Screenwriting Advice From The Past: What to Write and Not to Write [Part 2] If you are a screenwriter, you should know about Anita Loos. Loos was one of the most influential writers in the early stages of American cinema, associated with 136 film projects per IMDB. Married to writer John Emerson, the pair wrote one of the first books on screenwriting in 1920:
Screenwriting News (October 15–21, 2012) Mark Andrus’ comedy “And So It Goes” lands Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton for Foresight Unlimited. Paul Attanasio writing Scarface remake for Universal. Henry Bean’s sci-fi script “The Juliet” lands director Rupert Sanders for New Regency. Mark Bomback rewriting “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” for Fox.
Video Interview: Ben Lewin (“The Sessions”) Short video with the writer-director of The Sessions [aka “The Surrogate”], a movie just now in limited release starring John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and William Macy: Logline: A man in an iron lung who wishes to lose his virginity contacts a professional sex surrogate with the help of his
Daily Dialogue — October 21, 2012 Wanda: Ken, somebody just called! They said that the police know that the loot is in a garage in Fulham somewhere. You and I have to go get it right now, Ken. You and I have to go move it before the police find out where it is! Ken: No,
Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Sibling rivalry After a week’s worth of tongue-tied posts [courtesy of Annika Wood], next week’s DDT is sibling rivalry, suggested by Traci Nell Peterson. The usual drill: * Copy/paste dialogue from IMDB Quotes or some other transcript source. * Copy/paste the URL of an accompanying video from MovieClips or
Countdown to FADE IN: Day 2 2 days from now, participants in Go On Your Own Quest are scheduled to move out of Prep and into Pages: In other words, type FADE IN. Over on the GOYOQ forum [which is free and you are invited to join], some folks have been posting thoughts on what they
Dispatch from The Quest: Scott Reynolds Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the fifth week of Prep. Today’s dispatch: Scott on the challenge of structuring a story and working with nuance: We’re nearing the end of prep and are really starting to nail down our stories. We’
Great Scene: “Almost Famous” Put a group of people into an airplane that is seemingly about to crash and see what last-minute confessions the characters make. That was what writer-director Cameron Crowe was thinking when he penned this great scene in the movie Almost Famous (2000). INT. BAND PLANE — DAY Russell and
Saturday Hot Links Time for another installment of Saturday Hot Links! Today: The Peter Sellers Was A Comic Genius Edition Veteran TV writer-producer Tom Fontana goes down Memory Lane with Vulture. The Creativity Post: The Power of “Once Upon a Time”. Related [ironically]: TV series “Once Upon a Time” scripts laced with
Written Interview: J.J. Abrams Somehow missed this the first time around: A /Film interview with J.J. Abrams at the time Super 8 was released. Here is an excerpt of the sit-down with Peter Sciretta: Peter: Your film focuses on a son and a father trying to recover from the death of their
Daily Dialogue — October 20, 2012 [Clark is looking at lingerie, as a voluptuous saleswoman approaches] Mary: Can I help you with anything? Clark: Oh, I was just smelling — smiling. I was just blouse — brousing. Mary: For your wife? For your girlfriend? Clark: Uh… huh? What happened? I, uh, heh heh. Well, I guess it just
October Script Reading & Analysis: “Black Swan” By general consensus, the script we will read and analyze this month is Black Swan (2010), screenplay by Mark Heyman and Andrés Heinz and John J. McLaughlin, story by Andrés Heinz. The movie was nominated for the WGA Best Original Screenplay Award. You may download an October 5, 2009 version
Countdown to FADE IN: Day 3 3 days from now, participants in Go On Your Own Quest are scheduled to move out of Prep and into Pages: In other words, type FADE IN. Over on the GOYOQ forum [which is free and you are invited to join], some folks have been posting thoughts on what they
Dispatch from The Quest: Jordan Earls Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the fifth week of Prep. Today’s dispatch: Jordan talks screenwriting art and craft: Screenwriting is a blend of art and method. I know a lot of people say screenwriting isn’t an art because it’s
“Argo” and the tricky craft of adaptation There’s an old saying in Hollywood about historically based movies: “Don’t let the facts get in the way of the story.” This is a tacit acknowledgement of two things: (1) Life doesn’t often play out like a movie, filmmakers needing to shape and mold events into a
Go On Your Own Quest, Week 14: Prep “The Quest” has entered Week 14! And so did Go On Your Own Quest, an opportunity for anyone to follow the structure of “The Quest” to dig into screenwriting theory [Core — 8 weeks], figure out your story [Prep — 6 weeks], and write a first draft [Pages — 10 weeks]. It’s
Movie Trailer: “The Man With The Iron Fists” Yahoo! Video PlayerEdit descriptiond.yimg.com In feudal China, a blacksmith who makes weapons for a small village is put in the position where he must defend himself and his fellow villagers. Screenplay by Eli Roth and RZA IMDB site Release Date: 2 November 2012 (USA)
Analysis: “The Master” [Part 4: “The Odyssey”] Like many people, I was both amazed and confounded by The Master, equal parts “oh, my God” and “what the hell”. Weeks after seeing the movie, I am still thinking about it. What I propose to do is use the next few days to parse the story and see what
Great Character: Leatherface (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”) In a month-long run-up to Halloween, our Great Character focus this month is boogeyman. This week, Jason Cuthbert explores Leatherface from the 1974 horror movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street) has a burned face and razor glove. Michael Myers (Halloween) has that
Daily Dialogue — October 19, 2012 “Sh-sh-sh-sh on the inside! Whoa! And then he went… bragghh! And then he like… wouh, wouh.” — Wilbur (Lou Costello), Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), screenplay by Robert Lees & Frederic I. Rinaldo & John Grant http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=g3Qr The Daily
Spec Script Sale: “The Join” Legendary Pictures acquires sci-fi thriller spec script “The Join” from writer Justin Rhodes. From Variety: Set in the wake of a terrible particle accelerator accident, story follows a first response hazmat team sent in to investigate, only to find themselves targeted for assassination as soon as they emerge. Pic
Countdown to FADE IN: Day 4 4 days from now, participants in Go On Your Own Quest are scheduled to move out of Prep and into Pages: In other words, type FADE IN. Over on the GOYOQ forum [which is free and you are invited to join], some folks have been posting thoughts on what they
The Writer Speaks Interviews with Groundbreaking Writers The Writers Guild Foundation is a great thing and it’s wonderful to see them creating so much video content, then making it available to people anywhere in the world. Check this latest video in their “The Writer Speaks” series: Brief snippets of interviews with William Goldman, Walter Bernstein, Irving
Dispatch from The Quest: Rob Pilkington Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the fifth week of Prep. Today’s dispatch: Rob goes with construction as a metaphor for prep-writing: Two weeks ago, we questers took up our comically oversized mallets and each drove into the ground the three
‘The Hobbit:’ Inside Peter Jackson and Warner Bros.’ $1 Billion Gamble THR has a nice backgrounder about The Hobbit which Warner Bros. has turned into a billion dollar trilogy. Gotta be the most expensive movie project ever, right? A knowledgeable source says the first two installments cost $315 million each, and that’s with Jackson deferring his fee. A studio source
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