Scott Myers

The Definitive List of Cliché Dialogue

It all started with screenwriter Kevin Lehane. He used to have a blog called The Anthology of Codology and at one point, it hosted The Definitive List of Cliché Dialogue. Then he got so busy with his writing career he had to shut down the blog. We had gotten to

On Writing

The bigger the word, the less emotion it conveys. Avoid exclamation points! Really!! Because they’re distracting!! Almost as much as CAPITALIZING THINGS!!! Make sure that each scene gives us new information, rather than rehashing things we already know. Never tell us the same fact twice. Because it’s boring

Daily Dialogue — March 28, 2016

DAD: You have a boyfriend. . . Wow. Have you heard of Sarah Palin?  SAMANTHA: Yes.  DAD: What’s the one thing that you know about Sarah Palin” s seventeen year old daughter?  SAMANTHA: She’s pregnant?  DAD: That’s right. And what is the one thing that you are not going

Zero Draft Thirty 2016 Spring Challenge: Day 27

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 27. March 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. March 30 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into

The Definitive Spec Script Deals List (1991–2015)

I have updated the archives to include 2015 data. This link includes every spec script deal I’ve been able to confirm dating back to 1991 along with a few dozen before that year. The Definitive Spec Script Deals List [1991–2015] Here are links to analysis I have done

Screenwriting News (March 21-March 27, 2016)

This week’s writing deals and movie project news. Sarah Conradt (2011 Black List) writing remake of Finnish thriller “Black Ice” for MGM. Ava DuVernay co-writing The Battle of Versailles with Michael Starrbury for HBO, DuVernay to direct. Taylor Kitsch writing-directing-starring in “Pieces” for EFO Films and

Ira Glass: “Don’t wait. Just make the thing.”

Ira Glass, host of the weekly NPR radio show “This American Life”, appeared in conversation recently at SXSW with Los Angeles writer Mark Olsen. Speaking about the phenomenal success of the podcast “Serial”: …we happen to be holding the winning ticket, and because of podcasting we have all this money,

Interview (Video): Frank Pierson

Frank Pierson was one of the lions of the screenwriting trade whose credits include Cat Ballou, Cool Hand Luke, Dog Day Afternoon, A Star is Born, and Presumed Innocent. Here is a two hour interview courtesy the Writers Guild Foundation’s series “The Writer Speaks”, recorded November 2001. For more

Daily Dialogue — March 27, 2016

MAC: Did you see that coming, when she sat us down here? BREN: Yeah, but I was hoping she was expelled or into hard drugs. MAC: That was my first instinct, too, or a DWI, or…anything but this. — Juno (2007), written by Diablo Cody The Daily Dialogue theme for

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Parental Advice

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Parental Advice suggested by Michael Waters. “This town is no place for any man unless he’s willing to crawl to Potter. You’ve got talent, son. I’ve seen it. You get yourself an education. Then get out of here.” It’s

Zero Draft Thirty 2016 Spring Challenge: Day 26

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 26. March 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. March 30 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into

Spec Script Deals Analysis 2015: First-Timers

As we continue our analysis of spec script sales in 2015, today we check out the first-timers, writers who broke into the business by setting up a spec script. The Search — Spenser Mondshein / Voltage Pictures — 1/12/15 An expert tracker battles his demons while on a journey to

Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 231st installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest. SXSW 2016: The Complete List Of Film Festival 2016 Audience Award Winners. SXSW 2016: The Best and Worst of the Film Festival. SXSW 2016: What

Happy Birthday, Joseph Campbell!

Joseph Campbell’s birthday is today. If he were alive, he would 102 years old. His physical body died in 1987, but his ideas live on. He was a fascinating guy. I first studied Campbell’s work as an undergraduate at UVA, so originally I thought of him strictly in

Interview (Video): Richard Linklater (“Everybody Wants Some”)

A Studio Q interview with Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, School of Rock, Boyhood) who is writer-director of the new movie Everybody Wants Some. A trailer for the movie: For other Studio Q video, go here.

Daily Dialogue — March 26, 2016

DOORMAN: All right, you want to come in, you’re gonna have to go to the end of the line and wait like everybody else. DEBBIE: I’m not gonna go to the end of the fucking line. Who the fuck are you? I have just as much of a

Zero Draft Thirty 2016 Spring Challenge: Day 25

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 25. March 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. March 30 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into

Spec Script Deals Analysis 2015: Top Sales

Continuing our week long analysis of spec script sales from 2015, today we look at the deals with the biggest payoffs (at least as reported by various news outlets): Humbug — Family Fantasy Todd Jones, Earl Ritchey Jones — High six figures against low seven-figures Ascension — Science Fiction Shannon Triplett — Mid-

Jake Gyllenhaal on the importance of “story”

As writers, it behooves us to pay attention to actors and directors when they talk about what draws them to a particular scripted project. In this video, David Gordon Green talks with Jake Gyllenhaal and the very first question he asks is this: What is it that draws you to

Joseph Campbell: “All the gods are within you”

It’s Joseph Campbell’s birthday on Saturday and to honor this great thinker, I am reprising a five part series I posted back in 2012 to take us deeper into The Hero’s Journey. This is the fifth in a series of posts I’ve been writing this week

Script To Screen: “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

This is an unusual Script To Screen entry. The screenplay is an early draft of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl [screenplay by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, screen story by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and Stuart Beattie and Jay Wolpert] with an ending that

Daily Dialogue — March 25, 2016

TOM: Where’s Verona? BURT: I think she’s in the bathroom. Where’s Munch? TOM: I have no fucking idea. MUNCH comes out on stage. BURT: Uh-oh. TOM is mesmerized as his wife begins to dance. TOM: She had another miscarriage. BURT: What? When? TOM: Thursday. BURT: This

Zero Draft Thirty 2016 Spring Challenge: Day 24

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 24. March 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. March 30 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into

2015 Spec Script Sales Analysis: Agents & Managers

We continue with our analysis of spec script deals in 2015. Today: Agents and Managers. Note: A majority of projects were repped by both an agency and a manager / management company, so the total numbers of reps listed will be significantly higher than the number of scripts sold. First the

Background on sale of $3M spec script “Bright”

In case you weren’t paying attention to the blog on Sunday, there was this: A two-week bidding battle has finally ended and Netflix has won Bright, a Max Landis scripted cop thriller with fantastical elements and tent pole potential that David Ayer will direct, with Will Smith and