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Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 335th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other…

Script Analysis: “Mudbound” — Part 6: Takeaways

Read the script for the critically acclaimed indie film and analyze it all this week.

2018 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 31

One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.

Edgar Wright interviews Steven Spielberg

The filmmakers talk about the movie which launched Spielberg’s career as a movie director: Duel.

Daily Dialogue — March 31, 2018

C.D. Bales: [challenged to think of twenty jokes better than “Big Nose”] Let’s start with… Obvious: ‘scuse me, is that your nose or did a…

Mudbound uses voice-over narration, but in a way that’s considerably different than what we…

Here is an especially memorable side of voice-over narration given by Hap Jackson, the father figure of the Jackson family…

Reader Question: Do all Protagonists need a character arc?

A character’s ‘arc’ is a big buzzword in Hollywood development circles.

Script Analysis: “Mudbound” — Part 5: Dialogue

Read the script for the critically acclaimed indie film and analyze it all this week.

2018 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 30

One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.

Writing and the Creative Life: Of Beginnings and Endings

Remember when you first came up with the story idea you’re currently writing? How great that felt?

Daily Dialogue — March 30, 2018

Malibu Police Chief: Mr. Treehorn tells us that he had to eject you from his garden party. That you were drunk and abusive. The Dude: Mr…

I zero in on one theme: MUD.

Pappy is desperate to maintain some distance from The Other. But he himself is mud as well. He just doesn’t realize it.

Mark, I think your take on the pairings of characters is truly inspired.

And then there is Pappy, the ugly face of racism. He is clearly a Nemesis figure as you point out.

It’s a sprawling historical drama. Here’s what I take from the script.

The Opening: The burial sets up multiple mysteries. Why the burial? Why Jamie and Henry doing the digging? Why Jamie with a black eye and…

The Nemesis as the Protagonist’s ‘Shadow’

Want drama? Ask your Protagonist: What do you fear the most? Then put them in a story where they have to confront that fear: Their Nemesis.

Spec Script Deal: “Intruders”

Paramount Pictures acquires science fiction thriller spec script “Intruders” written by James V. Simpson. From Deadline:

Script Analysis: “Mudbound” — Part 4: Themes

Read the script for the critically acclaimed indie film and analyze it all this week.

2018 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 29

One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs [Part 8]

Part 8: Attaching talent.

Daily Dialogue — March 29, 2018

“It looks to me like the best part of you ran down the crack of your momma’s ass and ended up as a brown stain on the mattress!”

Spec Script Deal: “You Should Have Left”

Blumhouse Productions acquires supernatural thriller spec script “You Should Have Left” adapted by David Koepp from novel of the same name…

Script Analysis: “Mudbound” — Part 3: Characters

Read the script for the critically acclaimed indie film and analyze it all this week.

2018 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge: Day 28

One month. FADE IN to FADE OUT. Creativity meets Productivity.

Script To Screen: “The Elephant Man”

A scene from the 1980 movie The Elephant Man, screenplay by Christopher De Vore & Eric Bergren & David Lynch.

Daily Dialogue — March 28, 2018

“You know what you look like to me, with your good bag and your cheap shoes? You look like a rube. A well scrubbed, hustling rube with a…