Scott Myers

Hot Topics: The Black Board

A weekly update from Shaula Evans, moderator of The Black Board: Our top discussions this week range from the really personal (burn out) to the professional (learning from Soderbergh’s comments on the industry), and the theoretical (masculinity in film) to the practical (some great tips on rewriting). What Steven

Movie Trailer: “Ender’s Game”

Screenplay by Gavin Hood, novel by Orson Scott Card 70 years after a horrific alien war, an unusually gifted child is sent to an advanced military school in space to prepare for a future invasion. IMDB site Release Date: 1 November 2013 (USA)

Movies You Made: “Missing in the Mansion”

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

Script To Screen: “Chinatown”

The memorable ending of the classic 1974 movie Chinatown, written by Robert Towne. Setup: In his investigation, private eye Jake Gittes has uncovered a web of deceit involving the Noah Cross family… and now destiny intervenes. EXT. CHINATOWN STREET – NIGHT The streets are crowded. Here and there one can see

Daily Dialogue — May 8, 2013

HAN: Well your Worship, looks like you managed to keep me around for a little while longer. LEIA: (haughtily) I had nothing to do with it. General Rieekan thinks it’s dangerous for any ships to leave the system until we’ve activated the energy shield. HAN: That’s a

Word Cloud Logline Challenge!

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

Spec Script Sale: “Dark Summer”

Preferred Content and Content Films acquire supernatural thriller spec script “Dark Summer” written by Mike Le. From Variety: …centers on a 17-year-old boy who is placed under house arrest for the summer while his mother is away on business. Congratulations to Mike, a longtime GITS follower and creator

Interview: Spenser Cohen — Part 2

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

In Memoriam: Ray Harryhausen

Via THR Obituary Comment Archive

Spirit of the Spec: Poem Store

It never ceases to amaze me how often I get hit up to promote this, that and the other thing. I sift through them all and if they seem worthy of attention, I’ll retweet or even post on the blog. Last week I received an email about a Kickstarter

Movie Trailer: “Thor: The Dark World”

Screenplay by Christopher Yost and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely, story by Don Payne When Jane Foster is targeted by the denizens of the dark world of Svartalfheim, Thor sets out on a quest to protect her at all costs. IMDB site Release Date: 8 November 2013 (USA)

Movies You Made: “Origin” by Danny Stack

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

Screenwriting 101: Julia Hart

“I write a ton and then I’ll cut a bunch of it out. I’ll write like seven lines where there needs to be one and just cut around that one right line and keep going. I find their voices by having them say too much, by writing down

Daily Dialogue — May 7, 2013

EXTERIOR — CASTLE — DAY MIX THROUGH one or two shots of them on their way again, until they approach a terrific castle (a little one would do too). They advance quite close to the castle and draw themselves into a line. At a signal from ARTHUR the two PAGES step forward

About THAT New York Times article…

You know, the one your mother, father, sister, brother, second cousin, ex-spouse sent you today: “Solving Equation of a Hit Film Script, With Data”. Choice excerpts: LOS ANGELES — Forget zombies. The data crunchers are invading Hollywood. The same kind of numbers analysis that has reshaped areas like politics and

Interview: Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg — Part 1

On December 15, 2011, I received this email: Hey Scott, I’ve been following your website since I can remember and I wanted to let you know that your help has been invaluable to me as a writer/filmmaker. I just got my first movie picked up as a writer/

If you won the lottery, would you do this?

From TheWrap: If Megan Ellison shows what a very, very rich person with a yen for moviemaking can do, Cynthia Stafford is determined to show what a “a mini-mogul” who got her funding from a big lottery win, can do. In the last few months, as Ellison, daughter of

Movie Trailer: “In Fear”

Driving, lost and tormented in the night, primal fears of the dark and the unknown give way to fear that you have let the evil in, or that it is already there. IMDB site

Movies You Made: “PIXEL 2013”

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

On Writing

“If it’s only about passion, sometimes you’ll be good and sometimes you won’t. You’ve got to come in every day with a strong desire.” — Thomas Keller HT to Shaula Evans for the quote Comment Archive

Daily Dialogue — May 6, 2013

Humperdinck: A technicality that will shortly be remedied. But first things first. (Draws sword) To the death. Westley: No! To the pain. Humperdinck: I don’t think I’m quite familiar with that phrase. Westley: I’ll explain. And I’ll use small words so that you’ll be sure

Go Into The Story Week In Review: April 29-May 5, 2013

Some notable posts from this week: A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 29 A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 30 Breaking the 4th Wall — Shane Black Style Create a Compelling Protagonist GITS Interview: Screenwriter-Producer Reid Carolin (Magic Mike) Great Character: “WALL-E” Hot

Interview: Reid Carolin (“Magic Mike”)

One of the surprise hit movies of 2012 was Magic Mike starring Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey, and Olivia Munn, and directed by Steven Soderbergh. With a modest production budget of $7M, the film grossed $167M worldwide. The screenwriter responsible for the script is Reid Carolin. Here are links to the

Movies You Made: “Last Night at Emilio’s” by Dom Farelli

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

Studying Aristotle’s “Poetics” — Introduction: The Nature and Purpose of the Arts

As I’ve been interviewing screenwriters, I typically ask what some of their influences are. One book title comes up over and over again: Aristotle’s “Poetics”. I confess I’ve never read the entire thing, only bits and pieces. So I thought, why not do a weekly series with