“Screenplay Universe: The External and Internal Worlds” Since several people have emailed me inquiring about my next online screenwriting course, here’s some information. I’ll be teaching a 1-week online class through UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program from 2/3–2/10/2010. The course is called “Screenplay Universe: The External and Internal Worlds.” Here
Pitch sale: Untitled Allan Loeb comedy project Working Title beat out other bidders to nab “Untitled Allan Loeb comedy project”: In the third big money pitch deal this week, Working Title paid high six figures against seven figures for an untitled concept comedy that Allan Loeb will write as a star vehicle for Ryan Reynolds. Pic is
Pitch sale: What’s He Got Disney picks up comedy pitch “What’s He Got” from writer Kevin Bisch: Disney has got its first project under the Rich Ross regime. The studio, which Ross took over last week as chairman, has picked up “What’s He Got?” a comedy project from Kevin Bisch, with Josh Duhamel
Pitch sale: “Speed Boyz” Alcon Entertainment picks up “Speed Boyz”, drama pitch from writer Michael Schiffer: In 1989, Schiffer’s screenplay for “Lean on Me” became a Warner Bros. drama that starred Morgan Freeman as real-life, hard-nosed New Jersey high school principal Joe Clark. Now Schiffer has sold his pitch “Speed Boyz”
Great Scene: “Goodfellas” “Funny how? What’s funny about it?” It’s one of the most memorable scenes from the 1990 mob movie Goodfellas, screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese, book by Pileggi. What’s even more remarkable about the scene is it is largely improvised by actor Joe Pesci. Here’s
Daily dialogue — October 16, 2009 “Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. “ — Miyagi (Pat Morita), The Karate Kid (1984), written by Robert Mark Kamen Comment Archive
Exclusive Q&A Interview: Movie Marketing (Part 4) Part 4 of a five-part series on the business of marketing movies. For the others: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. We are fortunate to have an insider’s take on the subject. Our expert, who prefers to remain anonymous, has worked in marketing for one of the big
“On the Sands of Hesitation” One of my current students in the online course “Transformation: The Protagonist’s Arc” is Evangeline Wilkes. And she posted on the course site one of her poems today which I thought was a great motivator for writers. It’s called ‘On the Sands of Hesitation”: On the sands of
Scriptapalooza I found out something recently I didn’t know: That Scriptapalooza is the only screenwriting competition endorsed by the WGA. Therefore, here’s some information for you: Scriptapalooza is now accepting submissions of screenplays for its twelfth annual screenwriting competition. Every script that is entered into Scriptapalooza is read by
Daily dialogue — October 15, 2009 “Catherine, Jews know two things: suffering, and where to find great Chinese food.” — Benjy Stone (Mark-Linn Baker), My Favorite Year (1982), screenplay by Dennis Palumbo and Norman Steinberg, story by Dennis Palumbo Comment Archive
Exclusive Q&A Interview: Movie Marketing (Part 3) Continuing this week’s look at the business of movie marketing: For Day 1, go here. For Day 2, go here. We are fortunate to have an insider’s take on the subject. Our expert, who prefers to remain anonymous, has worked in marketing for one of the big movie
“Movie-By-Movie: Terry Gilliam” TotalFilm.com wrangled some reflections out of writer-director Terry Gilliam in this very cool piece “Movie-By-Move: Terry Gilliam. The movies are: Monty Python And The Holy Grail (1975) Jabberwocky (1977) Time Bandits (1981) Brazil (1985) The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen (1988) The Fisher King (1991) Twelve Monkeys
Screenplays and story structure I just started a 1-week online course “Transformation: The Protagonist’s Arc.” Received this question from one of my students Randall: I am also on a quest to learn more about the origins of the timing and placement of turning points and other major plot points and what they
Screenwriting 101: Francis Marion “It is true, of course, in an important sense, that a character exists only in his emotions and sensations. Without the expression of feeling, he no more represents a living person than does a fleshless skeleton. If he does not realistically express some credible emotion himself, he will not be
Daily dialogue — October 14, 2009 “God isn’t interested in technology. He cares nothing for the microchip or the silicon revolution. Look how he spends his time, forty-three species of parrots! Nipples for men! Slugs! HE created slugs! They can’t hear. They can’t speak. They can’t operate machinery. Are we not
Exclusive Q&A Interview: Movie Marketing (Part 2) In yesterday’s first installment of our week-long look at movie marketing, we learned that movie studios have big marketing departments comprised of publicity teams, creative teams, and media teams. The studio gives them a budget per each film and it’s up to the marketing department to figure
Pitch sale: Untitled Aline Brosh McKenna & Simon Kinberg pitch Paramount plunks down $2M for an untitled pitch from writers Aline Brosh McKenna and Simon Kinberg: J.J. Abrams will produce with Bryan Burk through their Bad Robot banner. Neither Par nor Bad Robot would disclose the plot, or how the different sensibilities of the writers will mesh. McKenna is
Billy Mernit: “Romantic Comedy Writing Secrets” Billy Mernit, who hosts the most excellent blog “Living the Romantic Comedy”, has a nifty article at FilmMakerIQ.com. Here’s a taste: If creating a successful romantic comedy really was as easy as plugging a couple of stars into a standard boy-meets-girl, boy-loses- girl, boy-gets-
Video interview: Alfred Hitchcock (1973) Here’s a wonderful find: Alfred Hitchcock in an hour-long sit-down interview with Tom Snyder, broadcast in 1973. Originally on videotape, the quality of the digital transfer is excellent. Just went live on YouTube October 8th. Enjoy! Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part
Hollywood Tales Orson Welles, famed for his obsessive perfectionism, once spent an entire day making alterations to a garbage dump — “Move that ketchup bottle over there, turn it on its side, move this tin over there, take the label off the beans…” — to shoot a single line of dialogue there! From Anecdotage.
Daily dialogue — October 13, 2009 “Charles Freck, becoming progressively more and more depressed by what was happening around him, decided, finally, to off himself. There was no problem in the circles where he hung out in putting an end to yourself. You just bought a large quantity of downers and took them with some cheap
Exclusive Q&A Interview: Movie Marketing (Part 1) We’ve hit on the growing importance studios have placed on marketing their movies several times over the last 18 months including here. And it just so happens we find ourselves smack in the middle of an interesting marketing campaign by Paramount to generate buzz over their new release Paranormal
Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: 1 page a day I originally posted this in September, 2008. This ‘trick’ is so absurdly simple, I thought it was worth re-posting for those who didn’t see it the first time-around: I heard this idea from producer Larry Gordon about how to knock out a script: Write one page per
“The Path of the Freelance Writer” Found this terrific post about what to expect when making the transition from spec writer to paid writer. Here’s an excerpt: John August said, in his excellent and highly recommended article Money 101 for Screenwriters, “you’re never so broke as when you first start making money”. Never a
“Four Franchises at a Crossroads” The LA Times “Hero Complex” blog has run an interesting 4-part series last week: This week we’re taking a look at four major trilogies from this decade that are looking to add a fourth film despite substantial challenges — not least among those challenges the skepticism of moviegoers who
