Go Into The Story

Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Star-Casting

Having trouble writing a character? Cast an actor for the role. The Variety report of the spec script sale yesterday — “Sunny and 68” — had this bit of business: O’Connor, whose “Pride and Glory” was released this past weekend by Warner Bros., said he and Tambakis wrote the script, a

Bitter Truth #25

“People leave their ATM receipts just so you’ll see how much more money they have than you.” © 2008 Kurt Brown & Scott Myers Comment Archive

Daily dialogue — October 30, 2008

“Against it? I should be positively astounded to hear anything that could be said FOR it. Why the whole bloody place is the most unspeakable matriarchy in the whole history of civilization! Look at yourself! The way your wife and her strumpet of a mother push you through the hoop!

Spec script sale: “Sunny and 68”

Universal Pictures acquires spec script drama “Sunny and 68” from writer-director Gavin O’Connor and co-writer Anthony Tambakis — Vince Vaughn slated to star: Vaughn will play a superstar on the poker circuit whose alcoholism and recklessness cause him to flame out on national television. Wiped out and owing

Screenwriter 101 — Aaron Sorkin

“I’d write it to the end and go back and write it all over again, go back and write it all over again, go back and write it all over again. I think I probably wrote, without exaggeration, about twenty drafts of ‘A Few Good Men.’”  — Aaron Sorkin (A

Daily dialogue — October 29, 2008

“Son, we live in a world that has walls and those walls need to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and curse the Marines; you have that

Christopher Nolan: Excluse interview with LA Times

Two part interview with The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan. Part one is here and part two here. Interesting to note that in the second part of the interview, Nolan zeroes in on what he thought was the most important scene in the movie: Where Batman interrogates Joker. Nolan goes

Pitch sale: “Skyscraper”

Universal Pictures snare action-disaster pitch “Skyscraper” from writer Mike Sobel: The story, like that of “Towering Inferno,” is set in the world’s first mile-high skyscraper, fictionally built in Chicago, and centers on the Donald Trump-style developer as well as on the daring crew that rushes in

Hollywood Tales

“Hollywood has always been a cage… a cage to catch our dreams.”  — John Huston

Interview: Charlie Kaufman

With the recent release of his directorial debut Synecdoche, New York, Indie Wire landed this interview with the talented screenwriter. Choice quotes: I started out when I was a little kid thinking I wanted to be an actor. I read a lot of plays, did community theater and summer stock.

Pitch sale: “Cover Your Assets”

Lionsgate picks up a project in turnaround from New Line called “Cover Your Assets”: Described as a reverse “Working Girl,” McCloud’s pitch explores modern gender-role complications in a story about a wealthy and powerful female executive who gets involved with a new guy. “Assets” had been in turnaround

On writing

“Writing is, in the end, that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” — Pico Iyer

Video interview: Stephen Gaghan

Screenwriter Stephen Gaghan has written a number of award-winning movies including Traffic (2000) and Syriana (2005). Here Gaghan challenges writers to write five scenes that “start with life” and he makes a promise about what will happen if you do. Taken from the WGA Foundation series “Anatomy of a

Spec script sale: “Deryni Rising”

In a six-figure deal Columbia Pictures snares fantasy spec script “Deryni Rising”, book written by Katheryn Kurtz, spec script by Alex Sabeti: “Deryni” is a historical fantasy novel first published in 1970 that launched Kurtz’s “Deryni Kingdom” series that, almost 40 years later, encompasses five trilogies, short stories

Friday movie reviews

Changeling (Universal) Daily Variety (Todd McCarthy) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan) New York Times (A.O. Scott) High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Buena Vista) Daily Variety (Peter Debruge) Hollywood Reporter (Stephen Farber) Los Angeles Times (Mark Olsen) New York Times (Stephen Holden) Pride and Glory

Great Scene: “Citizen Kane”

Enticing the reader into the story — it’s one of the most critical goals when writing the first few pages of a script. The opening of Citizen Kane achieves that goal by using mystery. Each shot takes us deeper and deeper into the deep, dark shadows of Xanadu, raising one

Pitch sale: Untitled Colombian hostage pitch

Warner Bros. nabs Untitled Colombian hostage pitch from writer Peter Landesman: The film will focus on Operacion Jaque, a five-year plan to locate and rescue three Americans who had been captured in 2003 by Colombian guerilla group FARC. The covert effort involved numerous governments, diplomats and intelligence services and

Spec script sale: “Oh Brother”

Gold Circle Films acquires wedding comedy spec “Oh Brother” from first-time screenwriter Cathy McCarthy: “Brother” follows a self-made woman who, ashamed of growing up as an orphan, hires actors to play relatives at her wedding to impress her fiancee’s high-society family. It’s the first deal

Bitter Truth #24

“If you are at the very bottom of a building, the “up” escalator will be broken — but the “down” escalator will be working perfectly well. If you are at the top of the building, the reverse is true.” © 2008 Kurt Brown & Scott Myers

Screenwriting 101: Marshall Brickman

“The first script of Annie Hall was much more episodic, tangential, and novelistic… We started to become interested in the love story between Woody and the Keaton character, which was all over the place. We cut and pasted to make the love story more important, and the structure emerged. The

Hollywood tales

“Working with Billy Wilder on Double Indemnity was an agonizing experience and has probably shortened my life, but I learned from it about as much about screenwriting as I am capable of learning, which is not very much. Like every writer, or almost every writer, who goes to Hollywood, I

Spec script sale: “Kill Your Darlings”

Killer Films picks up spec biopic thriller “Kill Your Darlings” from writers John Krokidas and Austin Bunn: According to Variety, the film centers on a 1944 murder that brought together a young Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.

Spec script sale: “Tough Cookies”

Walden Media buys family-comedy spec “Tough Cookies” from sister scribes Carley and Chelsea Steiner: The story centers on a deadbeat dad ordered by a judge to form a Girl Scout troop with his rebel daughter and her friends. The troop uses its unconventional ways to compete against snobbish rivals

Spec script sale: “A.C.O.D.”

Miramax acquires comedy spec “A.C.O.D. (Adult Children of Divorce) from writers Ben Karlin and Stu Zicherman: In the tentatively titled “A.C.O.D.,” which Miramax acquired on spec, the lead character discovers he was unknowingly part of a study on divorced children. He’s enlisted in

On writing

“The writer by nature of his profession is a dreamer and a conscious dreamer. He must imagine, and imagination takes humility, love and great courage. How can you create a character without love and the struggle that goes with love?” — Carson McCullers  Comment Archive