Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 269th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other…
Time for the 269th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.
The Biggest Bombs and Blockbusters at the 2016 Box Office.
Disney Becomes First Ever Studio to Hit $7 Billion at Global Box Office.
How Unused ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ Footage Ended Up in ‘Rogue One’.
Lost in space: The Rogue One Disney didn’t want us to see.
The Original Rogue One Ending Wasn’t Nearly As Satisfying As the Final Cut.
The Paradox of Nostalgia and Prequels in the Star Wars Universe.
Apple Reportedly Wants to Let You Rent Movies While They’re Still in Theaters.
The billionaires, supermarket moguls and Russian oligarchs financing your favorite Hollywood movies.
China Box Office Flatlines in 2016.
China Says It Has Passed U.S. as Country With Most Movie Screens.
Chinese Firm Calls Off $350M Deal for Indie Film Player Voltage Pictures.
Open door: Who benefits most from Hollywood’s courting of China?
BAFTA Introduces New Rules to Exclude “Non-Diverse” Films.
Women Directed Nine Percent of 2016’s Top Grossing Films.
Directors and Producers Reach Tentative Agreement on New Contract.
Galloway on Film: How Hollywood Says, “You’re Fired!”
Why Does Everyone Like Films With Talking Animals In Them?
How ‘Hell or High Water,’ ‘Arrival’ Screenwriters Use Genre to Talk About Today’s America.
‘Passengers’: The Long, Strange Trip to the Big Screen.
‘Passengers’: Why It Took a Decade to Launch a Black List Darling.
The Science Of ‘Passengers’ According To Screenwriter Jon Spaihts.
What the Rise of Denis Villeneuve Could Mean for Genre Movies.
Meet the College Friends Who Helped Make ‘Moonlight’.
Film Lives, Distributors Struggles and More: 4 Lessons From Independent Film in 2016.
Filmmaker of the Year: A24.
16 Movies Secretly About Christmas.
Bilge Ebiri’s Top Films of 2016: Top 10? More Like 20.
The 20 greatest Death Star moments in ‘Star Wars’ cinema.
The 22 Best Documentaries Of 2016.
The 25 greatest movies that never made it to the big screen.
The 29 Best Music Moments In Film This Year.
The 50 best movie fights to watch again and again.
The 10 Essentials of Any Hallmark Christmas Movie.
The 10 Best Movie Scores of 2016
The 10 best Australian films of 2016.
The 12 Most Criminally Overlooked Indies and Foreign Films Of 2016.
Jake Gyllenhaal: How we made Donnie Darko.
5 Filmmaking Techniques the Coen Brothers Use for Dialog Scenes.
And, Scene: Hail, Caesar!
Script doctors save ailing movies.
Taylor Sheridan: “I’m allergic to exposition.”
Bill Murray Is Opening a Caddyshack Bar.
Sinbad’s ’Shazaam’: Inside the Internet’s Conspiracy Theory About a Non-Existent Movie.
What TV Shows America Watched in 2016
The Most Social TV Shows of 2016.
The 10 Most Important Late-Night TV Moments in 2016.
The 25 Best Returning Shows of 2016.
Ho Ho Ho: 24 of TV’s Most Memorable Christmas Episodes.
Singing Battles to Hockey: Holiday TV Traditions Around the World.
The Cinematic Foreshadowing Of Reality Television.
Untangle.tv Helps Cord Cutters to Plan for a Cable-Free TV Diet.
Gold Rush: How Subscription Streaming Could Change Home Entertainment Forever.
How Amazon Is Operating Like a 1970s Studio.
The Year of Amazon’s Thinking: How you got Manchester By The Sea, Café Society and The Handmaiden extra fast with Amazon Prime.
Amazon Studios Moves Into Virtual Reality With Tribeca Film Festival Hire.
The 16 Best Web Series Of 2016.
The 10 Best Video Games of 2016.
The Sixteen Most-Read New Yorker Magazine Stories of 2016.
The Biggest Tech Fails of 2016.
The Best Books of Poetry in 2016.
Tom Hanks to Guest Host NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!
Novelist Emma Donoghue on how to refine your ideas.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2017: Pearl Jam, Tupac, Journey to be inducted.
Todd Alcott: Some Thoughts on ‘Rogue One’.
The Bitter Script Reader: 7 Films That Could Be Headlined by Creepy Dead CGI Actors.
Emily Blake: Choosing to Fail — Journey from Writer to Scripty.
Larry Karaszewsk: The Joy of Foreign Films.
Jeff Willis: On Screenwriting Quotes.
Jeff Willis: Script Sale Breakdown.
Listen: 4 Quadrant (Episode 7).
Listen: 4 Quadrant (Episode 8).
Listen: Bart & Fleming (Episode 7).
Listen: Screen Talk (Episode 129).
Listen: Scriptnotes (Episode 280).
Listen: Women and Hollywood (Episode 35).
Watch: The 12 Best Movie Trailers Of 2016.
Watch: Botched Trailer for ‘The Mummy’ [Audio Track].
Watch: Movie Santa Super Claus.
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week
[Want to save nearly 60% on 10 of my classes? Details at the end of this post!]
Screenwriting is a craft. While that certainly encompasses the actual script-writing process, it also entails everything from finding one’s writing voice to mastering techniques in developing characters, learning different story-crafting principles to knowing how to write loglines, treatments, and beat sheets.
In other words, there’s a lot to learning the craft.
In 2017, I will be offering 10 Craft classes, each a one-week immersion into specific aspects of the writing craft.
Here is the schedule:
January 16 — Craft: Pixar and the Craft of Storytelling
presented by Scott Myers
January 30 — Craft: Story Summaries — From Loglines to Beat Sheets
presented by Scott Myers
February 13 — Craft: Handling Exposition
presented by Scott Myers
February 27 — Craft: Scene Description Spotlight — Express Your Voice
presented by Scott Myers
March 13 — Craft: Character Development Keys
presented by Scott Myers
March 27 — Craft: Create a Compelling Protagonist
presented by Scott Myers
April 10 — Craft: Write a Worthy Nemesis
presented by Scott Myers
April 24 — Craft: Scene-Writing Workshop
presented by Scott Myers
May 8 — Craft: Dialogue-Writing Workshop
presented by Scott Myers
May 22 — Craft: The Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling
presented by Scott Myers
Each class offers:
- Seven lectures written by me
- 24/7 online forum Q&As moderated by instructor
- Pro insider writing tips
- A 90-minute live teleconference with instructor and class members
Since the classes are online, you can pretty much do everything on your own time, at your own pace. Download and read lectures. Listen to my audio commentary. Track and interact with others in message board conversations. Workshop your own loglines or writing.
You can participate as much or as little as you’d like, although I have to say the writers who take my classes are terrific, so you’ll probably find the community created in each session a welcome one to join in the dialogue.
Also this: Writers from over 40 countries have taken Screenwriting Master Class courses and that variety of backgrounds enhances the educational and social experience.
Access courses anytime and anywhere on your computer, tablet or smartphone.
Learn the craft amidst a supportive, lively, and fun online community from around the world.
Receive feedback from instructors who know the business and have a passion for teaching.
You can double down on your learning curve by enrolling in the Craft Package which gives you exclusive access to all of the content provided in each of the Craft classes. And in 2017, it’s an even better deal because I am including in the Package two new courses I will introduce in the spring: Scene-Writing Workshop and Dialogue-Writing Workshop.
That means you get not 8, but 10 Craft classes at a savings of nearly 60% off the regular rate.
How to put learning the craft into overdrive in 2017? Consider the Craft curriculum at Screenwriting Master Class.
And consider taking advantage of the Craft Package special offer: Immediate access to all of the Craft class content. Automatic enrollment in all ten Craft classes. All at a nearly 60% discount.
As always, I look forward to the opportunity to work with you.
Onward!
To learn more about Screenwriting Master Class, go here.