Spec Script Sale: “Arthur & Lancelot” Warner Bros. drops seven figures (reportedly $2M) in a heated bidding war for the action adventure spec script “Arthur & Lancelot” written by David Dobkin. Per THR, no information on the storyline, but this is interesting: The more interesting question is what this project may do to the other King
Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Psychotic characters or seduction? We’ve done this a couple of times before, actually pitted two suggestions against each other to see which could generate the most movie quotes. At the end of the day, that makes my life easier because then I don’t have to go hunting for dialogue. And after all,
“The Muppets”: Movie teasers and trailers “It was one of the most exciting days in my life when I sold that pitch… Followed by abject terror knowing that there are people out there who feel the same way about the Muppets as I do, that have such a reverence for them.” “The big goal for me
Written Interview: Billy Wilder It’s from Playboy magazine in 1963. An excerpt: Playboy: Analytically inclined reviewers are fond of “discovering” secondary levels of social and satirical comment in your films, even in the comedies. Do you consciously inject such messages? Wilder: I am not really a message man. Pictures like Love in the
How to write a great scene? Consider the airplane scene from the movie Almost Famous. Or the big standoff scene in Se7en. The beautiful ending scene from the movie Big Night, five minutes without one word of dialogue. The touching ice skating rink scene from Rocky. Or these scenes from The Dark Knight, Goodfellas, Jaws, or
Tales from Development Hell: “Moneyball” GITS has been around long enough now so that some of the projects stuck in Development Hell are actually emerging into the light. An interesting one is the movie Moneyball. I covered some of its more interesting moments in development here: “I’ve wanted to work with Steven forever, because
GITS International Week, Day 10: Canada, Mexico In any given month about 15% of traffic on GITS is from writers who originate outside the United States. So I thought it would be a nice idea to provide an opportunity for our internationally based writers to give a shout-out to each other and to those of us
Great Characters: Atticus Finch (“To Kill a Mockingbird”) The second post I ever did on this blog is here: A Daily Dialogue post featuring the 1962 movie To Kill a Mockingbird (screenplay by Horton Foote, based on the novel by Harper Lee). Here is that quote: “If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you’ll get along
Update: What keeps you going The other day I posted this writing question: We all know writing is hard. The combination of dynamics — trying to find the story, cajoling our characters into talking to us, the daily grind, being original, this page, this paragraph, this sentence, this line, this word, the thousands of choices we
Brett Ratner is looking for a production assistant Per THR: Ratner’s Rat Entertainment production banner and Talenthouse are sponsoring a short film contest that will award the winner a job as a production assistant on an upcoming production. The winner will also receive a couple of nights’ accommodation and “invaluable advice” from Ratner, who will work with
Sequel Scorecard: ‘Fast Five’ Leads 2011 Sequel Race So Far Per Box Office Mojo: In January, Box Office Mojo broke the news that 2011 was packing a record number of sequels, and, in the spirit of Hollywood, here’s a sequel to that sequel story. This is how the industry’s sequel strategy has fared so far: On the one
GITS International Week, Day 9: Central America, South America In any given month about 15% of traffic on GITS is from writers who originate outside the United States. So I thought it would be a nice idea to provide an opportunity for our internationally based writers to give a shout-out to each other and to those of us
The Business of Screenwriting: Going from suck to non-suck The Business of Screenwriting: Going From Suck to Non-Suck Screenwriters experience persistent suckitude. The key: Go to non-suck. As many of you know, I am just this side of being obsessed with Pixar. I thought it was primarily for three reasons: (1) They spend an enormous amount of
Daily Dialogue — June 16, 2011 Jessep: You want answers? Kaffee: I think I’m entitled to them. Jessep: You want answers? Kaffee: I want the truth! Jessep: You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s
Spec Script Sale: “Bastards” Paramount drops mid-to-high-six figures to buy comedy spec “Bastards” from writer Justin Malen. Per THR: Fraternal twin brothers find out that their mother’s been lying to them for years about their allegedly deceased father. The twins set out to find their real dad. DDP supplies this
Update: “Go the — — to Sleep” So the other day I posted this: Last October, just before the deal-making frenzy of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the indie publisher Johnny Temple received an e-mailed book proposal that he was tempted to brush off. The project, “Go the ____ to Sleep,” by Adam Mansbach, was an irreverent
Want a daily source for all Hollywood lit sales? A reminder that Tom Benedek and I track all Hollywood lit sales on a daily basis on Twitter: @ScreenwritingMC Why is this important? You can’t judge the Hollywood acquisition marketplace mood based on movies currently in theaters. Those represent the thinking of buyers anywhere from 2–5 years ago,
GITS International Week, Day 8: Australia, New Zealand In any given month about 15% of traffic on GITS is from writers who originate outside the United States. So I thought it would be a nice idea to provide an opportunity for our internationally based writers to give a shout-out to each other and to those of us
Screenwriting 101: Marc Norman “There are two ways to make a living as a screenwriter. The first is by selling spec scripts — doing only what interests you. The other way is by hiring yourself out on assignment. Guys writing only on spec, God bless them. It’s a ballsy way to go. They figure
Top 250 script downloads from myPDFscripts.com I think I ran across this link in a Twitter feed from the Unknown Screenwriter: Top 250 script downloads from MYPDFscripts.com. Interesting. I won’t spoil it for you, but the #1 most downloaded script has the number “500” in it as well as the word “Summer”. Seeing that
GITS International Week, Day 7: Japan, South Korea In any given month about 15% of traffic on GITS is from writers who originate outside the United States. So I thought it would be a nice idea to provide an opportunity for our internationally based writers to give a shout-out to each other and to those of us
Hollywood Tales “The rejections piled up, hundreds of them. I’d write things and think something was going to happen, and it almost would. I almost got hired on sitcoms, and then I almost got hired here, almost got hired there, almost got hired everywhere. I remember pitching to ‘The Red Shoe
“Raiders of the Lost Ark at 30” Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the opening of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. And here is a nice article with some interesting historical bits of business about the movie’s development and place in history. For example: Although Indiana Smith/Jones first came into existence in 1973,
15 Excellent Tips for Writing a Book Ran across this list recently from The Atlantic online. For those of you writing a novel or non-fiction book, it’s worth reading all the tips. For screenwriters and playwrights, I’ve excerpted some of the most relevant ones: “I tried, not always successfully, to start each day with
