Scott Myers

Daily Dialogue — August 10, 2015

CONNIE: Talk to me. Tell me what you did. EDWARD: No, you tell me what you did! How you fucked him over and over and over, you lied to me over and over and over. CONNIE: Edward, please. EDWARD: No, you don’t talk to me now. I gave everything…

Go Into The Story Week In Review: August 3-August 9, 2015

Links to this week’s most notable posts: Black List writers on the craft: Story Concepts (Part 1) Black List writers on the craft: Story Concepts (Part 2) Black List writers on the craft: Story Concepts (Part 3) Black List writers on the craft: Story Concepts (Part 4) Black List

“Conversations With Wilder”: Part 23

Billy Wilder. Cameron Crowe. Conversation and creative insight. Billy Wilder is my all-time favorite filmmaker. Consider just some of his movies: Double Indemnity (1944), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Ace in the Hole (1951), Stalag 17 (1953), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Apartment (1960), an

Screenwriting News (August 3-August 9, 2015)

Mark Bomback writing untitled Ronda Rousey Project for Paramount Pictures. Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer adapting teen drama comedy “Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life” for CBS Films. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen adapting Ross MacDonald novel “Black Money” for Warner Bros. Pictures. Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis

Black List writers on the craft: Story Concepts (Part 7)

Over the years, I have interviewed over 40 Black List screenwriters. This month, I will run a series featuring one topic per week related to the craft of writing. This week: How do you come up with story concepts? Today we wrap up this series with some thoughts from several

Interview (Video): Fay Kanin

A 1998 Writers Guild Foundation interview with screenwriter and TV writer-producer Fay Kanin whose movie credits include The Opposite Sex (1956) and Teacher’s Pet (1958), along with nearly a dozen TV movies during the 60s, 70s, and 80s. For a more in-depth biography of Fay Kanin, go

Daily Dialogue — August 9, 2015

“A job’s come up and I thought about you. Well, not a job really, more of an interesting errand.” — The Silence of the Lambs (1990), screenplay by Ted Tally, novel by Thomas Harris The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Call To Adventure. Trivia: Originally, the film was to

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Adultery

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Adultery. Ooh, I can think of a lot of movies featuring cheating spouses and lovers. There have to be 7 great examples we can source for this week’s posts. The usual drill: * Copy/paste dialogue from IMDb Quotes or some other transcript

Great Scene: “(500) Days of Summer”

When an original screenplay starts out like this: Title page: (500) DAYS OF SUMMER by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, First Draft 2006 Next page: NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS A WORK OF FICTION. ANY RESEMBLANCE TO PERSONS LIVING OR DEAD IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL. Next page: ESPECIALLY YOU JENNY BECKMAN.

Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 198th installment of Saturday Hot Links. Toronto International Film Festival Reveals Short Film and Canadian Programs. How Jon Stewart’s ‘Daily Show’ Exit Will Deal Big Blow to TV News. Jon Stewart and ‘The Daily Show’: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at 9 Essential Moments. Stephen Colbert

Black List writers on the craft: Story Concepts (Part 6)

Over the years, I have interviewed over 40 Black List screenwriters. This month, I will run a series featuring one topic per week related to the craft of writing. This week: How do you come up with story concepts? Here are a variety of takes on how to assess and

Interview (Written): James Ponsoldt

An A.V. Club interview with writer-director James Ponsoldt who latest movie is The End of the Tour, screenplay by Donald Margulies, book by David Lipsky, directed by Ponsoldt. Other credits: Smashed and The Spectacular Now. The A.V. Club: You are a huge fan of David Foster Wallace.

Daily Dialogue — August 8, 2015

LOUISE: Hi. What’d he say? THELMA (V.O.): What time are you gonna pick me up? LOUISE: You’re kiddin’! Alright! I’ll be there around two or three. THELMA (V.O.): What kind of stuff do I bring? LOUISE: I don’t know. Warm stuff, I guess. It’

Go Into The Story Script Read and Analysis: “Birdman”

Beginning Monday, August 10, our next movie script read and analysis will be Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), written by Alejandro González Iñárritu & Nicolás Giacobone & Alexander Dinelaris & Armando Bo. Starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Zach Galiafnakis, and Edward Norton Jr. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-

In Hollywood, It’s a Reboot by Any Other Name

A NYT article I flagged from a few weeks back: “To Hollywood, ‘reboot’ is a four-letter word.” Indeed. The article provides a helpful list of “re”-terms: THE REMAKE Definition: Telling the exact same story as the original, with modern gadgets. Example: “Poltergeist.” THE REBOOT Definition: Trying to recapture

Movie Analysis: “Trainwreck” — Takeaways

Another in our bi-weekly series in which we analyze movies currently in release. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of

Black List writers on the craft: Story Concepts (Part 5)

Over the years, I have interviewed over 40 Black List screenwriters. For the next month, I will run a series featuring one topic per week related to the craft of writing. This week: How do you come up with story concepts? Here three writers zero in on questions as a

Great Character: John Blutarsky (“Animal House”)

Is there a better comedy than Animal House? I don’t think so. Make your arguments, I’m happy to hear them, but I am willing to make my stand on this big, dumb movie from 1978 (written by Harold Ramis & Douglas Kenney & Chris Miller). We may argue

Daily Dialogue — August 7, 2015

BOB: Hold still? VOICE: Match. Mister Incredible. Drops the tablet, which scans the room. VOICE: Room is secure. Commence message. MIRAGE: Hello, Mister Incredible. Yes, we know who you are. Rest assured your secret is safe with us. My name is Mirage. We have something in common. According to the

Reader Question: What do I do if I’m less interested in my Protagonist than other characters?

This is actually a question that arose in the current prep workshop I am leading. My response: It’s kind of ironic that in many movies, the Protagonist is not necessarily the most interesting character. Per your references, Lecter is more interesting to most folks I would guess than Clarice

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Interview: Minhal Baig

I first met filmmaker Minhal Baig at the 2013 Black List Screenwriters Lab in Las Vegas. She struck me as a bright, ambitious, and talented storyteller. Since that time, I have followed Minnie’s progress with great interest. This week she is launching a Kickstarter campaign for a short film

Movie Analysis: “Trainwreck” — Themes

Another in our bi-weekly series in which we analyze movies currently in release. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs [Part 19]

Spec scripts, that is. I’m guessing that perhaps 90% of the people who follow this blog at some point in their lives will write a spec script. And the other 10% are involved in buying and selling them. In light of that fact, last year I interviewed a top

Daily Dialogue — August 6, 2015

Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is? Neo nods. Morpheus: The matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you