Scott Myers

Dispatches from the Front Line: A Script Reader Speaks!

More from professional script reader DC Mar. This thread started with this post. What key elements would a script have to excel at in order for you to recommend? Concept. Plot. Characters. Theme. On most coverage, there is a rating chart that the reader uses to grade four elements (concept,

Forbes: “This Year’s Superstar Flops”

Josh James, who follows GITS, emailed an article to me yesterday from Forbes titled “This Year’s Superstar Flops”. Here’s the lede: A-list stars can guarantee a Tinseltown project plenty of attention. Money? That’s another story. Top-shelf funnyman Will Ferrell kicked off the year with box-

Video interview: Ray Bradbury

Exclusive Q&A Interview: Story Analyst D.C. Mar (Part 6)

Okay, now for the real nitty gritty from professional script reader D.C. Mar. What are the common mistakes screenwriters make that drive you crazy? There are so many, too many to note here, such as careless spelling/grammar, improper formatting, dense, novelistic stage descriptions, etc. Instead I’ll concentrate

Interview: Steven Soderbergh

The Wall Street Journal has this interview with writer-director Steven Soderbergh. This week, the WSJ also had this article on the great lengths Soderbergh had to go to in order to finance his latest movie Che which debuts December 12. In the interview, Soderbergh talks about the state of

Update: The Black List

We got a jump on The Black List thing here yesterday, but today is officially “Black Friday,” and several articles are out about the 2008 edition. Here is what Nikki Finke has to say. She includes the vote totals: 67 Mentions (First Place) THE BEAVER by Kyle Killen 61 Mentions

Exclusive Q&A Interview: Story Analyst D.C. Mar (Part 5)

More thoughts from D.C. Mar, longtime script reader and story analyst in a series of posts that began on Monday here. * If you had to rank in importance these three elements — great story concept, strong characters, distinctive writing style — which is the most important and why? This is a

Friday movie reviews

Che (IFC) The Day The Earth Stood Still (Fox) Daily Variety (Todd McCarthy) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan) New York Time (A.O. Scott) Doubt (Miramax) Daily Variety (Todd McCarthy) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan) New York Times (Manohla Dargis) Gran Torino

Great Scene: “Sideways”

If one of my students can’t quite grasp the concept of “subtext,” often I’ll have them read this scene in the movie Sideways. Written by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (based on the novel by Rex Pickett), it’s a great script for many reasons, not the least

LA Times breakdown on the Golden Globe noms

Scott Feinberg of the LA Times provides a thorough ‘instant analysis’ of the Golden Globe nominations here. The nominations, which were announced today, are often, but not always a strong indicator of what happens in the Academy Awards. Here are a few of Feinberg’s thoughts: SEEING DOUBLE * Two great

Exclusive Q&A: Story Analyst D.C. Mar (Part 4)

Another in a series of questions and answers from my interview with script reader DC Mar. * What is your process when you sit down to read a script (i.e., look at the title page to see who’s written the script and who represents it, flip to the back

Bitter Truth #31

“Daylight Savings Time is nothing more than a plot to drive you crazy attempting to figure out how to change the clock in your car… and when you finally do, it will be time to change back to standard time.” © 2008 Kurt Brown & Scott Myers

Daily dialogue — December 11, 2008

“You know, Phillip, you have a goddamned red, white and blue American right to eat cotton candy and ride roller coasters.”   — Robert ‘Butch’ Haynes (Kevin Costner), A Perfect World (1993), written by John Lee Hancock http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF3vbosxb3w Comment Archive

Writing question: Do you go to a public place to write or need total privacy?

I was curious what our collective writing habits were, so recently I started asking some questions. Here we learned that a lot of people like to listen to music when writing, mostly instrumental, no lyrics to distract. And here we learned a lot of great — ahem! — excuses not to write.

Exclusive Q&A: Story Analyst D.C. Mar (Part 3)

Another response from DC Mar, longtime script reader and story analyst to a Q&A; she did with me: * How many scripts do you read/provide coverage on each week and for what type of companies? When I was reading full-time for several companies at a time, I

Screenwriting 101 — Alex Garland

“I love stories. Stories are my primary concern because I think they are a very tried and tested vehicle for themes. I think that if you’ve got an agenda, the best way to get it across is via a story, because with a lecture, people either agree with you

Daily dialogue — December 10, 2008

“No, no. No, see this is a really shit idea. You know why? Because it’s really obviously a shit idea.”  — Jim (Cillian Murphy), 28 Days Later (2002), written by Alex Garland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBZnuUZIbBQ Comment Archive

Exclusive Q&A: Story Analyst D.C. Mar (Part 2)

Here is the second installment in a Q&A; interview I did with longtime script reader and story analyst D.C. Mar. The first one is here. * How did you go about becoming a script reader? Most script readers, me included, are writers who read for a living to

“How to Talk to Girls”

I believe this sale with someone so young involved is a first: 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. Actually Mr. Greven started the book as a project

A.O. Scott: “It’s a Wonderful Life”

NY Times film critic A.O. Scott provides a video review of the holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Even though I’ve seen the movie at least 20 times (we try to watch it as a family every December), Scott’s stringing together of the movie’s dark

Hollywood tales

“My primary way into a story is the characters. That’s who I identify with. I’ve had great relationships with directors, and I’ve had more difficult relationships with directors. Executives… I frequently have lots of trouble with. I have never really had trouble with the actors. It’s

Daily dialogue — December 9, 2008

“It’s horrifying how much you can hate yourself for being low and weak and he couldn’t save me from that. So I turned it on him; I tried to empty it onto him. But there was always more, you know. When he tried to help I told him

Exclusive Q&A Interview: Story Analyst D.C. Mar (Part 1)

Script readers are Hwood’s threshold guardians. Nobody who is involved in the script acquisition and development decision-making process reads a script without coverage. But a script reader, or more accurately story analyst, is much more than merely about providing script coverage. I asked one of my online screenwriting

Pitch sale: “Untitled Faris Project”

Paramount picks up pitch from writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kristen Smith as a star vehicle for Anna Faris: The untitled Paramount project is a female buddy comedy following two estranged sisters who team up to land a husband. McCullah Lutz and Smith are writing the script and will exec

Spec script sale: “Salisbury”

Disney scoops up spec script “Salisbury” by writers Al Gough and Miles Millar: Gough and Millar will produce the film in a package deal worth seven figures. The pair have a first-look deal with Disney, and they just produced “Hannah Montana: The Movie” for the studio. Disney and the