Go Into The Story

Video interview: Jim Uhls (Fight Club, Jumper)

Jim Uhls has made quite a name for himself in a short while in Hollywood. His first writing credit was the critically acclaimed and controversial movie Fight Club (1999). Other credits include Jumper (2008) as well as two upcoming movies Flicker (2008) and Isobar (2009). This excerpt is taken from

Lethal Weapon 5?

This is kind of a wild rumor, but supposedly screenwriter Shane Black has written a spec script based upon his own Lethal Weapon series: This time, homicidal Riggs (Mel Gibson) is about to retire, but pulls Murtaugh (Danny Glover) out of retirement to solve one final case, before they both

Friday movie reviews

Elegy Los Angeles Times New York Times NPR Pineapple Express Daily Variety Los Angeles Times New York Times NPR The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 Daily Variety Hollywood Reporter New York Times Comment Archive

Great Scene: “Die Hard”

Hard to believe, but it was 20 years ago that the action movie Die Hard was released. It grossed $138M worldwide — not bad for a movie with a production budget of just $28M. People forget, but Bruce Willis was not a huge movie star when Die Hard came out. Fresh

Daily dialogue — August 8, 2008

“I wanted this to be professional, efficient, adult, cooperative. Not a lot to ask. Alas, your Mr. Takagi did not see it that way… so he won’t be joining us for the rest of his life. We can go any way you want it. You can either walk out

Pitch sale: “Untitled Jason Sullivan Project”

Here’s a great ‘newbie story’ which you should devour like manna from Hollywood heaven: A week ago, newbie scribe Jason Sullivan had to be driven to pitch meetings because his car couldn’t go more than 45 mph. Now, thanks to Columbia picking up his untitled comedy project, he

Spec script sale: “The Dying of the Light”

Screenwriter-director Paul Schrader, who we’ve featured here, makes noise in the spec market with his script “The Dying of the Light”: “Light” is about a CIA agent who’s forced to retire because he’s begun to suffer the effects of Alzheimer’s and finds he’s racing

Bitter Truth #13

“By the time you finish reading this sentence, Bill Gates will have made another million dollars.” © 2008 Kurt Brown & Scott Myers

How They Write A Script: Nancy Meyers

Nancy Meyers was for many years part of the Meyers & Shyer writing team that produced numerous hit movies including Private Benjamin (1980), Baby Boom (1987), and Father of the Bride (1991). She directed her first solo writing effort Something’s Gotta Give (2003), which was a hit with critics

Screenwriting 101 — Philip Dunne

“Never leave a scene by the same door you came in. Every scene should advance the story. The other thing… let the characters tell the story. Don’t try and make the characters fit into a preconceived idea. Rather, see how the characters develop the story.”   — Philip Dunne (The Count

This is a test!

My blog has been attacked by computer gremlins. Or Evil Spirits. I can work on posts, but when I hit View Blog or use my domain address, I’m taken to some placeholder thing that says my blog is under construction. So I thought no one would have been able

Hollywood tales

“I’ll tell you one thing I’ve noticed, and it’s absolutely true for me. My best writing has been on the the scripts I wrote as suicide notes to the industry — sort of, “Fuck you, guys, I’m outta here. This is the last script you’ll ever

Interview: Seth Rogen & Pineapple Express

If you’ve seen Knocked Up (2007), you’re familiar with Seth Rogen as an actor. But he is also a writer working on TV shows including “Undeclared” and “Da Ali G Show”, and movies including Superbad (2007) and Drillbit Taylor (2008). Seth co-wrote and co-stars in the

On writing

“Writing is easy. All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.”  — Gene Fowler

August movie release schedule

Well, August is here and with it come movies that the studios don’t typically have a lot of confidence in. Here’s the schedule through Labor Day: Aug 6 The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 Warner Bros.       Aug 8 Fly Me To The Moon Summit   The Perfect Game

“Scripts with personality”

Julie at “The Rouge Wave” lays down the truth in her latest post about what she, as a script reader, is looking for: “Scripts that read cinematically, for one. That is to say, scripts with strong imagery and tone. Scripts that move along at a clip. No long action lines,

Video interview: Paddy Chayefsky

In the ranks of screenwriters, Paddy Chayefsky is a giant. The only screenwriter to have three solo Academy Awards — for Marty (1955), The Hospital (1971), and Network (1976) — Chayefsky was also a successful playwright and television dramatist. We’ve already featured Chayefsky here, but these two video clips from “The

Daily dialogue — August 3, 2008

“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are

How They Write A Script: Philip Dunne

Today some words of wisdom from screenwriter Philip Dunne. A veteran of the Hollywood “studio system”, Dunne had a long and prolific screenwriting career from 1932 to 1965. Writing credits include The Count of Monte Cristo (1932), The Last of the Mohicans (1936), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), and

Pitch sale: “Anabasis”

Enough with the whole graphic novel / comic book thing. How about reaching back to source material from ancient Greece? That’s what writer Robert Schenkken did for his pitch “Anabasis”: Columbia will turn the story of an ancient Greek military expedition into an epic action film. The studio has acquired

Blogroll Spotlight: Living the Romantic Comedy with Billy Mernit

I’ve linked to a number of great screenwriting blogs in my Blogroll. One of them is Living the Romantic Comedy, hosted by Billy Mernit. I’ve gotten to know Billy when we both led screenwriting workshops at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Studio and I recommend his book “How to

Friday movie reviews

Midnight Meat Train New York Sun The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Daily Variety Hollywood Reporter Los Angeles Times New York Times NPR The Rocker Daily Variety Hollywood Reporter Swing Vote Daily Variety Hollywood Reporter Los Angeles Times New York Times NPR Comment Archive

Great Scene: “Casablanca”

One of the most memorable movie scenes ever… but have you read the script? When you think about it, screenwriting is really about scene-writing. If a typical script is 120 pages and the average scene is 2 pages, then that means we write about 60 scenes per screenplay. Clearly,

LA Times (7/31/08): “Kevin Costner bets on himself again in ‘Swing Vote’”

Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! Per this article in today’s LA Times, Kevin Costner ponied up $21M of his own personal stash to finance the movie Swing Vote:  KEVIN COSTNER’S “Swing Vote” tells the story of an apathetic man floating through life, happy to

Pitch sale: “The Transplants”

Disney drops a wad (mid to high-six figures) on action-adventure pitch “The Transplants” from writers Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson for director Sam Raimi: The parties are keeping a tight lid on the high-concept project, though it is described as a four-quadrant ensemble superhero story