Scott Myers

Interview (Video): Dan Gilroy (“Nightcrawler”)

It’s one of the best scripts from 2014: Nightcrawler, written by Dan Gilroy. Other writing credits include The Fall and The Bourne Legacy. Here is a half-hour interview with Gilroy from the always excellent resource DP/30: For more videos from DP/30, go here.

Daily Dialogue — February 8, 2015

“He dragged me into every gin mill on the block.” — The Thin Man (1934), screen play by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, novel by Dashiell Hammett The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Pets. Trivia: Skippy, who played Asta the dog, bit Myrna Loy during filming. Dialogue On Dialogue: The

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Elation

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Elation. “Hello, Bedford Falls!!!” Ah, cinematic moments of rapturous joy, either deserved or a setup for a big fall. Dig through your movie memories and see what images spring to mind where characters were filled with elation. And thank you in advance for

2015 Dialogue-Writing Challenge: Week 1

Here are all of Week 1’s prompts for this year’s Dialogue-Writing Challenge: Day 1 challenge: Two characters flirt at the drive-thru window. Day 2 challenge: Multiple characters in an argument where no one actually gets to finish a sentence. Day 3 challenge: A ‘conversation’ one character

Interview (Part 4): Michael R. Perry

Michael R. Perry has had a long and productive career in Hollywood writing and producing 1-hour TV including such series as Millennium, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Guardian, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, and The River. He has also written movies including Paranormal Activity 2 and his

Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 172nd installment of Saturday Hot Links. Today: The We Celebrate The Golden Age Of Screwball Comedies Edition! Super Bowl: Katy Perry’s halftime performance [videos]. Super Bowl: All of the SB commercials here [videos]. Super Bowl: Just the SB movie trailer spots [videos]. Super Bowl: The best

Great Scene: “The Graduate”

This memorable montage from the 1967 movie The Graduate, screenplay by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, novel by Charles Webb: Several things of note: * The two Simon & Garfunkel songs accompanying the images: “Sounds of Silence” and “April, Come She Will”. Director Mike Nichols was insistent on integrating these and

Interview (Written): Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland

Sometimes the story behind the story is as compelling as the movie itself. Such is the case with Still Alice, co-written and co-directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland. From WGA.org: Partners both professionally and personally for more than a decade, the team [Glatzer and Westmoreland], who

Daily Dialogue — February 7, 2015

“Damn this car!” — Cujo (1983), screenplay by Don Carlos Dunaway and Lauren Currier, novel by Stephen King The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Pets. Trivia: Stephen King has admitted several times that he was so into his alcohol addiction at the time that he does not remember writing the

Declare Your Independents — Vol. 48

GITS development assistant Wendy Cohen here, and welcome back to Declare Your Independents, our new series highlighting the latest developments in the world of independent film! This week… The 75 Best Edited Films Of All Time ‘Selma’ and the State of the Black Auteur 6 Highlights From the SXSW 2015

Spec Script Deal: “Darkest Hour”

Working Title has acquired historical drama spec script “Darkest Hour” written by Anthony McCarten. From Deadline: Days into his new job as Prime Minister as Britain was getting pounded and on the verge of losing to Germany, Churchill was under pressure to make a deal with Hitler that would have

Interview (Part 3): Michael R. Perry

Michael R. Perry has had a long and productive career in Hollywood writing and producing 1-hour TV including such series as Millennium, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Guardian, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, and The River. He has also written movies including Paranormal Activity 2 and his

The Toughest Scene I Wrote: “The LEGO Movie”

Once again, Vulture does screenwriters a solid: Over the next few weeks, Vulture will speak to the screenwriters behind 2014’s most acclaimed movies about the scenes they found most difficult to crack. Which pivotal sequences underwent the biggest transformations on their way from script to screen? In this article,

Movie Trailer (Super Bowl Spot): “Pitch Perfect 2”

Screenplay by Kay Cannon, book by Mickey Rapkin Collegiate a cappella group the Barden Bellas enter into an international competition that no American team has ever won. IMDb Release Date: 15 May 2015 (USA)  Comment Archive

2015 Dialogue-Writing Challenge: Day 5

As noted in this post last month: What if in February, we put the spotlight on writing dialogue? A Dialogue-Writing Challenge! Here’s my idea: We crowdsource a bunch of dialogue-writing prompts. From that, we choose the 20 best ones. Then next month, Monday through Friday, much like

Great Character: Mookie (“Do the Right Thing”)

The Great Character theme for the month: Spike Lee. Today: Mookie from the movie Do the Right Thing (1989), written by Spike Lee. Here is Jason Cuthbert’s weekly Great Character post. Like the precise predictions of a prophet, Spike Lee’s Academy Award-nominated screenplay for his 1989 riveting

Daily Dialogue — February 6, 2015

“That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.” — Babe (1996), screenplay by George Miller & Chris Noonan, novel by Dick King-Smith The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Pets. Trivia: The head animal trainer for the movie is Karl Lewis Miller, who also trained the dogs for the movie K-

Twitter Rant: Mike Sweeney on Focusing on the Quality of Your Spec Scripts, Not the Quantity

Earlier this week, screenwriter Mike Sweeney went on a Twitter rant that I thought definitely deserved to be highlighted and saved in the blog’s archives as it speaks to a crucially important issue for anyone trying to break into the business via a spec script. Mike tweets of which

Interview (Part 2): Michael R. Perry

Michael R. Perry has had a long and productive career in Hollywood writing and producing 1-hour TV including such series as Millennium, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Guardian, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, and The River. He has also written movies including Paranormal Activity 2 and his

Spec Script Deal: “Bismarck” (2014 Black List)

Universal Pictures options 2014 Black List script “Bismarck” written by Jared Cowie. From Deadline: During the darkest hours of WWII, a British naval officer, raw from the loss of his ship, is thrust into the thick of the hunt for the most formidable Nazi battleship to ever set sail: the

The Toughest Scene I Wrote: “Chef”

Once again, Vulture does screenwriters a solid: Over the next few weeks, Vulture will speak to the screenwriters behind 2014’s most acclaimed movies about the scenes they found most difficult to crack. Which pivotal sequences underwent the biggest transformations on their way from script to screen? In this article,

Movie Trailer (Super Bowl Spot): “Kingsman: The Secret Service”

Screenplay by Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn, comic book by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons A veteran secret agent takes a young upstart under his wing. IMDb Release Date: 13 February 2015 (USA)

2015 Dialogue-Writing Challenge: Day 4

As noted in this post last month: What if in February, we put the spotlight on writing dialogue? A Dialogue-Writing Challenge! Here’s my idea: We crowdsource a bunch of dialogue-writing prompts. From that, we choose the 20 best ones. Then next month, Monday through Friday, much like

The Business of Screenwriting: The Birth, Life and Death of a Movie (Part 1)

It’s 1997. My writing partner and I are seated in a screening room on the Paramount lot. We are there with a handful of studio execs watching a movie: The 1955 comedy The Court Jester starring Danny Kaye. In an earlier meeting, we have pitched the studios a basic

Daily Dialogue — February 5, 2015

Miss Gulch: [stopping bicycle and getting off] Gale? Uncle Henry Gale: Well, howdy, Miss Gulch. Miss Gulch: [comes into the Gales’ yard] I want to see you and your wife right away about Dorothy! Uncle Henry Gale: Dorothy? Well, what has Dorothy done? Miss Gulch: What she’s done? I’