Classic 90s Movie: “Howard’s End” May is Classic 90s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Barbara Thomas. Movie Title: Howard’s End Year: 1992 Writers: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, based on the novel by E.M. Forster Lead Actors: Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Vanessa Redgrave Director: James Ivory IMDB Plot Summary:
Screenwriting 101: Declan O’Dwyer “It was never really about where it was going to end up. It was really about the journey itself. It’s inevitable in a genre piece. Cinematic language tells us there’s going to be showdown at high-noon. Not always the case, but it’s a fair assumption. So
Daily Dialogue — May 13, 2014 Jack Crabb: General, you go down there. General Custer: You’re advising me to go into the Coulee? Jack Crabb: Yes sir. General Custer: There are no Indians there, I suppose. Jack Crabb: I didn’t say that. There are thousands of Indians down there. And when they get done
Reader Question: Should I try to adapt my own book? A book represents intellectual property and Hollywood is obsessed with IP, so what’s the best thing an author can do? Question via Twitter from @ElizabethDeath: Hi-wrote 1st book-124k words-b good series/movie-maybe :) should I try adapt myself or just publish book & see what happens?
Interview [Part 1]: Geoff LaTulippe One of the more active and colorful voices in the online screenwriting community is Geoff LaTulippe. Writer of the 2010 romantic comedy Going the Distance, starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, Geoff also has a blog, is co-host (along with Scott Beggs) of the popular Broken Projector podcast, and
What can we learn from the movie “Neighbors” How many of you predicted the comedy Neighbors would knock off The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and become the #1 box off movie over the weekend? Nobody, that’s right! The numbers: Neighbors: $51.07M The Amazing Spider-Man 2: $37.2M Granted it was the 2nd weekend for TASM,
Movie Trailer: “Healing” Written by Craig Monahan, Alison Nisselle At the tail end of a 16-year sentence, an inmate is sent to a low-security, pre-release prison with a special program that pairs men with injured game birds. IMDB Release Date: 8 May 2014 (Australia) Comment Archive
Classic 90s Movie: “Before Sunrise” May is Classic 90s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Kalen Deremo. Movie Title: Before Sunrise Year: 1995 Writers: Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan Lead Actors: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy Director: Richard Linklater IMDB Plot Summary: A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe,
On Writing “Respect your characters, even the minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters’ stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist’s.” — Sarah Waters Via @AdviceToWriters
Daily Dialogue — May 12, 2014 “First of all Rat, you never let on how much you like a girl. ‘Oh, Debbie. Hi.’ Two, you always call the shots. ‘Kiss me. You won’t regret it.’ Now three, act like wherever you are, that’s the place to be. ‘Isn’t this great?’ Four, when ordering
Go Into The Story Week In Review: May 5-May 11, 2014 Links to the week’s most notable posts: 85 Films Martin Scorcese says you must see “A great film reveals itself in five minutes” Christopher Evan Welch reminds us: “You are only here for a fraction of a fraction of a second” Classic 90s Movie: Fight Club Classic 90s Movie:
Great Scene: “When Harry Met Sally” An excellent example of how to handle exposition in a scene. The movie: When Harry Met Sally, the terrific 1989 romantic comedy written by the late great Nora Ephron. The scene: It’s pretty self-explanatory. Here’s a transcription of some of the key dialogue, but you should watch
Screenwriting News (May 5-May 11, 2014) Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck rewriting sports drama “The Trade” for Warner Bros. Andrew Baldwin writing The Bourne Legacy 2 for Universal Pictures. Mark Boal partners with Megan Ellison to form Page 1, a new movie and television venture. PJ Byrne, Terry Scannell, Aaron Ginsburg and Wade McIntyre sell comedy
Classic 90s Movie: “GoldenEye” May is Classic 90s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Jon Stark. Movie Title: Golden Eye Year: 1995 Writers: Jeffrey Caine and Bruce Feirstein penned the screenplay. Story by Michael France based, naturally, on the characters of Ian Fleming Lead Actors: Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, and Judi Dench.
Interview [Video]: Ava DuVernay Writer-director Ava DuVernay is the visionary behind I Will Follow, Middle of Nowhere and the upcoming high profile Selma. Here is video of her giving the keynote address at 2013 Film Independent Forum. Thanks to The Black Board for the link. For my January 2013 interview with DuVernay, go
Daily Dialogue — May 11, 2014 Ripley: You’re going out there to destroy them, right? Not to study. But to wipe them out. Burke: That’s the plan. You have my word on it. — Aliens (1986), screenplay by James Cameron, story by James Cameron and David Giler & Walter Hill, characters by Dan O’Bannon
Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Advice The theme for next week’s round of Daily Dialogue posts: Advice, suggested by Aarthi Ramanathan. The usual drill: * Copy/paste dialogue from IMDB Quotes or some other transcript source. * Copy/paste the URL of an accompanying video from YouTube or some other video source. I’d also ask you
Update: Mystery Hollywood round-up Back in September 2013, I posted this, an aggregation of all the Mystery Hollywood Twitter handles I could find. The subject came up yesterday — where else, but Twitter — and I know some new Mystery Hwood types have emerged, while alas some appeared to have gone dormant. So here is an
Movies You Made: “JohnnyExpress” This is great fun! It’s 2150. There are all sorts of Aliens living throughout space. Johnny is a Space Delivery Man who travels to different planets to deliver packages. Johnny is lazy and his only desire is to sleep in his autopilot spaceship. when the spaceship arrives at the
Saturday Hot Links Time for the 133rd installment of Saturday Hot Links! Today: The We Remember “The Twilight Zone” Edition. On May the Fourth, J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan sent a message to Star Wars fans [video]. Related: Conan O’Brien offers some alternate titles for SW VII [video]. The most frightening
Classic 90s Movie: “You’ve Got Mail” May is Classic 90s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Adrian Patenaude. Movie Title: You’ve Got Mail Year: 1998 Writers: Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron, based on the play “Parfumerie” by Miklós Lázló Lead Actors: Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks Director: Nora Ephron IMDB Plot Summary: Two business
Interview [Written]: Steven Knight (“Locke”) A Rope of Silicon interview with Locke writer-director Steven Knight: So what is Locke? Why was I so excited to see it? What’s so great about talking with Steven Knight? Well, Locke (read my review here) is an 85-minute movie featuring Tom Hardy as Ivan Locke, a
Daily Dialogue — May 10, 2014 Michael: All right. This one time I’ll let you ask me about my affairs. Kay Adams: Is it true? Is it? Michael: No. Kay smiles and walks into his arms. Kay Adams: I guess we both need a drink, huh? Kay goes to the kitchen to fix a drink,
“A great film reveals itself in five minutes” A pair of smart folks at the New Yorker — Richard Brody and Emily Nussbaum — have been engaged in a back-and-forth about whether we really find ourselves in the midst of the Next Golden Age of TV. Amidst all of their analysis, Brody in his latest article makes this
Featurette: “Frank” Now this is a movie I want to see! From Indiewire (Russ Fischer): One of my favorite films so far in 2014 is Frank, the movie in which Michael Fassbender plays a musician who spends every minute of every day wearing a giant fake head. That’s a pretty good
