Scott Myers

Great Character: Mary Wilke (“Manhattan”)

In November, guest columnist Jason Cuthbert looks at five significant female characters in Woody Allen movies. Today: Mary Wilke from the 1979 movie Manhattan, written by Allen and Marshall Brickman. The momentous New York City movie Manhattan gained its name from screenwriter and director Woody Allen’s favorite landmark location

Daily Dialogue — November 1, 2013

“Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” — Mean Girls (2004), screenplay by Tina Fey, book by Rosalind Wiseman The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is Halloween, suggested by Bretton Zinger. Trivia: The

The Blood List 2013

Via Deadline: Franklin Leonard’s Black List has become a buzzy barometer for promising screenplays, but here’s a genre-centric version of the script service suited for the spooky season. The Blood List names the 13 best unproduced horror, thriller, and sci-fi scripts of the October-to-October

Austin Film Festival: Deconstructing “Tootsie” with Leslie Dixon and John Hamburg

On Friday, October 25th at 3:00 in the Driskill Hotel Maximilian Room, I sat on a panel with screenwriters Leslie Dixon (Mrs. Doubtfire, Hairspray) and John Hamburg (Meet the Parents, Zoolander), and moderated by Baylor University professor Greg Garrett in which we analyzed one of the great all-time

FilmmakerIQ: The History and Psychology of Horror Films

Via the always excllent site FilmmakerIQ, two videos for horror movie fans: Happy Halloween!

Spec Script Sale: “Fetch”

Paramount Insurge acquires comedy spec script “Fetch” written by Kristen Vincent and Tim Moran. From THR: Logline details are being kept in the doghouse but it is described as an offbeat buddy comedy involving a uniquely talented dog and his owner. A comedy spec script featuring a dog. Wish I’

Movie Trailer: “Open Grave”

Written by Chris Borey, Eddie Borey A man wakes up in the wilderness, in a pit full of dead bodies, with no memory and must determine if the murderer is one of the strangers who rescued him, or if he himself is the killer. IMDB Release Date: 3 January 2014

Hidden Movie Gem: “The Frighteners”

Today’s Hidden Movie Gem guest post comes from Daniel Smith. Movie Title: The Frighteners Year: 1996 Writers: Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson Starring: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Dee Wallace Stone, Jeffrey Combs, Jake Busey Director: Peter Jackson Plot Summary: When an evil spirit starts

Writing and the Creative Life: One key to creativity… naps?

“There is a cultural bias against sleep that sees it as akin to shutting down…” I was doing my usual thing yesterday, working my way through a virtual pile of emails, organizing my daily To Do list, and generally being a productive busy bee when I saw this tweet from

Daily Dialogue — October 31, 2013

Laurie: Was it the boogeyman? Dr. Sam Loomis: As a matter of fact, it was. — Halloween (1978), written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is Halloween, suggested by Bretton Zinger. Trivia: The original script, titled “The Babysitter Murders”, had the events take place

Reader Question: Three act structure — good or bad?

Question via Twitter from @xica25: 3 act structure… Good or bad??? Allow me to steer clear of so-called screenwriting ‘gurus’ who may promote some sort of ‘paradigm’ which on the one hand derides three act structure as being somehow antiquated while pimping their own ‘unique’ approach to writing a

Austin Film Festival: Deconstructing “Dog Day Afternoon” with Peter Craig and Robin Swicord

On Saturday, October 26th at 3:45 in the Driskill Hotel Maximilian Room, I moderated a panel with screenwriters Peter Craig (The Town) and Robin Swicord (Little Women). The goal: To deconstruct and analyze the superb 1975 crime drama Dog Day Afternoon, screenplay by Frank Pierson, directed by Sydney Lumet.

“The first draft is nothing more than a starting point”

“The first draft is nothing more than a starting point, so be wrong as fast as you can.” This is a quote from writer-director Andrew Stanton whose screenwriting credits include Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and Wall-E. This week in this series, I have been laser focused

Movie Trailer: “The Immigrant”

Written by James Gray, Ric Menello On the mean streets of Manhattan, Ewa falls prey to Bruno, a charming but wicked man who takes her in and forces her into prostitution. IMDB

Hidden Movie Gem: “Her Alibi”

Today’s Hidden Movie Gem guest post comes from David Proenza Movie Title: Her Alibi (1989) Writer: Charlie Peters Director: Bruce Beresford Starring: Tom Selleck, Paulina Porizkova, William Daniels Plot Summary: A mystery novelist suffering from severe writer’s block pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman accused

Script To Screen: “Toy Story”

“Alright everyone, this is a stick-up! Don’t anybody move! Now empty  that safe!” The opening scene from the 1995 movie Toy Story, screenplay by Joss Whedon and Andrew Stanton and Joel Cohen & Alec Sokolow, story by John Lasseter and Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft.

Daily Dialogue — October 30, 2013

[SHADOW] Boys and girls of every age Wouldn’t you like to see something strange? [SIAMESE SHADOW] Come with us and you will see This, our town of Halloween [PUMPKIN PATCH CHORUS] This is Halloween, this is Halloween Pumpkins scream in the dead of night [GHOSTS] This is Halloween, everybody

Horror Movie Clichés

A timely guest post from Alan Donahue analyzing horror movie clichés: Every screenwriting genre has it’s collection of tropes or clichés and none may be more true than horror. While writing, it’s easy to fall into a pattern. Hundreds of horror movies have done the same thing. The

KCET Cinema Series Q&As

A heads-up from GITS development assistant Wendy Cohen: For you L.A. folks — the KCET Cinema Series continues its fall season tonight at 7pm with the highly-anticipated Matthew McConaughey-starrer DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, which will feature a Q&A with actress Jennifer Garner following the screening. The

Spec Script Sale: “Patient Zero”

Screen Gems acquires post-apocalyptic zombie spec script “Patient Zero” written by Mike Le From TheWrap: Set in a post-apocalyptic world, “Patient Zero” features a unique hook — a protagonist with the ability to speak the language of the undead who interrogates zombies with the hopes of finding Patient Zero

Austin Film Festival: Unreliable Narrator Panel with John August and Jim Taylor

On Friday, October 25th at 10:45AM in the Driskill Hotel Ballroom, I moderated a panel with screenwriters John August (Go, Charlie’s Angels, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Frankenweenie) and Jim Taylor (Citizen Ruth, About Schmidt, Sideways) on the subject of the unreliable narrator. Having written Big Fish (August)

“Just write the next word”

“If I could say anything… it is to keep going. Don’t go back and fix that first scene. Don’t go back and fix that dialogue. Write yourself a little note saying, ‘Put in first scene such-and-such,’ if you happen to think of something, then get a

“Cassian Elwes Endows New Indie Writer Fellowship Via The Black List”

Breaking news: LOS ANGELES, CA (October 29, 2013) — This morning, producer Cassian Elwes and Black List founder Franklin Leonard jointly announced the creation of the Cassian Elwes Independent Screenwriting Fellowship, wherein one unrepresented writer with lifetime earnings not exceeding $5,000 with a screenplay of indie sensibility will receive an

Hidden Movie Gems: “The Right Stuff”

Today’s Hidden Movie Gem guest post comes from John Algerholm. Movie Title: The Right Stuff (1983) Director: Philip Kaufman Writer: Philip Kaufman, based on the novel by Tom Wolfe Lead Actors: Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, and Barbara Hershey. Plot Summary: The story of the original U.S.

Screenwriting 101: Will Simmons

“This fast-food style of storytelling is bad for movies. Catharsis comes in many forms and we don’t need a manufactured or formulaic third act for the conclusion to feel satisfying… I wish more movies would embrace bold and unconventional endings. Audiences crave surprises, and the best way to