Movie Trailer: “Still Alice” Screenplay by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, novel by Lisa Genova Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested. IMDb Release Date: 16 January 2015 (USA)
Classic 60s Movie: “Night of the Living Dead” January is Classic 60s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from John Henderson. Movie Title: Night of the Living Dead Year: 1968 Writers: John A. Russo and George A. Romero Lead Actors: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea Director: George A. Romero IMDb Plot Summary: A group of people hide
Screenwriting 101: Mark Rosenthal “The joy of screenwriting comes from its pure narrative requirements. It’s a little like haiku in its need for compression (prose is an expansive art form, by contrast), like comic books in the tumbling out-of-control gait that forms the rhythm for each beat, and, most of all,
Daily Dialogue — January 6, 2015 “I feel like a pig shat in my head.” — Withnail & I (1987), written by Bruce Robinson The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Hangover. Trivia: During the film, Danny mentions an acquaintance of his named The Coalman, then threatens Withnail with a potent drug called The Embalmer. Both The
This is something you can do because this is something you have done! I get email: Hi, Scott. Happy new year! Just dropping you a quick note to thank you. I finished my first first draft of a feature script just a few days ago. It was my goal to finish before the year was out, and your online classes this past spring
Interview (Part 1): Chris Sparling Variety recently named Chris Sparling as one of their 10 Screenwriters to Watch. With good reason. Chris made his first splash in the business with his script for the movie Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds and followed that up with another contained thriller ATM. He has multiple projects in development and
SiskelandEbert.org: The Mother Lode! So last night, @BittrScrptReadr tweets this: And @josephbrunetta responds with this: Damn, dude has got that right. It’s got videos from the various iterations of Siskel & Ebert shows from 1975 to 2000! When I was in graduate school, then playing music for a living, I never missed one
Script Analysis: “Hanna” — Part 1: Scene By Scene Breakdown Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Sequences Thursday: Psychological Journey Friday: Takeaways Today: Scene-By-
Movie Trailer: “The Last Five Years” Screenplay by Richard LaGravenese, based on the musical play by Jason Robert Brown A struggling actress and her novelist lover each illustrate the struggle and deconstruction of their love affair. IMDb Release Date: 13 February 2015 (USA)
Classic 60s Movie: “The Blue Max” January is Classic 60s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Steve Cook. Movie Title: The Blue Max Year: 1966 Writers: Jack Hunter (novel), Ben Barzman, Basilio Franchina (adaptation), David Pursall, Jack Seddon, Gerald Hanley (screenplay) Lead Actors: George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Jeremy Kemp, Karl Michael Vogler
Daily Dialogue — January 5, 2015 Brian Fantana: I am… [sings] hung-over. Champ Kind: Tell me about it, this morning, I woke up and I shit a squirrel, but what I can’t get is the damn thing is still alive. So now, I’ve got a shit covered squirrel running around my office and
Go Into The Story Week In Review: December 29-January 4, 2014 Links to last week’s most notable posts: 2014 Lists Classic 60s Movie: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Classic 60s Movie: The Pink Panther Comparing WGA’s 101 Greatest Screenplays with IMDb Top 250 Films Daily Dialogue Theme for Next Week: Hangover Declare Your Independents — Vol. 43 Go Into
Interview (Audio): Raymond Chandler interviewed by Ian Fleming This is pretty awesome: The only known recording of novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler. And the interviewer? None other than a pretty fair novelist himself: Ian Fleming. Here is Part 1: Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Via Mental Floss. Comment Archive
Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis: Hanna Tomorrow we begin our next installment of the Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis series. This week: Hanna, screenplay by Seth Lochhead and David Farr, story by Seth Lochhead. You may download the script here. The schedule for the week’s discussion: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday:
Interview (Video): Anthony McCarten (“The Theory of Everything”) A College Web Media interview with Anthony McCarten, screenwriter of the movie The Theory of Everything: Here is a featurette wherein Dr. Stephen Hawking actually visited the set of the movie: The movie’s office website.
Daily Dialogue — January 4, 2014 C.C. Baxter: The mirror… it’s broken. Fran Kubelik: Yes, I know. I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel. — The Apartment (1960), screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Party. Trivia: This was the last
Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Hangover The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Hangover. Some of you may be inspired by a recent interface with alcohol on New Year’s Eve, so consider this a virtual hair of the dog that bit you! The usual drill: * Copy/paste dialogue from IMDb Quotes or some other transcript
Declare Your Independents — Vol. 43 GITS development assistant Wendy Cohen here, and welcome back to Declare Your Independents, our new series highlighting the latest developments in the world of independent film! This week… IndieWire: Indie Films You Must See This January The New Yorker: Indie Films You Must See This January Sight and Sound’s
Video: “1,001 Movies You Must See (Before You Die)” In 10 minutes! Edited by Jonathan Keogh. HT to /film for the link.
Saturday Hot Links Time for the 167th installment of Saturday Hot Links! Today: The Best New Thing On TV In 2014 — “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver”! Will The Interview’s $15M online haul be a game changer for Hollywood? Related: Former Sony staffer among six suspected in hack. 11 innovative ways to
Great Scene: “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” A brilliant cinematic moment in Spielberg’s classic science fiction movie. I believe Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) is the only movie for which Steven Spielberg has a sole “written by” credit. As such, it’s interesting to compare Spielberg’s screenplay to the movie. Here is an
Interview (Written): Eric Heisserer An interview from the site First Scream to the Last with screenwriter Eric Heisserer whose movie credits include A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Thing as well as writing his directorial debut Hours. Were you a fan of the original Elm Street, and what did (and didn’t) you
Daily Dialogue — January 3, 2014 Carolyn Burnham: My husband, Lester. Buddy Kane: It’s a pleasure. Lester Burnham: Oh, we’ve met before, actually. This thing last year, Christmas at the Sheraton… Buddy Kane: [pretends to remember] Oh yeah, yes… Lester Burnham: It’s OK, I wouldn’t remember me either. Carolyn Burnham: [laughs nervously]
Some upcoming writing events In November and December, a lot of people were inquiring about my Screenwriting Master Class schedule for 2015. It’s finally locked down. For the entire list of classes by Tom Benedek and myself, go here. I want to spotlight three upcoming writing events: READY TO WRITE THAT FIRST DRAFT?
