Go Into The Story (Page 1363)

“The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema”

This documentary may well not make it to your local cinema (it was released in 2006), but the NY Times did a review here yesterday. Premise of the movie: If you embrace the notion that Hollywood is literally a “dream factory,” then Freud stands as a proto movie critic who

Patrick Goldstein: Studio Report Card — Warner Bros.

Time for LA Times columnist-blogger Patrick Goldstein to do his ‘report card’ on how the Hwood movie studios fared in the previous year. His first column here focuses on Warner Bros. He acknowledges the enormous success of The Dark Knight and the bomb that is Speed Racer, but check

Friday movie reviews

Hotel for Dogs (Paramount) Daily Variety (John Anderson) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey) Notorious (Fox Searchlight) Daily Variety (John Anderson Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey) New York Times (A.O. Scott) Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony) Daily Variety (Brian Lowry) Hollywood Reporter

Great Scene: A Clockwork Orange, Part 2

Last week, we looked at this scene in A Clockwork Orange. It sets up the scene below, very much a replay of the previous one only with some stark differences. Note especially how Alex and Mr. Alexander realize who the other is and the violent intersection their past. INT. "

BAFTA Nominations

The British Academy Film Award nominations have been announced. Here are the screenwriting noms: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY BURN AFTER READING — Joel Coen, Ethan Coen CHANGELING — J. Michael Straczynski I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG — Philippe Claudel IN BRUGES — Martin McDonagh MILK — Dustin Lance Black ADAPTED SCREENPLAY THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN

“Subtitler”

I’m on a quick business trip, but wanted to provide something for your entertainment pleasure. You can go to the Jaman website and write your own subtitles to any one of a dozen movie scenes. Sort of like Woody Allen’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1967) where Allen

Interview: Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci

Alex Billington from FirstShowing.net emailed the other day with a heads-up about a two-part interview he did with screenwriter-producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Here is Part One and here is Part Two. The interview with Kurtzman and Orci, whose credits include the TV series “Alias”

Movie Story Type: Body Switch

Story Type: Body Switch In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and sub-genres like Romantic Comedy or Mystery Thriller. Then there are story types, a shorthand way to describe a specific narrative conceit that is almost

Pitch sale: “Untitled Burch and Kidd Project”

Disney picks up supernatural comedy script from writers Ron Burch and David Kidd: The deal’s worth $500,000 against $1 million. Pic doesn’t have a star attached or even a title, but it is a template for a big-scale comedy. Burch and Kidd’s background: The writers,

Spec script sale: “The Field”

Nice start to 2009 for first-time writers as “tyro scribes” Sean Wathen and Josh Dobkin sell “The Field” to Stone Village Pictures: Story is set in an endless field, where a group of strangers wake up with seemingly random items and must find a way out. As to Wathen

Screenwriting 101: Amy Holden Jones

“Roger Corman taught me a very valuable lesson. He said you could make a movie about just about anything as long as it had a hook to hang the advertising on.” — Amy Holden Jones (Mystic Pizza, Beethoven, Indecent Proposal)

“Hollywood Night of Offbeat Choices”

I haven’t weighed in all that much on various movie awards because they often don’t reflect the quality of the movies released in any given year. But this year, when the major studios curtail several specialty divisions including Paramount Vantage, Warner Independent, and Picturehouse, what happened at the

Deal: “Mother Trucker”

My friend Gary Scott Thompson, whose writing credits include The Fast and the Furious (2001) and the TV series “Las Vegas”, just set up a movie called “Mother Trucker” at New Regency: Pegged as an updated take on “Smokey and the Bandit,” the classic 1977 Burt Reynolds-Jackie Gleason chase

Hollywood Tales

“In Hollywood there are a lot of very insecure men running the business.” — Rosanna Arquette

Daily dialogue — January 13, 2009

“Sometimes in the course of doing business, it becomes necessary to remind people that they bleed when they die.” — Angel Maldonado (Andy Garcia), 8 Million Ways to Die (1986), screenplay by Oliver Stone and David Lee Henry, based on the book by Lawrence Block Comment Archive

Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Free Association

Sometimes if you’re stuck in your writing, it’s best just to cut loose. You’re stuck on a scene. You’ve tried to write it 10 different ways, but nothing seems to work. Hell, it’s possible that the more you’ve been at it, the worse the

Roger Ebert’s list of movie cliches

I suspect some of you have seen this list, but even if you have, it’s a good reminder of some cliches to avoid when writing a screenplay. Some personal favorites: Bad Smoker Rule In any cop movie made since the mid-’70s, the bad guys smoke, while the good

Update: Spec Script Sales 2008

Dan Halsted, who as an agent was the point man in the sale of K-9, emailed me that I missed out on a spec script sale last year, a project Dan’s producing, “Tenn” by writer Robin Shushan. Per this Daily Variety article: Taylor Hackford is prepping to direct

How They Write A Script: Ring Lardner Jr.

“At the age of twenty-six, Ring Lardner Jr. shared the 1943 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Woman of the Year. Five years later, he was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to state whether he was a member of the Communist Party. He was then blacklisted

Video Interview: Charles Kaufman (Synecdoche, New York)

In this WGA sponsored “Angle On” interview, screenwriter and now director Charlie Kaufman discusses his latest movie Synecdoche, New York. Kaufman’s screenwriting credits include Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) for which Kaufman won an

The Business of Screenwriting

Over the last year or so, people have forwarded to me or I’ve stumbled upon numerous screenwriting blogs. Many of them are excellent resources and I’ve included my favorites in the blogrolls. I encourage you to visit them as you’ll find everything from movie analysis and screenwriting

Interview: Christopher McQuarrie

Alex Billington of FirstShowing.net has this great interview with screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. The primary focus is on the release of Valkyrie, a movie McQuarrie co-wrote with long-time friend Nathan Alexander. One thing I found quite interesting arose from Billington asking a question I think that has been

Spec Script Sales Analysis 2008: First Timers

This week, we’ve analyzed the spec script sales in 2008: Genres Studios Agents & Managers Top Sales Today we round out the discussion by posting the roster of ‘first timers,’ each of whom sold a spec script for the first time. 31 Days of Larry — Corrine Kingsbury (LionsGate) — 11/

Friday Movie Reviews

Bride Wars (Fox) Daily Variety (Todd McCarthy) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Betsy Sharkey) New York Times (Manohla Dargis) Not Easily Broken (Sony) Daily Variety (Robert Koehler) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) New York Times (A.O. Scott) The Unborn (Universal) Daily Variety (Peter Debruge) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt)

Great Scene: “A Clockwork Orange” (Part 1)

Great Scene: “A Clockwork Orange” Some great scenes stick with us, seared into our memories, despite — or because of — the fact that they prove difficult to watch. Such is the case of this assault scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film A Clockwork Orange. From the moment Alex (Malcolm McDowell)