Scott Myers

30 Days of Screenplays, Day 15: “Casablanca”

Why 30 screenplays in 30 days? Because whether you are a novice just starting to learn the craft of screenwriting or someone who has been writing for many years, you should be reading scripts. There is a certain type of knowledge and understanding about screenwriting you can only get from

Spec Script Sale: “Cat Fight”

Screen Gems acquires comedy spec script “Cat Fight” written by Amelie Gillette. From TheWrap: “Cat Fight” follows an insecure high school girl from a single parent household who gets a scholarship to an elite private high school in an attempt to reinvent herself. It’s all going well until she

Saturday Hot Links

Time for another installment of Saturday Hot Links. Today: The Favorite Sesame Street Song Edition! Star Wars Land is coming to Orlando. Why we need to redefine intelligence. Jeanne B on the debate on outlining a script — plus tips. The Beastles: The Beatles x Beastie Boys Mashup [audio]. 15 of

Written Interview: David Goyer (“Man of Steel”)

An excerpt from an Crave Online interview with David Goyer who co-wrote the script for Man of Steel with Christopher Nolan: CraveOnline: In Batman Begins you took some of the aspects of the character that people considered strange or outdated, and you made the “cool” and special again. What

Daily Dialogue — June 15, 2013

Sam: On this spot I’ll fight no more forever. Sam: [to oncoming horde] Come and get me, you bastards! Lightning strikes him. Sam: [with everyone looking on, he sits up and blows off his glasses] I’m okay. Sam: Follow me. Runs off. — Moonrise Kingdom (2012), written by Wes

Last chance! Free tickets to screenwriting event!

For any of you who will be in the vicinity of Los Angeles on Saturday, June 29th, there are five free tickets to this event: “Craft Your Future: Surviving and Thriving as a Screenwriter”. Sat, June 29, 2013 10:00 AM — 6:00 PM This year, we’re going all

Update: The Quest Initiative

I have already started the process of reviewing your submissions, but I go into official “weekend read” mode beginning tonight, immersing myself in some 2,000 loglines sent to me by nearly 1,000 entrants. Here is the schedule related to The Quest Initiative: June 19: I will email those

Interview (Part 5): Ava DuVernay

In addition to making history as the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at Sundance, DuVernay was honored with the 2013 John Cassavetes Spirit Award and the Tribeca Film Institute’s Affinity Award for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere. In 2010, she wrote, produced

Will “The Purge” create a surge of low-budget horror movies?

From Steve Zeitchik at the Los Angeles Times: Low-budget horror under studio auspices seems to work more often than not. This past weekend we saw the latest, and perhaps most shocking, example. “The Purge,” a futuristic horror thriller starring Ethan Hawke that was released by Universal Pictures, cost just

Movie Trailer: “Pawn Shop Chronicles”

Screenplay by Adam Minarovich A missing wedding ring leads to a wild-goose chase involving meth addicts, skinheads and an Elvis impersonator. IMDB Comment Archive

30 Days of Screenplays, Day 14: “Pulp Fiction”

Why 30 screenplays in 30 days? Because whether you are a novice just starting to learn the craft of screenwriting or someone who has been writing for many years, you should be reading scripts. There is a certain type of knowledge and understanding about screenwriting you can only get from

Great Character: Furious Styles (“Boyz n the Hood”)

This month’s theme: Father figures. Today’s guest post by Jason Cuthbert features Furious Styles in the 1991 movie Boyz n the Hood, written by John Singleton. One of the great storybook beginnings of a Hollywood screenwriter/director belongs to a real life protagonist named John Singleton. Act I

Daily Dialogue — June 14, 2013

BUTTERFIELD: I’ll pay the two hundred, Dan, right now, and you can walk away. DAN: You know, this whole ride, it’s been nagging’ on me. That’s what the government gave me for my leg. Hundred ninety eight dollars and thirty six cents. And the funny thing is,

Yet another rant on the importance of prep-writing

I am going to keep hammering this point because… well… it deserves hammering. From a recent post, a comment from Cyd: I go back and forth with prep and diving head first into the shallow end. I think that could be called prep work for the prep work Whatever it

Spec Script Sale: “12/24”

1492 Pictures and Ocean Blue Entertainment acquire family Christmas spec script “12/24” written by Matt Lieberman. From TheWrap: …two brothers who try to prove Santa Claus is real using a home video camera. The two brothers end up joining St. Nick on his Christmas Eve sleigh ride, but cause

Interview ( Part 4): Ava DuVernay

In addition to making history as the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at Sundance, DuVernay was honored with the 2013 John Cassavetes Spirit Award and the Tribeca Film Institute’s Affinity Award for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere. In 2010, she wrote, produced

Spec Script Sale: “3022”

BCDF Pictures acquires psychological sci-fi thriller spec script “3022” written by Ryan Binaco: The crew members on a space shuttle 600,000 miles from Earth must question their individual fates and fight for their lives after their home — Earth itself — is destroyed. From TheWrap: BCDF found the script after

A tip from the Coen brothers

In my most recent Screenwriting Master Class offering, we did a deep immersion into the movies of Joel and Ethan Coen analyzing narrative dynamics and themes such as the Dynamism of Violence, Unresolved Endings, Fate, and Misunderstanding. Here is the final tip I offered per the Coens with an assist

Movie Trailer: “Stranded”

Written by Christian Piers Betley Four isolated astronauts on board a bio-dome space craft, experience a ghostly intercession after a meteor storm, leading to paranoia, fear and death. IMDB Release Date: 27 May 2013 (UK)

30 Days of Screenplays, Day 13: “Shakespeare in Love”

Why 30 screenplays in 30 days? Because whether you are a novice just starting to learn the craft of screenwriting or someone who has been writing for many years, you should be reading scripts. There is a certain type of knowledge and understanding about screenwriting you can only get from

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs [Part 18]

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs Part 18: Sell Them Your Dream. 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

Daily Dialogue — June 13, 2013

“George, tell me about the rabbits.” — Of Mice and Men (1939), screen play by Eugene Solow, novel by John Steinbeck The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is all is lost, suggested by Turambar. Today’s suggestion by bolo boffin. Trivia: Lon Chaney Jr.’s role as Lennie is believed

Monthly Series: Your feedback wanted!

Even though I’ve been hosting this blog for over 5 years, it continues to evolve and I continue to learn things about it. For example, I ran the annual “A Story Idea Each Day for a Month” series each day in April of this [the series’ 4th year]. People

Interview (Part 3): Ava DuVernay

In addition to making history as the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at Sundance, DuVernay was honored with the 2013 John Cassavetes Spirit Award and the Tribeca Film Institute’s Affinity Award for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere. In 2010, she wrote, produced

“Advanced Writing Tools: The Pixar Way”

Tom Benedek with some thoughts on the value of having the right tools: Having the right tool for the job is crucial. I just finished a rewrite and polish on an adaptation that I had been working on for a long time. In the beat sheet/story outline I mapped