Go Into The Story (Page 1348)

Friday movie reviews

Battle for Terra (Roadside Attractions) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Robert Abele) Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros.) Daily Variety (Todd McCarthy) New York Times (Manohla Dargis) Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey) X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Fox) Daily Variety (Justin Chang) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times

Great Scene: “North by Northwest”

It was one of the scenes which inspired Hitchcock to make the movie. I’m sure there are Hitchcock experts out there who can correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to recall that the genesis of North by Northwest (1959), the classic thriller written by Ernest Lehman

MTV’s “$5 Cover”

Patrick Goldstein provides a great background piece on a new series on MTV called “$5 Cover”: If there is one thing that every studio, network and cable channel has in common these days, it’s that they are all frantically obsessed with finding the Next Hot New Thing — i.e.

Horton Foote’s last movie shooting in Durham, NC

I’ve been tracking “Main Street” since 2004. It was supposedly going to shoot a half-dozen times, then ironically just after its screenwriter Horton Foote died, they finally started principal photography. The genesis of the story is interesting: When Foote visited Durham five years ago, he was inspired to

Spec script sale: “Boss”

Disney picks up comedy spec “Boss” from writers Tony Lord and David Cohen: The script is a wish-fulfillment comedy about a 21-year-old becoming his dad’s boss when the young man gets promoted over his father. Talk about elegant in its simplicity! The duo is repped by

Great new web resource: “MakingOf”

One of the most enjoyable aspects I’ve found about blogging is the wonderful people we can ‘meet’ online. I’m especially gratified when someone provides a link or heads-up about resources on the web that can benefit people interested in learning more about the craft of screenwriting. Just

Screenwriting 101 — Daniel Waters

“The first draft is the one thing they can’t take away from you, so revel in it. Don’t let anyone tell you that the most important part is the mechanics of it all. The most important part is the initial daydream. If you write a stunningly unique personal

Daily dialogue — April 29, 2009

“I want to do community service; I want to teach the handicapped how to yodel.” — Hudson Hawk (Bruce Willis), Hudson Hawk (1991), screenplay by Steven E. de Souza and Daniel Waters, based on a story by Bruce Willis & Robert Kraft Comment Archive

Guillermo del Toro: The Strain Trilogy

What started out to become a TV series for Fox has evolved into a book series: That’s the backstory for “The Strain”, a trilogy of co-written by screenwriter-director Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Here is a teaser for the plot: They have always been here. Vampires.

“Drop Dead Fred” meets “Beetlejuice”

The remake frenzy continues unabated. Per Film News Briefs: Universal is resurrecting “Drop Dead Fred,” this time as a starring vehicle for Russell Brand. Dennis McNicholas, one of the writers of Universal’s upcoming “Land of the Lost,” will pen the remake. Marc Platt is producing via his studio-based

TheWrap’s Summer Movie Preview 2009: Disney’s ‘Up,’ Sony Star Power

The Wrap presents their Summer Movie Preview 2009: A year after “The Dark Knight,” “Indiana Jones” and “Iron Man” drove the box office into record territory, Hollywood thinks it has another smash summer on its hands. Powered by a 15 percent rise in attendance overall, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and

Hollywood Tales

“We wrote our first screenplay in the food court of the newly opened Beverly Center mall. Mostly because it had cheap food, rest rooms, and lots of stores to waste time in. I had found the idea for the script in the back of the New York Times — a small

William Morris Endeavor

In possibly the worst kept secret in Hwood history, the William Morris Agency and the Endeavor Talent Agency voted to merge today: The new agency will operate under the moniker William Morris Endeavor (WME) Entertainment as it positions itself as a challenger to dominate industry agency CAA. The combination, uniting

Fear and characters

Julie Gray over at the always fine blog The Rouge Wave weighs in with a timely subject today — “So Much Fear, So Little Time: So what are you worried about right now? Swine flu? Money? Relationships or lack of them? Your kids? Terrorism, global warming, your health, closing factories, the

How many things are wrong with this voice mail?

I get voice mails. Like this one today: Uh, yes, I was just wondering if you accept scripts. I have a 127 page script and I’m looking to sell it or… work on it, I don’t really know how it works. But if you can call me back

On writing

“You have to come to some arrangement with them, as it were. You have to persuade them to commit the murder or whatever you want them to do, and in return you have to concede that they will get something they want. Writing fiction is like industrial management. You’ve

Daily dialogue — April 27, 2009

“Living here day by day, you think it’s the center of the world. You believe nothing will ever change. Then you leave: a year, two years. When you come back, everything’s changed. The thread’s broken. What you came to find isn’t there. What was yours is

Spec script sale: “Odysseus”

Warner Bros. wins a bidding war with Paramount for “Odysseus” from writer Ann Peacock: The story centers on the legendary hero Odysseus, famed king of Ithaca, who returns to his island after 20 years of fighting the Trojan Wars, only to find his kingdom under the brutal occupation of an

Video interview: Michael Arndt

This is a most excellent find: A 1-hour talk / Q&A with screenwriter Michael Arndt, whose credits are Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and the upcoming Toy Story 3. There are many reasons why all of us should be interested in hearing what Arndt has to say, not the

“On the ‘Ground Floor’ at UTA’s 5th Floor”

My buddy Tom Benedek provides some insight into the world of talent agencies in this column at The Wrap: In the entertainment industry for the long haul? You had better be nice to the person who answers the phone. More specifically, if you are calling someone at United Talent Agency,

Interview: Quentin Tarantino

This is an interview from Screenwriter’s Monthly (Feb. 2004) with Quentin Tarantino tied to the release of Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Tarantino’s writing credits include Resevoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004). The interview delves

Friday movie reviews

Earth (Disney) Daily Variety (Todd McCarthy) Hollywood Reporter (Stephen Farber) New York Times (Jeannette Catsoulis) Fighting (Universal) Daily Variety (John Anderson) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Michael Ordona) Obsessed (Sony) No reviews available The Soloist (Paramount) Daily Variety (Todd McCarthy) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Kenneth

Great Scene: “Thelma & Louise”

A great ending to a movie is (in my view) the only ending it should have. Oh, a movie could have multiple endings, but a well-constructed plot should lead to the story’s only real ending. And when that ending is both logical and shocking, then you have the

“You took my kid, motherf*cker, and you’re going to pay”

That’s the enlightened position of one “top studio exec” in this Hollywood Reporter article on why Taken did over $200M at the box office and other smart adult movies like State of Play won’t come near that mark. Yes, you’re right. Here we go again, angsting over

“Movie Makers Appeal to the Crowd, for Money”

The NY Times reports three British teens have come up with a new way to finance their movie: The credits at the end of a movie generally roll for a few minutes. If “Dardentor” gets made, they could take as long as a half-hour. That is because tens of