Interview: Melissa Rosenberg The online screenwriting resource Storylink hosts an interview this month with writer (movies and TV) Melissa Rosenberg. Rosenberg’s credits include the movies Step Up (2006), Twilight (2008/I), and The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), and the fantastic TV series “Dexter”. The interview is an interesting one, not only
Question: Know any director or producer blogs? Open forum question from Scaramanga: A little off-topic but do you have links to blogs of any well-known, somewhat known, and up-and-coming directors (or writer-directors)? Or maybe producers’ blogs? Or cinematographers? It would be nice to get those perspectives on scripts. I’m sure GITS
Spec script sale: “Desperados” Universal picks up comedy spec script “Desperados” from writer Ellen Rapoport: The story is set in motion when a woman sends an indignant e-mail to her new beau, who’s gone silent after they have sex. When she discovers he’s comatose in a Mexican hospital, she races south
Great Scene: “The Deer Hunter” This has to rank as one of the most riveting scenes in movie history: The Russian roulette sequence in The Deer Hunter (1978). Setting: Vietnam War. Two captured American soldiers, surrounded by Vietnamese guards, forced to take turns putting a pistol to their heads and pulling the trigger, while the
Question: How to handle POV shots? Question: How to handle P.O.V. shots? Some advice on Point Of View shots in a screenplay. Question from E.C. Henry: What’s your take on how a point of view shot heading SHOULD be formatted in a spec. script? As per one of my reference books, “… In
“The Retelling”: The new movie by Emily Hagins Yesterday we featured Zombie Girl: The Movie, a documentary about then 12 year-old Emily Hagins who wrote the screenplay and directed a full-length feature film called Pathogen. Today we feature Emily’s second feature film called The Retelling: The trailer Emily at screening of The Retelling And we
Spec script sale: “Rule #1” Fox Searchlight buys spec script “Rule #1 from writer Terrel Seltzer with Reese Witherspoon attached to star and produce: Brad Epstein (“About a Boy”) is producing the project, about a New York woman who befriends a Puerto Rican girl with attention deficit disorder. Seltzer, who is repped by Paradigm and
“You’ve Got 10 Minutes” 10 minutes. That’s all you’ve got per this article: This story is about why people can’t seem to pay attention for long periods of time anymore, especially our young people, and whether we should be worried about this fact. It will take less than 10 minutes to
Question: What’s the deal with the ‘Scary Movie’ franchise? Open forum question from JD Walters: Can you explain from more of a marketing point of view why the makers of “Scary Movie” are still around to grace us with “Stan Helsing” when every movie since the original SM has been critically demolished, and as far as I know didn’
Q&A with the makers of “Zombie Girl: The Movie” So this is a pretty amazing story. I get contacted by Aaron Marshall about a documentary he co-produced and edited called Zombie Girl: The Movie. Check this out: ZOMBIE GIRL: THE MOVIE Emily Hagins is making a zombie movie. It’s feature-length, it’s bloody, and the zombies
“Pete Docter: Pixar Movies Are Lousy … at First,” Part 3 Part 3, the final installment of an interview with Pixar writer-director Pete Docter where he picks up with his discussion about the movie Up: Much of the comedy in the film comes from the dog whose electronic collar lets him “talk.” Did the concept for that character change much
Brainstorming = Improvisation If there’s one part of the prep-writing phase I wish that my students would devote more time to, it’s brainstorming. And every class I teach I emphasize its importance — as I did in this post here. I suspect one reason writers resist brainstorming is that they don’
Screenwriting 101: Shane Black “Well, it’s sort of like being led by the nose by the process as opposed to having any particular control over it. As ideas occur to me over a period of time, I’ll write down little bits and snippets for scenes and pieces of dialog — ideas for a
Question: How to approach final pass on a script? Open forum question from Boxing Grizzlies: One thing I was wondering if you could cover is what your approach is when you do a final pass on your script before handing it in. Not checking for typos, but more for a dialogue pass or making sure your action lines crackle.
“Pete Docter: Pixar Movies Are Lousy … at First,” Part 2 So yesterday, we read this rather amazing admission from writer-director Pete Docter: “The truth is that every one of our movies is lousy at some point.” We considered three lessons we could learn from the Pixar creative process. Today we see how much emphasis Pixar puts on character and
Spec script sale: “I Am My Family’s Secret” Paramount with preemptive acquisition of comedy spec “I Am My Family’s Secret” from writer-director Derick Martini: Story revolves around two very different brothers who discover their parents have been hiding a life-changing secret for more than two decades. Comedy will be produced by Ivan Reitman and Tom
“Every villain is a hero” Sage advice from screenwriter John August: A helpful thing to remember when plotting out stories with a clear antagonist: he probably doesn’t know he’s the bad guy. * Alan Rickman’s character from Die Hard likely sees himself as George Clooney’s character from Ocean’s 11. * In Michael
Hollywood Tales “[James] Cameron was young. He had just directed Terminator. Cameron had called a meeting to discuss his “next project.” Everyone knew Cameron had written a treatment for Alien 2 that nobody would touch because Alien was not a massive financial success. Alien 2 was not on the table. We expected
Daily dialogue — November 3, 2009 “I think about you all the time. I think about you even when you’re with me. I look at you, I can’t stop looking at you. I look at you, and I think, ‘That woman… That woman knows who I am and loves me anyway.’” — Ray Koval (Clive
Frank O’Hara: “Ave Maria” tanialidov, who has a writing blog called No Snow in Hollywood, commented about this post featuring Mary-Louise Parker reading some prose by the 2007 Poet Laureate Charles Simic. In her comments, tanialidov mentioned poet Frank O’Hara: Also, relating to poetry and movies, have you ever read any Frank
Question: Is it okay to include specific product names in scripts? An open forum question from Jeff: Scott, I think you may have answered this before but perhaps not. Is it a faux pas to include product names in a spec? I’m not sure if weird little copyright issues kick in if you toss in offhand references to McDonald’s,
Joss Whedon wants the rights to “The Terminator” Tongue-in-cheek post by screenwriter-director Joss Whedon re the rights to The Terminator franchise: Dear Sirs/Ma’ams, I am Joss Whedon, the mastermind behind Titan A.E., Parenthood (not the movie) (or the new series) (or the one where ‘hood’ was capitalized ’cause it was a pun)
Spec script sale: “Dirty Old Men” Warner Bros. with preemptive purchase of comedy spec “Dirty Old Men” from writers Josh Cagan & Greg Coolidge with Morgan Freeman attached to star: The script, which had a working title of “Dirty Old Men,” revolves around an aging playboy who finally meets the love of his life and his
“Pete Docter: Pixar Movies Are Lousy … at First,” Part 1 We all know Pixar makes great movies, right? Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall*E, Up. But check out what Pixar writer-director Pete Docter has to say about their creative process: In 2002, when Randy Newman won an Oscar for the first film you directed,
On writing “Once in a while a piece comes out whole and reads well from beginning to end; but more often than not it is a prolonged agonizing struggle to get from nothing to something, to make the journey from fleeting ideal to accomplished novel or screenplay.” — Eric Maisel
