Go Into The Story (Page 1387)

Reflections on Star Wars

justwrite7 posted some interesting comments here about the importance of Star Wars on a personal level: As for my alter ego, Luke Skywalker I was REALLY young when STAR WARS came out in 1977. I don’t recall having anything like it at the time. I lived in a real

Video interview: George Lucas

George Lucas. He would have made his cultural mark if only because of American Graffiti (1973), but of course then there’s Star Wars (1977) and that series’ ensuing 5 other movies, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and three other Indiana Jones movies, Lucasfilm, Skywalker Ranch, and on and

John August: “The Nines” and the state of indie movies

Screenwriter-director John August provides one of the best screenwriting resources on the Web at his blog johnaugust.com. In this post, he provides a “post-mortem” on The Nines (2007), a movie he wrote and directed. The Nines, which debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, did not do

Jeff Skoll & Participant Media

Jeff Skoll and Participant Media fascinate me. Skoll is rather famously known as the “second employee at eBay.” After cashing out his eBay stock (reportedly for $2 billion), Skoll founded Participant Pictures which has in a short time been involved in the production of a strong slate of movies including

Video interview: Nick Kazan (Reversal of Fortune, Matilda)

Nick Kazan has been a prolific screenwriter since his first screen credit in 1977. His movies include Frances (1982), At Close Range (1986), Reversal of Fortune (1990), Matilda (1996), and Fallen (1998). He is the son of famed director Elia Kazan and the husband of screenwriter Robin Swicord. This interview

Pitch sale: “This Strange Thing Called Prom”

Somehow missed this first time around, but Miramax bought “This Strange Thing Called Prom,” based on this June 22nd NY Times article: The article follows the prom adventures of high school seniors who came to Brooklyn from locales like Senegal, Venezuela, Tibet, Haiti, Poland and Gabon (one was a nomadic

Andrew Stanton (Pixar) interviewed by Terry Gross

Any of you who haven’t gotten enough of Andrew Stanton here, here, and here, you can go here to hear him interviewed by Terry Gross on yesterday’s “Fresh Air.”

The Big Picture: Bob Shaye

Tomorrow we’ll look at Jeff Skoll, the visionary who founded Participant Media, a company with a unique mission for movies. Today consider Bob Shaye, another visionary, but a man who has a 40-year career in Hollywood. In this LA Times article, Patrick Goldstein offers a recap of Shaye’

How They Write A Script: Anna Hamilton Phelan

“It’s the character that usually grabs me. My downfall always is the plot. That’s the hardest part for me, plot.” Anna Hamilton Phelan has been a working screenwriter since 1985 with numerous writing credits including Mask (1985), Gorillas in the Mist: The Dian Fossey Story (1988), and Girl,

Friday movie reviews

Hellboy II: The Golden Army Daily Variety Hollywood Reporter Los Angeles Times New York Times NPR Meet Dave Daily Variety Hollywood Reporter Los Angeles Times New York Times The Wackness Daily Variety Los Angeles Times New York Times Village Voice

On writing

“Writers spend all their time preoccupied with just the things that their fellow men and women spend their time trying to avoid thinking about …. It takes great courage to look where you have to look, which is in yourself, in your experience, in your relationship with fellow beings, your relationship

Spec script sale: “Substitute”

Alcon Entertainment picks up “Substitute” from writer Ian Shorr: Spec focuses on an emotional high school senior who becomes embroiled in a murder plot that is being masterminded by his substitute teacher.

Pitch sales: “The Colony,” “Mythological Veterinarian,” and “Matadors”

Busy day yesterday as three pitches sold. First, Participant Media, who we will be looking at in a post this weekend, bought “The Colony” from husband-and-wife acting-writing team Stacy Title and Jonathan Penner: The socially progressive Participant grabbed the pitch because King said it combines “a really

The Dark Knight: 6AM screenings?!?!

Okay, I’ve heard of movie fan frenzy and midnight screenings, but 6AM? In a frenzy, fans have bought so many late-night tickets for the July 18 opening of the next Batman movie that theaters in places like San Diego, Chicago, and even Eagan, Minn., are scheduling 6 a.

Francois Truffaut: “Les Mistons”

I was out for lunch the other day with Doug Kass, another L.A. expatriate with a background in the entertainment business. I mentioned the blog to him and in particular noted the Francois Truffaut interview. Well, Doug went back home and uncovered this incredible find online: a short film

Bitter Truth #9

Joss Whedon

All the adults in my family are big Joss Whedon fans, primarily because of the late, lamented TV series “Firefly” and its follow-up movie Serenity (2005). So I was happy to stumble on a recent interview with Whedon on MTV Movies Blog. In it, Whedon discusses several of his

Pitch sale: “Housebroken”

Walden Media continues to be active in the marketplace by scooping up comedy pitch from writer Adam Sztykiel. The project, titled “Housebroken,” takes a comedic look at a group of talking animals forced to live under the same roof when the two halves of the couple that owns them moves

4 major plot questions and Star Wars — two treats in one!

While walking the picket line around 20th Century Fox in the WGA strike of 1988, I received some counsel from an elderly screenwriter. “There are four questions you gotta know the answers to,” he rasped with his thick New York accent. “What happens at the beginning of the story, what

Screenwriting 101: Gary Ross

“So many kids work backward methodically, calculatingly from a process instead of from the inside out in terms of what they want to express. All anybody really wants to find, (those) who take home stacks of scripts over the weekend, is an original voice that stirs them. Then they want

Patrick Goldstein: “The Visitor”

Recently, we’ve touched on the slump in the indie-film market here and here. But as usual, things are never striclty black and white. Today in the LA Times, Patrick Goldstein takes a look at The Visitor, this summer’s sleeper indie hit, raking in $10M thus far and

Update: Strike.tv

Following up on this post, the LA Times has an article today that goes into much more depth into the background and content of Strike.tv, a new Web-based source of original content created by Hwood writers: “It’s the first time Hollywood en masse has gone online with

And they’re off!!

Competing projects is a longstanding Hwood tradition. There were the age / body-switch movies (Like Father Like Son (1987), 18 Again! (1988), and Big (1988). The dueling Christopher Columbus movies (1492: The Conquest of Paradise (1992) and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (1992). Even dueling cop-dog movies (K-9 (1989)

Hollywood Tales

“My only hope is that you will have a moment of clear thinking. That you’ll ask some intelligent and disinterested person to look at the two scripts. Some honest thinking would be much more valuable to the enterprise right now than an effort to convince people you’ve improved

Your chance to meet Diablo Cody

I’m a fan of Diablo Cody, a refreshing persona in screenwriting ranks, which all too often seem to be habituated by slump-shouldered, pasty-faced, disaffected white guys — such as myself! For those of you living in L.A., here’s your chance to meet Ms. Diablo — this Friday,