Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Don’t Finish That Scene! Let’s say you’re in the middle of writing a script — and it’s a slog. You’re finding it really tough to drag your ass onto the chair and start writing the next scene. Well, let’s roll back the clock. What if yesterday, you hadn’t finished
Screenwriting 101: Javier Grillo-Marxuach “[A] long time ago, I came to the realization that a script is more than just ‘a blueprint to a film.’ To truly be a successful manifestation of the form, a script needs to be a work of art in and of itself. It requires the same strict integrity of
Daily Dialogue — November 3, 2010 “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain… Time to die.” — Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), Blade
Top Spec Script Deals If you’re lacking motivation to write today, pay a visit to this Wikipedia site and check out the biggest pay-dates in spec script history: $4 million: * The Long Kiss Goodnight by Shane Black $3 million: * Basic Instinct by Joe Eszterhas * Medicine Man by Tom Schulman * The Ugly Americans
Guillermo del Toro, Edgar Wright, Michael Cera, & Bryan Lee O’Malley talk “Scott Pilgrim” I loved Scott Pilgrim so I’m quite happy to pimp it as it comes out on DVD with these interview excerpts: Comment Archive
R.I.P.: Monica Johnson (1956–2010) Per Deadline: Comedy screenwriter and novelist Monica Johnson died yesterday at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles after losing her battle with esophageal cancer. She was 54. Johnson, considered a pioneer for women in comedy, co-wrote with Albert Brooks some of his best films such as Real Life, Modern Romance
Jon Favreau: Summer 2011 will be a ‘bloodbath’ for Hollywood From Hero Complex: Jon Favreau has seen Hollywood’s future — at least as far as summer 2011 — and it looks a lot like “Saving Private Ryan.” “It’s Omaha Beach, it’s going to be a bloodbath,” the filmmaker said of next year’s crush of big special-effects films,
Hollywood Tales “I think I have had about all of Hollywood I can stand. I feel bad, depressed, dreadful sense of wasting time. I imagine most of the symptoms of blow-up or collapse. I may be able to come back later but I think I will finish this present job and
Daily Dialogue — November 2, 2010 “You sandbagged me on Bluestar. I guess you think you taught the teacher a lesson, that you can make the tail wag the dog, huh? Well, let me cue you in: the ice is melting under your feet sport… You think you could’ve gotten this far this fast with
“I’m so screwed” As you may know, we have a peer script review site called The GITS Club. Its moderator Mike Scherer passed along a comment from one of its members ZZ that they posted on the site, something I suspect many of us have experienced in our own writing: I’m stuck.
On writing “A writer doesn’t solve problems. He allows them to emerge.” — Friedrich Dürrenmatt H/T to @CanadianNick for the quote
Daily Dialogue — November 1, 2010 “You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting! melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? Oooooh, look out! I’m going! Oooooh! Ooooooh!” — Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton), The
REVIEW: ‘Walking Dead’ and ‘Dead Set’ take zombies to next level Per HeroComplex: Zombies are back in a big way this Halloween, with “The Walking Dead” premiering on AMC and the British miniseries “Dead Set” on IFC. Frankly, it’s not a moment too soon. We’ve all but ruined all the other good monsters, turning perfectly decent vampires and werewolves
The 2010 Blood List First there was The Black List: THE BLACK LIST is a snapshot of the collective taste of the people who develop, produce, and release theatrical feature films in the Hollywood studio system and the mainstream independent system. An annual list of Hollywood’s most liked unproduced screenplays published on the
Callbacks: Redux Callbacks have been the theme for Daily Dialogue this week and naturally I’ve been emphasizing their use in dialogue. However callbacks can be non-verbal as well. An excellent example is in the Pixar movie Up. In the story’s opening, young Ellie shares her dream with young Carl:
Video Interview: Stephen King To cap off horror week here on GITS and in honor of Halloween, today a treasure trove of interviews with writer Stephen King. We think of him primarily as a novelist, but King has several screenwriting credits including Creepshow, Cat’s Eye, Silver Bullet, Maximum Overdrive, Pet Sematary, Sleepwalkers , and
Daily Dialogue — October 31, 2010 “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), written by John Hughes The Daily Dialogue theme for
R.I.P.: George Hickenlooper Wow, out of nowhere: George Hickenlooper, a filmmaker and cousin of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, was found dead in Denver this morning. He was 47. George Hickenlooper was in Denver for the upcoming premiere of his latest film, “Casino Jack,” at the Starz Denver Film Festival. John Hickenlooper has a
“20 Most Iconic Horror Movie Scenes of All Time” Nowadays I typically post movie lists as part of the Saturday Hot Links series, but I thought this one would spark some interesting discussion: From Moviefone: The 20 Most Iconic Horror Movie Scenes of All Time”: Not many film genres have their very own season … but horror does. From early
“100 Greatest Horror Movie Quotes of All Time” Our friend Harry Hanrahan (hh1edits), a U.K.-based editor, is back with another wonderful film compilation, just in time for Halloween: Other compilations by Harry include: 100 Movie Characters Saying ‘Get out of there’ Cinema’s Best Human Villains 160 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes The 100 Cheeziest Movie Quotes
Written Interview: Darlene Hunt (“The Big C”) Darlene Hunt recounts in the first-person how she came up with and sold “The Big C” to Showtime: As a writer, I get ideas from many places. Sadly, out of my ass was becoming an all-too-frequent location to borrow from. Not the greatest way to come up
Daily Dialogue — October 30, 2010 “Stupid is as stupid does.” — Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), Forrest Gump (1994), screenplay by Eric Roth, based on the novel by Winston Groom The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is callbacks suggested by @tiffanyleigh. Forrest Gump suggested by Joshua James. Trivia: When Forrest gets up to talk at the
Spec Script Sale: “Carnivale” Stone Village buys comedy spec Carnivale from agent turned writer David Styne: After spending 17 years at CAA and the last three at ICM, David Styne is leaving the agency business to focus on a new career as a screenwriter. This comes after he made a sale on the first
100 Horror Movie Spoilers in 5 Minutes Continuing our theme of horror movies this week: The Fine Brothers have a history with this schtick, creating a number of movie spoiler videos, all of which you can see here.
