Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 174th installment of Saturday Hot Links.
Today: The Academy Awards Kickin’ It Old School Edition.
The entire list of 2015 WGA Award winners.
Related: All of the video clips from the WGA Awards ceremony.
SNL’s 40th anniversary: Watch the top 10 best clips [video].
Related: SNL has been hating on California for 40 years.
Related: THR feature on Lorne Michaels.
Related: Former SNL writer reveals origins of the ‘dick-in-the-box’ bit.
Related: SNL 40 was a huge ratings success.
The best and worst of the 2015 Berlin Film Festival.
Reflections on the record-breaking Valentine’s Day weekend box office.
New computer program sorts real Jackson Pollock paintings from fakes.
TV Pilot Seasons 2015: By the numbers.
A partial defense of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Related: If he were a female character, Christian Grey would probably seem insane.
Related: 7 reasons why Fifty Shades of Grey almost doubled weekend box office predictions.
Related: Fifty Shades of Grey breaks Fandango record.
Related: Sex, whips and all that was not the main thing that drew audience to Fifty Shades of Grey.
Related: Every time Dakota Johnson bites her lip in Fifty Shades of Grey.
Related: Fifty Shades of Grey male moviegoer attacked by three females.
Related: Hundreds of teens rush movie theater after being denied entry to Fifty Shades of Grey.
Related: Guess who wants to take control of writing the script for the sequels to Fifty Shades of Grey.
Colorado tax revenues from pot sales in 2014: $44M.
Is Lee Unkrich working on Pixar’s first musical.
The last words and final moments of 38 Presidents.
Scriptnotes: Episode 184.
Chicks Who Script: Episode 28.
Written By magazine: February issue.
How tequila is made.
UTA escapes screenwriter lawsuit re The Purge.
The influence of existentialism on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Cinephilia & Beyond: The Apartment still holds a special place in our hearts and minds.
15-Ologists and what they study.
22 things you might not know about The Breakfast Club [which turned 30 years old this week].
Related: An oral history of The Breakfast Club.
Where is Old Zealand.
Check out one of the most buzzed about movies of the year [trailer].
LAX passenger stung by scorpion on plane.
Can DC match Marvel and The Avengers.
Famous novelists on symbolism in their work and whether it was intentional.
Netflix could spend $5B on original content in 2016.
Man uses first class ticket to eat free at an airport… for a year.
10 people who misplaced their Oscar.
Related: When the Oscars started ignoring comedies.
Related: How does a movie qualify for a Best Picture Academy Award.
Related: Why the film with the most first place votes might not win Best Picture.
Related: A photo of the very first Oscar statuette.
Related: Early roles of the 2015 Academy Award acting nominees [video].
Related: 50 great movies that were not nominated for Oscars.
Related: The amazing history of Best Picture lawsuits.
Related: Oscar voters would make some changes with previous votes.
Related: This is the lowest-grossing year of Oscar nominees in the modern era.
Related: 10 Oscar winners whose speeches were under 11 words.
Apple reportedly orders 5–6M smartwatches for its launch.
50 essential African-American independent movies.
6 places where lexicographers found old slang.
The histories of — and stories behind — 8 movie studio logos.
7 things we can turn off and on in the brain.
Kinda related: Alan Turing notebook gives insight into guy who did complicated math to relax.
Man creates black ice to mask drunk driving crash.
HBO renews “Late Night with John Oliver” for 2 more years.
Here’s how crazy-long German words are made [video].
Movies and music favored in new Sony strategy.
11 things you might not know about weddings.
Warren Buffet invests in 21st Century Fox.
The most popular Playmobile figure ever? Martin Luther.
American Sniper effect: Rival Benghazi movies aim to capitalize on war-film trend.
There’s a new Dr. Seuss book coming out.
Amazon orders 5 new series.
Extensive background on the discovery of the ‘new’ Harper Lee novel.
Bill Murray recounts the last time he saw Gilda Radner.
MSNBC hires Tom Colicchio as ‘food correspondent’.
This is what happens when you get fired as a Hollywood studio head of production.
Vanilla Ice arrested for burglary.
Here’s the plot for the latest Pirates of the Caribbean installment.
Sony Music to exit old CAA building.
Woman seeks divorce because husband can’t satisfy her sexual needs.
Neill Blomkamp to do Alien sequel.
I don’t know, but this L.A. football stadium plan seems like a really dumb idea.
The sneaky way movie theaters are making up for falling ticket sales.
Related: Here’s why popcorn kernels jump when they pop [video].
A great way to support creative arts: Jacqueline Suskin and her Poem Store project.
Yet another board game headed for a film treatment.
This week was the 10th anniversary of YouTube’s launch, so watch the top 10 most watched YT videos.
Related: The most popular video from each year of YouTube’s 10 years [videos].
Beagle Miss P takes home best-in-show at the Westminster Dog Show.
Great article by The Imitation Game screenwriter Graham Moore about how to write characters smarter than you.
PhD student creates pain-free way to erase tattoos.
Full 82-minute Comedy Central roast of James Franco [video].
What’s in the measles vaccine.
11 of the world’s oldest breweries.
Godspeed, Harris Wittels, dead at the age of 30.
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week: In the nearly 8 years I have hosted this blog, I have never made a dime off it. Apparently this fact has not gone unnoticed as I often get emails from people asking if there’s something they can do to support the site.
How about this? Take a Screenwriting Master Class course! You will learn a lot, improve your understanding of the craft and ability to write, and indirectly help support this blog. We have a slew of classes that begin for as little as $95 including:
March 16: Craft: The Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling (Scott Myers)
March 30: Craft: Character Development Keys (Scott Myers)
April 6: Breaking In: Network Hollywood (Tom Benedek)
April 27: Craft: Create a Compelling Protagonist (Scott Myers)
May 11: Craft: Write a Worthy Nemesis (Scott Myers)
Plus several others in the works including Tom’s classes Character Driven Screenplay — Alexander Payne and David O. Russell, Joss Whedon — Creating Characters, Writing Scenes — Sorkin to Tarantino, and my newest one Scene Description Spotlight.
If you like the type of learning you do here on the blog, you’ll love what goes on at Screenwriting Master Class where we really dig into the content. And it’s a great way to support Go Into The Story and keep the site up and running.
As always, I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!