Scott Myers

My teaching schedule

People have inquired about what courses I’ll be teaching when, so here’s the scoop.  UCLA Extension online 1-week courses: “Transformation: The Protagonist’s Arc” (U4858) 11/12–11/19/2008 (also Fall, 2009) Course description: In nearly every mainstream commercial Hollywood movies, the Protagonist goes through a

Friday movie reviews

Henry Poole is Here (Overture) Daily Variety (Robert Koehler) New York Times (Stephen Holden) NPR (Mark Jenkins) Mirrors (Fox) No reviews available — not a good sign! Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Warner Bros.) Daily Variety (Todd McCarthy Hollywood Reporter (Michael Rechtshaffen) Los Angeles Times (Michael Ordona) New York Times (Nathan

Great scene: “Broadcast News”

Aaron’s dream come true of being a news anchorman is a flop… sweat. I love the movie Broadcast News (1987), written and directed by James L. Brooks. It’s full of great moments, but this one might be the best: The “flop-sweat” scene starring Albert Brooks. Playing Aaron,

UCLA Extension Writers Program “Writers Faire” — Sunday, September 7

For all you folks in SoCal, the good folks at UCLA Extension Writer’s Program have asked me to promote their upcoming Writers Faire event. It’s a lot of fun and a great chance to interact with working writers. Info below: Connect with Writers, Courses, and Inspiration for Free

Spec script sale: “Born to Rock”

This is one of the commercial high-concepts I’ve seen in a long time. CBS Films buys “Born to Rock” from writers Jess Walter and Mark Steilen. Conceived by husband-and-wife team David Duchovny and Tea Leoni, here is the premise: The project revolves around a group of

Toronto Film Festival line-up

It’s only a few weeks away and First Showing.com reviews 20 of the most notable movies to screen there. Some filmmakers you’d doubtless recognize: Darren Aronofsky, Richard Linklater, Danny Boyle, Kevin Smith, Stephen Soderbergh, Barbet Schroeder, Charlie Kaufman, Michael Winterbottom among others. Two projects in trouble: Che

Bitter Truth #13

“A toothache will always begin in a strange town, 800 miles from home — on a weekend.” © 2008 Kurt Brown & Scott Myers

Daily dialogue — August 14, 2008

“So I went to her school for that grade. Grade — that’s grade twelve. And we meet. She was… fucking like a doll. A beautiful porcelain doll. And the hips, child-bearing hips, you know that? So, so beautiful. And I cheated on her… over and over and over again.

Update: Lethal Weapon 5

We hit on this rumor here. Now per Tracking Board.com an update: We can now confirm that Shane Black wrote a “scriptment” for LETHAL WEAPON 5, not a screenplay… This is what he gave to producer Joel Silver. The project would go in the Winter with Shane Black, most

“Do you suffer from blockbuster fatigue?”

Great piece by Salon.com movie critic Stephanie Zacharek in which she considers whether 4 months of superheroes is too much: The most important element of summer-blockbuster culture isn’t the selling of movies; it’s the selling of anticipation, because the amount of time we might spend looking

Happy Birthday, Alfred Hitchcock!

Born on August 13, 1899, Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock would have been 109 years old today (he died in 1980). We have featured the master of suspense in this wonderful interview excerpt, but how about we give the old boy a few more salutes. Here is CNN’s Top 10

Billy Mernit on “Snidekicks”

Billy Mernit is back again with another great post, one wherein he introduces a new piece of screenwriting lingo — “Snidekick”: What do you call the best friend of the hero, male or female, whose primary function in the movie is to wax sardonic, to make with the zippy one-liners,

Screenwriting 101: David Mamet

“Theoretically, perfectly, what one wants to do is put the protagonist and the audience in exactly the same position. The main question in drama, the way I was taught, is always, What does the protagonist want? That’s what drama is. It comes down to that. It’s not about

Patrick Goldstein: “Fox’s cruel summer: Not a $100-million hit in the bunch”

Last night, I posted a link to the Daily Variety’s “Facts on Pacts” chart, which lists producer deals at movie studios. Consider this a follow-up. Today, the LA Times’ Patrick Goldstein provides an informative look at 20th Century Fox, focusing on the fact that this is the first

Spec script sale: “Lobo”

Stone Village Pictures picks up action-thriller “Lobo” from writers Dikran Ornekian and Ryan Colucci: In the film, a man receives a photo and letters from his mother’s will, then heads to an isolated town in the Amazon to discover his roots. There, he discovers a near-extinct species

Character archetypes

When I posted this analysis of a scene from Casablanca, my use of character archetypes sparked some interesting feedback, people wanting to hear more. Without going into my whole rap involving Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, let’s see if I can bottom line this as it relates to screenwriting.

Hollywood Tales

“The rejections piled up, hundreds of them. I’d write things and think something was going to happen, and it almost would. I almost got hired on sitcoms, and then I almost got hired here, almost got hired there, almost got hired everywhere. I remember pitching to ‘The Red Shoe

Daily dialogue — August 12, 2008

“If anything happens to me or my family, an accident, an accusation, anything, then first your son will disappear, his body will never be found. Then your wife. Her body will never be found either. This is guaranteed. Then, whatever is the most dangerous thing you do in your life,

Daily Variety: “Facts on Pacts”

Okay, be honest: you probably don’t know as much about the movie studios as you should. Obviously, you don’t want to overdo immersing yourself in Hwood minutia and squelch your creativity, but it’s probably a good thing to know at least some of the players. For example,

Pitch sale: “Wardogs”

MGM continues to impress on the acquisition front laying down a cool $1M for the action-comedy pitch “Wardogs” from writers Ken Kaufman and David Agosto: The producers are keeping quiet on the plot, but [Andrew] Lazar said that “it’s an action ensemble comedy in the vein of ‘Ocean’

“Despite new ‘Henry Poole,’ religious topics are seen as less than divine”

Our friend and entertainment journalist Lewis Beale is back — for previous posts, go here and here — with this article in the New York Daily News re the new movie Henry Poole Is Here: In “Henry Poole Is Here,” opening Friday, a neighbor of the title character claims she has seen

On writing

“Hollywood is the only town where you cannot fail. You can only quit trying.”  — Dennis Foley

NY Times (8/10/08): “Brooklyn to Hollywood: That’s Some Subway Ride”

A great story into today’s NY Times about screenwriter Michael C. Martin, another total outsider to Hollywood who wrote a spec script and, well, read on: As strange a scene as it was that day in a neighborhood more accustomed to real-life drama, even more extraordinary is the

Video interview: Billy Wilder

Okay, this is priceless. A French documentary dude somehow managed to cajole Billy Wilder into agreeing to an interview. Not just one sitting. In this 2+ minute excerpt, we see Wilder at his Malibu retreat, Wilder at his office with I.A.L. “Izzy” Diamond doing a little schtick for

Superbad: “Worst movie ever” or crossover sequel with Pineapple Express?

Our friend Julia over at “The Rouge Wave” opines that Superbad is the “Worst Movie Ever”: But SUPERBAD was an awful movie. I’m not going to go all Betty Friedan, Susan Faludi, Naomi Wolf, Camille Paglia on you here but — yes I am. Misogyny, anyone? How about a little