplay’s development and writing. Why? Because it’s a question movie studio execs will ask as one of the key determining factors whether to say ‘yes’

Spec script sale: “The Sitter”

Fox Atomic picks up its second project in two days, this time in a bidding war for comedy spec “The Sitter” from writers Brian Gatewood and Allesandro Tanaka: Script, described as a cross between “Superbad” and “Adventures in Babysitting,” sparked a heated bidding war Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Paramount

Friday movie reviews

New in Town (Lionsgate) Daily Variety (Joe Leydon) Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey) New York Times (Stephen Holden) Taken (Fox) Daily Variety (Derek Elley) Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan) New York Times (Manohla Dargis) The Uninvited (Paramount) Daily Variety (Dennis Harvey) Hollywood Reporter (Stephen Farber) Los Angeles Times (Glenn Whipp)

“Is the ‘Twilight’ Witch Hunt Over at Paramount?”

Fear. That’s a major reason why major Hwood movie studios abide by a ‘similar by different’ mindset when it comes to the acquisition and development of material — at least that’s what I suggested in this post.  My focus in the post was about the fear of greenlighting projects

Great Scenes: “Big”

It’s a wonderful thing for a screenwriter when you confront a typical story issue and come up with a great solution that not only services the plot, but also create a memorable scene. Such is the case with this famous keyboard-dance scene from the movie Big. The credited

The 80s — Take 2 (cont’d)

I’ve already noted the trend for remakes of 80s movies here. And the trend continues. Per Cynopsis: NBC approved another throw-back to the 1980s as Parenthood, an hour-long dramedy based on Ron Howard’s 1989 movie starring Steve Martin and Dianne Wiest was ordered, per THR. Jason

AMC StoryMakers

If the AMC series “Shootout” is not keyed up on your DVR, you’re missing out on huge insight into the Hwood film business. For example, here’s a segment during the WGA strike with screenwriter Mark Norman: Good news courtesy of Cynopsis: Hosts of AMC’s Sunday morning series

Pitch sale: “Girlfriend in a Coma”

Fox Atomic picks up comedy pitch “Girlfriend in a Coma” from Marco Schnabel and Larry Stuckey: The pair are teaming to write “Girlfriend in a Coma,” a satirical high school comedy that looks at an unlikely romance, with the pitch set up at Fox Atomic. Michael McCullers and 3 Arts

“I Am Here”

This isn’t directly related to screenwriting, but given new technologies, if you’re writing an action or thriller piece, and you need a really cool way for one character to track down info on another character, you should give this Wired article — “I Am Here: One Man’s Experiment

Screenwriting 101 — Tom Schulman

“I want to know my whole story works before I start working.”  — Tom Schulman (Dead Poet’s Society, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, What About Bob?)

Bumping around the blogs…

Christian Toto goes for the jugular in his review of the recently released My Bloody Valentine 3D: The first, second and third time something sharp and sinister points directly at you, it’s a blast. After that, not so much. Danny Stack reaches into the vaults for a post about

Pitch sale:

Warner Bros. plops down seven figures to win bidding war for “Samson” from writer Scott Silver: “Samson” gives a futuristic twist to the story of the biblical strongman who was invincible until he was betrayed by Delilah, to whom he entrusted the secret that his strength came from his long

“Suddenly, Hollywood Seems a Conservative Investment”

Joshua James emailed me about this article in today’s NY Times, “Suddenly, Hollywood Seems a Conservative Investment”: Now that the economic crisis has washed away much of that money, a new pickup line is starting to waft through the air in deal-making hot spots like the Sundance Film

“Beyond Words”: WGA event

For those of you who live in LA or, as in my case, will be there on Thursday, Feb. 5th, a great opportunity to hear some top screenwriters talk about the craft at the Beyond Words” event sponsored by the Writers Guild Foundation: MODERATOR: JUDD APATOW — Writer/Director of Knocked

On writing

“Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head — and then you’re a writer. But an author is one who can judge their own stuff’s worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.”  — Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette Comment Archive

Dialogue — January 26, 2009

“I thought my ideas were so clear. I wanted to make an honest film. No lies whatsoever. I thought I had something so simple to say. Something useful to everybody. A film that could help bury forever all those dead things we carry within ourselves. Instead, I’m the one

Video interview: Joel and Ethan Coen

The Coen brothers discuss The Big Lebowski. Parts Two and Three have been disabled, but are available here and here.

Daily dialogue — January 25, 2009

“Way out west there was this fella I wanna tell ya about. Goes by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least that was the handle his loving parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. See, this Lebowski, he called himself “The Dude”. Now, “Dude” — there’

Archetypes: The Wizard of Oz (Part Two)

In Part One of our analysis of The Wizard of Oz, we looked at the story’s primary characters and their respective narrative functions per these archetypes: Protagonist — Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) Nemesis — Miss Gulch / Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) Attractor — Hunk / Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), Hickory / Tin Man

Spec script sale: “Isaac Gray, W.D.”

Screenwriter Todd Berger sells “Isaac Gray, W.D.”: Thom Mount’s Reliant Pictures has ponied up $300,000 for Todd Berger’s script “Isaac Gray, W.D.,” an adventure comedy about a witch doctor who uses his power to free patients from evil curses. UPDATE: Josh asked in comments “do

Written Interview: David Hare

A playwright, screenwriter, and director, David Hare has a long and storied career in storytelling. His film writing credits include Wetherby (1985), Plenty (1985), Strapless (1989), Damage (1992), The Hours (2002), and The Reader released this year, a movie that has surprised many people by receiving 5 Academy Award nominations

Daily dialogue — January 24, 2009

“Well, I like art, I work in a gas station, my best friend is a tomboy. These things don’t fly too well in the American high school.”  — Keith Nelson (Eric Stoltz), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), written by John Hughes Comment Archive

What if…

“What if.” Probably the two most important words in the story concept development process. I remember reading an interview with screenwriter James V. Hart in which he was having a meal with his family and one of his kids asked, “What if Peter Pan grew up?” Hart took that concept