Go Into The Story (Page 1378)

Hollywood tales

“We [Towne and Polanski] took the script and broke it down into one-sentence summations of each scene. Then we took a scissors and cut those little scenes… and pasted them on the door of the study at his house where we were working. And the game was to shift

High Concept / Good Concept

Bumping around the “series of tubes” that is the Internet (per Alaska Senator Ted Stevens), I found a review of a book called “High Concept: Movies and Marketing in Hollywood.” Written by Justin Wyatt and published in 1995 by the University of Texas press, this is evidently an academic look

On writing

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” — Herman Melville Comment Archive

Godspeed, Mr. Newman

Yesterday it was announced that Paul Newman has died. There are dozens of articles today about Newman. I’ve collected a few of the best: New York Times obituary A retrospective in Time Magazine by Richard Corliss Daily Variety remembers Newman’s political activism Here is a nice tribute someone

Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: 1 Page A Day

1 month prep + 4 months writing + 1 month rewriting = 2 scripts per year. How can I possibly find the time to write?!?! Try this approach. I heard it from producer Larry Gordon about how to knock out a script: Write one page per day. Think about it — at one page

Production start: “The Hangover”

The movie “The Hangover” started production this week. Great comic premise: The story revolves around three buddies, played by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, who lose their best friend (Bartha) at his Caesars Palace bachelor party just 40 hours before his wedding. The trio must attempt to retrace

Friday movie reviews

Blindness (Miramax) Daily Variety (Justin Chang) Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt) Eagle Eye (Paramount) Daily Variety (Robert Koehler) Hollywood Reporter (Michael Rechtshaffen) Los Angeles Times / Chicago Tribune (Michael Phillips) Miracle at St. Anna (Buena Vista) Daily Variety (Todd McCarthy) Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan) New York Times (A.O. Scott) Nights

Great Scene: “The Silence of the Lambs”

Two flashbacks to Clarice as a young girl are critical to the narrative. The 1991 movie The Silence of the Lambs won all 5 major Academy Awards: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture. For good reason. It’s a tremendous movie. IMDb plot summary:

“How to introduce a character?”

That question arose in the screenwriting class I’m currently teaching. How much physical description to give to a character when they’re introduced? Should a writer just describe the character’s physical attributes or can we describe who they are in terms of personality, world view, etc. And so

Update: Knight Rider

Per this post yesterday, ratings only so-so for series premiere per Hollywood Reporter: Despite having the highest level of viewer awareness of NBC’s new fall shows, “Rider” (7.3 million viewers, 2.4 preliminary adults 18–49 rating and a 7 share) opened in third place in the

All you Johnny Depp junkies

First Showing reports that Disney has locked up Johnny Depp for the following projects: * Alice In Wonderland (as the Mad Hatter) * The Lone Ranger (as Tonto) * Pirates of the Caribbean IV (as you know how) We saw some funky early concept art from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which

Bitter Truth #19

Pitch sale: “White Dad”

Sony scoops up pitch “White Dad” from writer Alan Yang. Details under wraps to the trades, but Tracking Boards reports this: Sony has bought a pitch for producer Bob Simonds from GAY DUDE writer Alan Yang. WHITE DAD centers on a single, white bachelor responsible for looking after and raising

Rashomon remake????

Well, this can’t be good news: Los Angeles-based Harbor Light Entertainment and Tokyo-based Lotus have assembled an international consortium to remake helmer Akira Kurosawa’s 1950 classic “Rashomon.” Action will be moved from ancient Japan to contempo America, where a court must decide the facts about the

Leonard Maltin’s “Secret’s Out”

It’s a little bit ‘commercially’ what with Maltin hawking his new book, his Reelz Channel show, and Borders in evidence everywhere, however the launch of this new service does pimp a gem of a movie from 2007 Once: A modern-day musical about a busker and an immigrant and

The new Knight Rider debuts tonight

So back in 1998, I was at a welcoming party for new parents of kids at Wildwood School, where our oldest son was a student. I got to talking with one of the parents, found out he was a fellow screenwriter. We started swapping info and I mentioned that I

Screenwriting 101: Neil Simon

“When I started, I got out the yellow legal pads and I outlined the entire play. Then I started to write the play, and the characters started to want to drift off where they wanted to go. So I pushed them back into the outline, and they say, We don’

Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: “Don’t Finish That Scene!”

How about an occasional bit of practical wisdom? So here’s today’s inaugural edition of “Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work.” Let’s say you’re in the middle of writing a script — and it’s a slog. You’re finding it really tough to drag your ass onto

Hollywood tales

Herman J. Mankiewicz, convinced that Three Comrades would make more money if the leading female character was allowed to live, ordered F. Scott Fitzgerald to change the script. “Camille would have made twice as much if Garbo had lived,” he declared. “How about Romeo and Juliet?” Fitzgerald retorted. “You wouldn’

The despair of the blank page

It beckons you with a daunting whisper. It mocks you with its dull emptiness. It freezes your soul with its ice cold whiteness. It is — the blank page! How can a mere 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of white paper provoke such anxiety, such horror, such despair? The

On writing

“Writing really is a process of discovery. The biggest enemy is being satisfied. When I think, ‘Oh, this is so great. They can’t change a word. They’ve got to film it exactly like this,’ that’s when I know I’m not pushing hard enough. That’s when

20 Saddest Movie Scenes of All Time

Time to get out your Kleenix. Somebody put together their top 20 saddest movie scenes. Forrest Gump, My Girl, Lassie are there among others. The list tilts to pretty contemporary movies, but there are some tear-jerkers here for sure. Top 20 Saddest Movie Scenes (Part One) http://www.youtube.

Programming note: “Warner Bros — You Must Remember This”

The wonderful PBS series American Masters to air a 5-hour documentary “Warner Bros — You Must Remember This” this week. Scheduled to air September 23 and 24 from 9–11 PM and September 25 from 9–10 PM, however you should check your local listings as air dates and times

Video interview: Eleanor Perry (David and Lisa, Diary of a Mad Housewife)

Eleanor Perry was an Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning writer who worked in the entertainment business for three decades. Her writing credits include David and Lisa (1962), The Swimmer (1968), Diary of a Mad Housewife (1970), and The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing (1973). This three-part interview

Daily dialogue — September 21, 2008

“Pool by pool, they form a river all the way to our house.” — Ned Merrill (Burt Lancaster), The Swimmer (1968), screenplay by Eleanor Perry, based on a story by John Cheever UPDATE: Since our friend Far Away, who lives in South Africa, loves The Swimmer, here is the original NY