Scott Myers

Interview (Part 1): Craig Borten

I first met Craig Borten at the 2014 Austin Film Festival where he was a panelist in a session I moderated. We discussed the movie he co-wrote and was nominated for an Academy Award: Dallas Buyers Club. Seeing as The 33 is coming out this week, another movie Craig

Some tough love for procrastination

Last week, at the request of some participants, I started a Facebook group for the Zero Draft Thirty Challenge. The response has been great! I’m also finding subjects come up there which deserve an airing here on the blog. To wit, here is a FB post from Janna Gummo:

On Writing

“Keep on writing, no matter what! That’s the most important thing. As long as you have a job on hand that absorbs all your mental energy, you haven’t much worry to spare over other things. It serves as a suit of armor.” — Eugene O’Neill Via Advice To

Daily Dialogue — November 9, 2015

“It may be what in the old days was called a spiritual crisis or whatever. It’s just the feeling as though the entire, every axiom of your life turned out to be false, and there was actually nothing, and you were nothing, and it was all a delusion. And

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 8

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 8. November 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. November 30: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. To learn everything you need to know about the ZDT Challenge, go

Screenwriting News (November 2-November 8, 2015)

Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum writing “Control Alt Delete” for Pascal Pictures. Michael Diliberti sells pitch “Athena” to Pascal Pictures. Allan Loeb adapting novel “Q” for Lionsgate. Anthony McCarten adapting “The Siege” for StudioCanal. Jeff Nathanson adapting nonfiction book “Young Woman and the Sea” for Paramount Pictures. Kirsten Sheridan

Interview (Audio): Guillermo Arriaga

From an appearance at the Raindance Film Festival, Guillermo Arriaga who writing credits include the movies Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel. Via Mentorless.

Interview (Video): Hossein Amini

A BAFTA screenwriting lecture from Hossein Amini (Drive, Jude, Wings of a Dove). From BAFTA. Comment Archive

Daily Dialogue — November 8, 2015

MILES: Hey, Evelyn, it’s your favorite client. EVELYN: (ON THE PHONE) How’s the trip? MILES: Good, good. Drinking some good wines and kicking back, you know. So what’s happening? Still no word? EVELYN: Actually there is word. I spoke to Keith Kurtzman this morning. MILES: And? EVELYN:

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 7

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 7. November 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. November 30: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. To learn everything you need to know about the ZDT Challenge, go

Interview (Part 8): Tess Morris (“Man Up”)

Tess Morris wrote the screenplay for the movie Man Up, a romantic comedy starring Lake Bell and Simon Pegg, directed by Ben Palmer. The movie opens November 13 in North America. I got to see a sneak of Man Up and it is terrific! The directing, acting, but particularly the

Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 211th installment of Saturday Hot Links! Oscars: Why This Year’s Race is Still Unclear. Oscars: 11 Under-the-Radar Performances that Deserve Buzz. Oscars: 16 Films Enter Animation Race. Studio Executive Roundtable: Friedman, Horn, Langley, Moore, Rothman, Snider. Next Gen 2015: Hollywood’s Up-and-Coming

Update: Award season screenplay downloads — 1 new script / 14 total

It’s that time of year again when studios and production companies make available PDFs of movie scripts for award season. As in years past, we will be tracking them and posting links as they become available. UPDATE: Current total of 2015 scripts for download: 14. Newly added scripts (1)

Interview (Written): Tom McCarthy (“Spotlight”)

An Indiewire interview with Tom McCarthy whose writing credits include The Station Agent, The Visitor, Win Win, and the new movie which he also directed Spotlight, co-written with Josh Singer. “Spotlight” been compared to “All the President’s Men” since its very first screening, but it’s a much

Daily Dialogue — November 7, 2015

Tom Oakley: We open outside the largest penitentiary in California. It’s night. It’s raining. A limousine comes through the gate… past demonstrators holding a candlelight vigil. The candles under the umbrellas glow like Japanese lanterns. Griffin Mill: That’s nice. I haven’t seen that before. That’s

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 6

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 6. November 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. November 30: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. To learn everything you need to know about the ZDT Challenge, go

Twitter Rant: @ORachaelO on Writers, Script Notes, and the “Gap”

Yesterday Rachael Prior, head of development at Big Talk Productions, took to Twitter to venture into the sticky subject of script notes. Her ‘rant’ provides excellent insight into how creatives on the other side of the desk approach the exec-writer relationship… or at least how Racheal does. https://twitter.

Interview (Part 7): Tess Morris (“Man Up”)

Tess Morris wrote the screenplay for the movie Man Up, a romantic comedy starring Lake Bell and Simon Pegg, directed by Ben Palmer. The movie opens November 13 in North America. I got to see a sneak of Man Up and it is terrific! The directing, acting, but particularly the

Reflections of Black List San Francisco Mini-Lab Writers

On the weekend of October 16–18, four writers gathered in San Francisco for an exciting event: The fourth Black List Mini-Lab. The writers — Rachel Bublitz, Sarah Archer Moulton, Elizabeth Oyebode, and Joe Rechtman — had been selected on the basis of scripts they had uploaded to the Black List

Daily Dialogue — November 6, 2015

“To begin… To begin… How to start? I’m hungry. I should get coffee. Coffee would help me think. Maybe I should write something first, then reward myself with coffee. Coffee and a muffin. Okay, so I need to establish the themes. Maybe a banana-nut. That’s a good

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 5

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 5. November 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. November 30: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. To learn everything you need to know about the ZDT Challenge, go

Zero Draft Thirty: Negative Fear, Positive Fear

A comment from Karl Gehrhardt from the Day 4 ZDT post: If you must begin, then go all the way… I am at that point in my life with writing, gratefully. Life IS risky business, but what am I risking really? Complacency? Moments of procrastination… A false sense of comfort

Interview (Part 6): Tess Morris (“Man Up”)

Tess Morris wrote the screenplay for the movie Man Up, a romantic comedy starring Lake Bell and Simon Pegg, directed by Ben Palmer. The movie opens November 13 in North America. I got to see a sneak of Man Up and it is terrific! The directing, acting, but particularly the

Writing and the Creative Life: What to do when you feel out of touch with your creative energy

Awhile back, I received this question from a reader: Scott, I’ve been reading your blog. I’ve been feeling out of touch with my creative energy as of late.Tell me, does this happen to you at all? And how do you get through it? Do I ever feel

Daily Dialogue — November 5, 2015

Hannah Green: Grady, you know how in class you’re always telling us that writers make choices? Grady Tripp: Yeah. Hannah Green: And even though you’re book is really beautiful, I mean, amazingly beautiful, it’s… it’s at times… it’s… very detailed. You know, with the genealogies