Writers on how they write: Kazuo Ishiguro The Wall Street Journal has a great article: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by 11 novelists on how they approach writing. I’ll feature one writer per day, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article. Today’s writer is Kazuo Ishiguro whose novels include The
The Business of Screenwriting: Hip pocket representation The gray area between being signed by an agent… and kinda signed. On Friday, January 9, 1987, the spec script “K-9” went out to 20th Century Fox creative execs for the weekend read.On Monday, January 12 at 11AM, after the weekly meeting of their creative staff, word got
“Box Office Shocker: R-Rated Comedies Pass $1 Bil in Summer Grosses” Scribe William Goldman’s observation about Hollywood that “nobody knows anything” continues to be true. From THR: Combined, the summer’s five R-rated comedies have grossed $1.05 billion to date, an astounding total for a genre of movies that was considered second-rate only a few years ago.
“Ten rules for writing fiction”: Margaret Atwood Several GITS readers emailed me about a great series The Guardian ran: Ten Rules For Writing Fiction. Today we feature Margaret Atwood: 1 Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t
Movie Trailer: “Battleship” Yahoo! Video PlayerEdit descriptiond.yimg.com Yes, the movie based on the game. Comment Archive
Do ‘The Twist’ with historical figures! Brian Helgeland has been hired to write “Here There Be Monsters,” a movie about Revolutionary War naval hero John Paul Jones — except with sea monsters, individuals close to the project confirmed. — — “Here There Be Monsters” is based on an concept by Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull. Look, if corporate CEOs
Writers on how they write: Hilary Mantel The Wall Street Journal has a great article: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by 11 novelists on how they approach writing. I’ll feature one writer per day, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article. Today’s writer is Hilary Mantel whose novels include “Fludd”
Script To Screen: “The American” The opening incident in the 2010 movie The American, starring George Clooney [screenplay by Rowan Joffe, based on a novel by Martin Booth]. Setup: An assassin [Clooney] who thinks he is out of harm’s way discovers otherwise. EXT. LAKESIDE - MORNINGThey continue through the woods until they reach the shoreline
From Script to Scene: Your Suggestions! Response to the new GITS weekly feature From Script to Scene [every Wednesday] has been strong. The basic idea: Take a scene from a screenplay and compare it to the final produced version. You can see the three installments that we’ve done thus far: Alien: Alien kills Dallas in
Spec Script Sale: “Rockabye Baby” Montecito Picture Company acquires comedy spec script “Rockabye Baby” from writer Chris Baldi. Per THR: Little is known about the family comedy, but it is said to tell the story of an ill-prepared man who is thrust into the care of children — in the vein of Uncle Buck, the
“Ryan Kavanaugh, would-be king of tinseltown” Good read in the Financial Times on Ryan Kavanaugh, who has turned Relativity Media into a major Hollywood player in the movie scene: At just 36, the red-headed Kavanaugh has already produced more than 30 movies. He has raised billions of dollars from Wall Street firms, money which has
“Three rules for writing fiction”: Diana Athill Several GITS readers emailed me about a great series The Guardian ran: Ten Rules For Writing Fiction. Today we feature Diana Athill: 1 Read it aloud to yourself because that’s the only way to be sure the rhythms of the sentences are OK (prose rhythms are too complex and
TIFF 2011 lineup announced IndieWire with an overview of the initial 40 films announced today for this year’s Toronto Film Festival: The Toronto International Film Festival will slowly be announcing the slate of its 36th edition over the next few weeks. Last year, 246 titles across a variety of programs were part of
Writers on how they write: Orhan Pamuk The Wall Street Journal has a great article: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by 11 novelists on how they approach writing. I’ll feature one writer per day, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article. Today’s writer is Orhan Pamuk whose novels include “Darkness
Screenwriting 101: Tony Gilroy “Screenwriting is the biggest bunch of rules anywhere. It’s gotta be 125 pages, gotta be a lot of white, gotta move like a motherf*cker…” — Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, The Bourne Identity) Comment Archive
Daily Dialogue — July 26, 2011 Raymond: Yeah, flying’s very dangerous. In 1987, there were 30 airline accidents. 211 were fatalities and 230 were definitely passengers. Charlie: This plane is very safe. Believe me. I gotta get to L.A. I don’t have time for this shit. Raymond: Oh, I don’t know. I
Comic-Con 2011 news A bunch of articles, post and headlines from the chaos which was this weekend’s Big Event in San Diego: Photos Day 1 photo gallery Day 2 photo gallery Day 3 photo gallery Day 4 photo gallery Comic-Con’s weirdest sights Movies “The Adventures of Tintin” [Steven Spielberg &
“Ten rules for writing fiction”: Elmore Leonard Several GITS readers emailed me about a great series The Guardian ran: Ten Rules For Writing Fiction: Get an accountant, abstain from sex and similes, cut, rewrite, then cut and rewrite again — if all else fails, pray. Inspired by Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing, we asked authors for
On recent movies: “They suck” “Let me have a show of hands of people that would say the last seven or eight months of movies is the worst lineup of movies you’ve experienced in the last five years of your life. hey suck. It’s unbelievable how bad movies have been.” Sounds like you,
Writers on how they write: Nicholson Baker The Wall Street Journal has a great article: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by 11 novelists on how they approach writing. I’ll feature one writer per day, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article. Today’s writer is Nicholson Baker, whose novels include “The
Popcorn Fiction: “The Channels” by Naben Ruthnum Another Monday morning gift from Popcorn Fiction and its host screenwriter-novelist Derek Haas: If you’ve kept up with this site at all over the last couple of years, then you know I love a good sci-fi yarn. The best ones, for me, do two things right: they
On Writing “Is this a story I want to tell? Is this a world I want to be in? There’s got to be something about it that you can find a personal connection to.” — Richard LaGravenese
Movie Trailer: “Knights of Badassdom” Awright, all you LARPers. Fresh from Comic-Con. This movie trailer is just for you: Not sure about this one. The concept has already been mined in a similar but different way by the excellent Galaxy Quest and there’s a joke in the trailer straight out of the Monty
Learn how to market your script and build your career How is it possible to succeed as a screenwriter working on projects that are personally meaningful? Should I write a spec script that I’m passionate about or one to appeal to the commercial marketplace? What steps do I need to take to secure underlying rights if I’m interested
Update: “Moneyball” The movie Moneyball has a new trailer, a 30 second spot. I can’t find an embed version, but you can see it on YouTube here. Here is the original 2:20 spot: http://movieclips.com/e/AVgtG/0/150.326/ Teddy Pasternak, who expressed concern in another GITS post
