Daily dialogue — August 25, 2009 “This is my play’s last scene Here… Heavens appoint my pilgrimage’s last mile And my race Idly, yet quickly run Hath this last pace My span’s last inch My minute’s last point And gluttonous death Will instantly unjoint my body and soul” John Donne… I’ve
“Spec Market Recap: 8/15/09” Jason Scoggins at “Life on the Bubble” updates his mid-August report today with this post. Here’s sales by genre: Spec Sales By Genre: Genres (sales)JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugTotal% of SalesAction 31211 1917%Comedy1244 3131835%Drama 41 510%Sci-Fi/Fantasy 212 510%Thriller1214322 1529% Be sure to go read the
Question: “Plagiarism in action lines?” An open forum question from Peter: Is it plagiarism to embed a phrase taken from public domain writing in an action line? And for that matter from anything else? We don’t footnote in screenplays so, what do you do? I don’t want to be a thief but sometimes
Questions for Jason Scoggins (cont’d) As announced a few days ago, Jason Scoggins has agreed to do a GITS Q&A. I’ve opened it up for you to be able to post questions: Here is the first set. If you’ve got something else to ask Jason, please post in comments. As a
“Inception” trailer The much-anticipated follow-up to The Dark Knight, here is the first teaser, just released today, for Christopher Nolan’s Inception: Reminiscent of The Matrix? Nobody really knows — except cast and crew. And they’ve been told to shut up by Nolan himself. Here’s an interview a few
“The Hollywood Roaster” Back in October, 2008, I wrote this post about a brand new satirical website called The Hollywood Roaster. I checked it out again recently and, man, Mr. Roaster is churning out some funny stuff. Some recent posts: “Veteran writer replaced by that chick the studio exec bangs on Tuesdays” ‘She’
Update: Ryan Condal Ryan Condal was on the Black List 2008. Last year, his script “Galahad” sold as a spec for mid-six figure. And we featured an interview with him back in April. Now this news: Ryan Condal is standing for “Queen & Country.” The Black List scribe has been hired to
On writing “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” — Henry David Thoreau Comment Archive
Daily dialogue — August 24, 2009 “I’m not afraid of death, but I am afraid of murder.” — Henry Caul (Gene Hackman), The Conversation (1974), written by Francis Ford Coppola Comment Archive
“The difference between life and the movies…” Brenna, one of many fantastic producers I work with at Distillery Pictures… Just sent me this photo. Anybody know the source of the quote? Comment Archive
“Tarantino’s ‘Basterds’ storms box office” Biggest Tarantino opening yet: Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” opened to a glorious $65.1 million at the worldwide box office, including a domestic haul of $37.6 million. It’s the biggest Tarantino opening by far at the domestic B.O., and a major win for the Weinstein Co.
Video Interview — James Cameron The fact that James Cameron has directed some of the most notable movies of all time including The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), True Lies (1994), and the biggest box office movie of all Titanic (1997), we may forget this simple fact: He
Questions for Jason Scoggins In June, I introduced you to a great new web resource called Life On The Bubble. The site tracks the ebb-and-flow of the spec script market in Hollywood and is run by a fellow named Jason Scoggins. His background: Jason Scoggins is a manager and partner at Protocol,
“A-List Stars Flailing at the Box Office” This summer has a Dickensian feel to it: The best of times, the worst of times. The best? Record-setting box office. The worst? This. The spring and summer box office has murdered megawatt stars like Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Eddie Murphy, John Travolta, Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler
Interviews: Quentin Tarantino Since Inglourious Basterds debuts this weekend, I thought why not focus on the movie’s of writer-director Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino has 17 writing credits including Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Natural Born Killers (1994), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill
Daily dialogue — August 22, 2009 “You know man, I hate be the kind of nigger that do a nigger a favor and then Bam! hit the nigger up for a favor in return, but I gots to be that kinda nigger.” — Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson), Jackie Brown (1997), written for the screen by Quentin
Update: “The Beaver” For all of you who participated in the lengthy analysis we did here on the spec script “The Beaver” — with posts here, here, here, and here — an update from the Daily Variety: Summit Entertainment has picked up dark comedy “The Beaver,” starring Mel Gibson. Project, to be helmed by Jodie
Questions: “How can I maximize a ‘Strong Consider’ coverage on my script?” An open forum question from Westin: A few months ago I was able to have my script submitted to one of the major agencies for coverage. The coverage came back a ‘Strong Consider’ and my contact told me he’s never seen coverage so good. The first agent that looked
Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Listen to a movie Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Listen to a Movie Let’s say you have a moment of clarity. You admit to yourself that your ability to write dialogue could use a boost. I’ve run across a lot of tricks re writing dialogue, but this is one of the
Great Scene: “Jaws” Monologues are common with stage plays, but not so much with movies. Of course, “motion pictures” are primarily a visual medium — motion / pictures — so dialogue, while important, is a secondary form of communication cinematically. However, great dialogue can transcend the adage, “show it, don’t say it.” And perhaps nothing
“Twitter Can Bury a Movie. It Can Also Make it a Success” In this installment of the Twitterization of contemporary culture: Remember Bruno? I’ve seen it, but I wish I had read the thousands of 140 character Twitter reviews that buried it, and convinced many moviegoers to skip it. The movie made 30 million dollars on the opening night, but the
Question: “What’s the structural difference between a play, screenplay, and teleplay?” Another open forum question — this one form Elle: What is the real difference, structurally, between writing a play, a screenplay and a script for television? Is it okay to focus on just one or two of the three, or if I really want to write for television should I become
More “Screenwriting Tips… You Hack” More tips from the blog of script reader Xander Bennett Screenwriting Tips… You Hack: Screenwriting Tip #63 This overwrought failure of an action paragraph is twelve lines long, and presumably contains a lot of important action. I say ‘presumably’ because I stopped reading after five lines. Screenwriting Tip #60 Oh
“Avatar”: First trailer Not embeddable. Go here to check it out. The official movie site. Wikipedia post. My post on Avatar at ComicCon. Here’s my deal. In the current climate of Hwood movie studios… Where ‘creativity’ is measured by what 80s movie you find to remake… What pre-branded commodity — Monopoly, Lego,
MakingOf: Interview with John August (Part 2) H/T to Josh James for posting this on Facebook (where I saw it): The second part of an interview with screenwriter John August on the very cool website Making Of. [I posted the first part of the MakingOf interview here]. August links to the MakingOf interview here on his
