Scott Myers

Saturday Hot Links

Today: In Honor Of Ray Harryhausen! Veteran visual effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen dies at 92. 6 influential stop-motion movies from Ray Harryhausen [video]. The New Yorker’s Adam Gopnik remembers Ray Harryhausen. The great ATM heist: How thieves brazenly stole $45M in a few hours. Star Wars: Episode VII

Written Interview: Leigh Brackett & Edmond Hamilton

This is a great find: A 1976 interview in Tangent magazine with screenwriter Leigh Brackett and science fiction novelist Edmond Hamilton. You can check the links to see their backgrounds as writers, but cutting to the chase, Brackett wrote the first draft of Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes

Daily Dialogue — May 11, 2013

INT. PUBLISHER’S OFFICE — DAY We are looking at ZOE, the receptionist. She is listening with interest to an O.S. conversation while answering phone calls, “Premier Publishing.” FEMALE EXECUTIVE (O.S.): Yes, you write more than anyone else. Yes, you make us a lot of money, but isn’t

Word Cloud Logline Challenge: Last Chance!

Last December we ran the Black List 2012 Word Cloud Logline Challenge which was hugely popular, witness these posts here and here. Come this December, we’ll probably do the same thing. But with The Quest Initiative submission period beginning May 22, I figured this would be a good time

Interview: Spenser Cohen — Part 5

In December 2011, writer-director Spenser Cohen sold the action-thriller spec script “The Driver” he wrote with Zach Luna. In November 2012, Cohen sold the action spec script “High Value Target”. Then in January 2013, Spenser sold another spec script: “Pantheon”. A writer who sells 3 spec scripts within

What is going on with Scandinavia?

Internationalization. Something that has been going on in Hollywood for the last decade or so. To the point where 70% of a movie’s box office revenue derives from theaters outside of the United States and Canada. Hollywood’s focus has been on the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China.

Video: “Badman” [with Patton Oswalt]

From College Humor: Batman vs. The Penguin (with Patton Oswalt) on CollegeHumorEdit descriptionwww.collegehumor.com Via /Film.

Movie Trailer: “Gravity”

Alfonso Cuarón (screenplay), Jonás Cuarón (screenplay) Astronauts attempt to return to earth after debris crashes into their space shuttle, leaving them drifting alone in space. IMDB site Release Date: 4 October 2013 (USA)  Comment Archive

Movies You Made: “Broken Wings”

For several months, I’ve been tagging a bunch of emails from filmmakers who have contacted me about their film projects, so I figured we should feature them this May. If you have a movie, either short-form or long, with which you were involved — writer, actor, director — please either

Great Character: Sulley (“Monsters, Inc.”)

This month’s theme: Pixar. Today’s guest post by Jason Cuthbert features Sulley from the 2001 movie Monsters, Inc., screenplay by Andrew Stanton and Daniel Gerson. In 2001, the fourth Pixar animated feature film, Monsters, Inc., was the first to not be directed by Pixar founding forefather John Lasseter.

Daily Dialogue — May 10, 2013

“I think… no, I am positive… that you are the most unattractive man I have ever met in my entire life. You know, in the short time we’ve been together, you have demonstrated EVERY loathsome characteristic of the male personality and even discovered a few new ones. You are

Writing Low — Aiming Higher

Tom Benedek isa longtime friend, fellow screenwriter and co-founder of Screenwriting Master Class. He has been working in Hollywood for over three decades, so he’s sort of like those old E.F. Hutton ads: “When Tom Benedek talks, people listen.” Here Tom weighs in on the value of

Word Cloud Logline Challenge: Day 3!

Last December we ran the Black List 2012 Word Cloud Logline Challenge which was hugely popular, witness these posts here and here. Come this December, we’ll probably do the same thing. But with The Quest Initiative submission period beginning May 22, I figured this would be a good time

Interview: Spenser Cohen — Part 4

In December 2011, writer-director Spenser Cohen sold the action-thriller spec script “The Driver” he wrote with Zach Luna. In November 2012, Cohen sold the action spec script “High Value Target”. Then in January 2013, Spenser sold another spec script: “Pantheon”. A writer who sells 3 spec scripts within

Video: “This Is Water” — David Foster Wallace

This is great: In 2005, author David Foster Wallace was asked to give the commencement address to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College. However, the resulting speech didn’t become widely known until 3 years later, after his tragic death. It is, without a doubt, some of the best

Screenwriting Tip: Character work as iceberg

Screenwriting Tip: Character Work as Iceberg How much character development is enough? In a recent 1-week Screenwriting Master Class course I was teaching — Create a Compelling Protagonist — a question came up: How much character development is enough? In theory, I don’t think you can do too much character

Movie Trailer: “Captain Phillips”

Screenplay by Billy Ray, based on a book by Richard Phillips and Stephan Tatty The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years. IMDB site Release

Movies You Made: “CAFé CAFé”

For several months, I’ve been tagging a bunch of emails from filmmakers who have contacted me about their film projects, so I figured we should feature them this May. If you have a movie, either short-form or long, with which you were involved — writer, actor, director — please either

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs [Part 13]

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs Part 13: Targeting Specific Buyers I’m guessing 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.

Daily Dialogue — May 9, 2013

EXT. THE BEACHFRONT WALKWAY — NIGHT The Woman, MATTY, has walked to the rail. She stands there now lighting a cigarette. She presents her face to the ocean, hoping for a breeze. We move in on her, with Racine. Racine lights a new cigarette and smiles at her. She looks at

The Quest Initiative: 14 days and counting

You can go here to see the original announcement I made about The Quest last year. You can go here for a post about this year’s Initiative. Now this important note: I am pushing back the start date for the logline submission period to Wednesday, May 22. I WILL

Word Cloud Logline Challenge! Day 2!

Last December we ran the Black List 2012 Word Cloud Logline Challenge which was hugely popular, witness these posts here and here. Come this December, we’ll probably do the same thing. But with The Quest Initiative submission period beginning May 20, I figured this would be a good time

Interview: Spenser Cohen — Part 3

In December 2011, writer-director Spenser Cohen sold the action-thriller spec script “The Driver” he wrote with Zach Luna. In November 2012, Cohen sold the action spec script “High Value Target”. Then in January 2013, Spenser sold another spec script: “Pantheon”. A writer who sells 3 spec scripts within

Spec Script Sale: “Home Invasion”

Voltage Pictures acquires thriller spec script “Home Invasion” written by first-timer Joseph Dembner. From Deadline: The plot is being kept under wraps, but the title offers clues aplenty. I’m told the story involves a family imprisoned in their own home by intruders who play a life-and-death

Spec Script Sale: “Don’t Make Me Go”

Big Beach Films and De Line Pictures acquire 2012 Black List script “Don’t Make Me Go” written by Vera Herbert. From Deadline: It tells the story of a single Dad who, after learning he has a serious illness, takes his teenage daughter on a road trip to find the